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Lana Shamma
Lana Shamma

Lana Shamma MPD ’08

Public Diplomacy

“We’re the trailblazers,” said Lana Shamma about being one of 14 members of the world’s first graduating class in public diplomacy. “We’re defining the field.”

With the overarching goal of “seeing the world and making it better,” Shamma enrolled in USC’s pathbreaking two-year program in public diplomacy after earning her undergraduate degree in sociology and Spanish from UCLA.

In particular, she hopes to define how popular culture – especially media, film and music – can be used to foster public diplomacy between the Middle East and the West. She is also interested in corporate social responsibility.

As part of her studies at USC, Shamma completed internships with the Institute for Photographic Empowerment and the Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles. She also worked as a research assistant for a project being conducted on the Al-Hurra satellite channel by the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

Now, as one of USC’s 16 Fulbright grant recipients for 2008, Shamma is spending nine months in Jordan, where she will examine film-related partnerships with the United States – including the Red Sea Institute of Cinematic Arts, a joint effort of the USC School of Cinematic Arts and the Royal Film Commission of Jordan – that are used to advance public diplomacy between the two countries. She wants to evaluate the impact of these programs on cultural diplomacy and Jordanian society.

After Jordan, Shamma’s ambition is to plan advocacy campaigns in conjunction with films, toward the end of promoting awareness and social responsibility surrounding the issues they portray. “There’s a lot of value today in celebrity advocacy,” she explained.