Creating New Knowledge
Across campus, USC faculty and students are developing new ways of learning, thinking, doing, collaborating — all with a forward-looking mindset. Progress begins with a commitment to break new ground, letting go of ideas that constrain our imagination.
Sustainability Across the Curriculum
The concept of sustainability cuts across all disciplines. Faculty from all over campus are developing new courses and modifying their existing syllabi to incorporate sustainability principles, research and applications. Learn more about USC’s Sustainability Across the Curriculum Initiative.
USC’s dramatic expansion of sustainability curriculum
Sustainability education and research at USC
How USC is preparing every student to help protect the planet
USC’s mission is to cultivate engaged human beings who are empowered to have a positive impact on society.
Jill Sohm, Professor of Environmental Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences; Member of the USC President’s Working Group on Sustainability
Knowledge Leaders
Marine & Oceanic Studies
USC Sea Grant funds marine and coastal research, communicates research results to leaders in government and local communities, and is a leader in integrating current research with new education initiatives to increase science literacy among urban students and to encourage teachers to adopt science education curricula.
Journalism & Justice
Founded in 2022, the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is USC’s first media studies center that is dedicated to saving, studying and sharing the work of prominent and hidden figures who have been central to Black social justice movements in America.
Advanced Genocide Research
The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research (previously USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research) mission is dedicated to advancing innovative interdisciplinary research on genocide and mass violence, promoting use of the Visual History Archive testimonies in academic research and teaching, and transforming the way we understand the origins, dynamics and consequences of mass violence, as well as the conditions and dimensions of resistance.
Environmental Studies
Founded in 1995 and based on USC’s Los Angeles campus and Catalina Island, the USC Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability educates students, conducts public-facing and policy-facing outreach, and produces solutions-focused research at the intersection of people and the planet.
Equity & Immigration
Through its work, the USC Equity Research Institute promotes forward-looking narratives that support the integration of diverse immigrant and U.S.-born communities, lift up the intersection of racial justice and immigrant rights, and strengthen the base for intersectoral collaborations.
Arts and Social Change
The USC Institute for Theatre & Social Change provides a research and development forum for expressive and interactive dramatic art practices, relative to education, therapy, and social justice, that disrupts oppression and engages communities in meaningful dialogue for social change.
Multiplying Degrees
Ever more intersectional, the USC Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy — which already fuses the arts, technology and the business of innovation — is developing new joint degrees with the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the USC Marshall School of Business, the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Filling the Gaps
Some of today’s most pressing problems don’t just lack answers — they lack the entire infrastructure to approach it. USC experts are agile and quick-moving when it comes to convening the types of thinkers and doers who can help.
Experts Who Take Initiative
USC scholars and researchers are often the first to respond to new widespread crises or reinvent something that benefits society — both phenomena that are becoming markers of the modern world. With meaningful responses about diversity, equity and inclusion, action on new health threats and even developing new musical instruments using biotechnology, our community is eager to take on the new and uncharted.
Researcher uses mammal DNA to zoom into human genome with unprecedented resolution
Steven Gazal has identified base pairs of DNA that play a crucial role in human disease.
Researchers illuminate centuries of identity lost because of slavery
On average, African Americans born between 1960 and 1965 have about 300 African and 50 European ancestors dating back to 1619, USC and Stanford researchers say.
The challenge of understanding global events in every language
Researchers at the USC Information Sciences Institute have developed a method to extract event information from foreign language text.
Vapers sustain DNA damage similar to smokers, USC study finds
Among vapers who never smoked cigarettes, the frequency of vaping and use of certain devices and flavors were associated with the highest levels of DNA damage.
Cicada Creates a Buzz
USC Annenberg doctoral student uses invention to bridge the electronic and classical music worlds.
As Black studies courses spark debate, DEI expert warns against ‘erasure’ of history
USC Price’s LaVonna Lewis discusses the controversy and how understanding the legacy of racism in America will help future leaders develop more equitable public policies.
Social work researchers examine the health impacts of U.S. immigration policy
Deporting immigrants to countries where they never lived is causing mental and physical health disparities for individuals and families.
Air pollution, stress contribute to low-birth-weight babies for L.A. Latinas, study finds
Infants with low birth weight face increased risks of mortality and a multitude of long-term health troubles.