Faculty Diversity News > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

This woman in her early 20s was trafficked into a blue jean sweatshop in Thailand, where she and others were locked in and made to work 20 hours a day, sleeping on the floor, with little to eat and no pay. She managed to escape and was brought to the government-run Baan Kredtrakarn shelter in Bangkok. After telling her story to the director, the police were informed and they raided the sweatshop, freeing 38 young women, ages 14 to 26. Photo by Kay Chernush for the U.S. State Department.

Prosecution to Empowerment

February 6, 2013

Emblematic of the shallow level of dialogue taking place concerning human trafficking is the “celebritization” of the global crisis, panelists said during a recent international conference organized by USC… more>

categories: research, faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity, community engagement

tags: alice echols, american studies and ethnicity, conference, gender studies, human trafficking, manuel pastor, rhacel salazar parreñas, sociology

USC Dornsife assistant professor Sarah Feakins served as lead author of a study that recently appeared online in <em>Geology</em>. The study provides insights about the development of hominins and the landscape that herbivores (horses, hippos and antelopes) grazed many million years ago. Photo by Dietmar Quistorf.

Bipedaling Toward Truth

January 31, 2013

What came first: the bipedal human ancestor or the grassland encroaching on the forest? A new analysis of vegetation change in the cradle of humanity over the past 12 million years is challenging long-held beliefs about the… more>

categories: research, faculty research, undergraduate research, graduate research, faculty diversity

tags: bipedal, earth sciences, fossils, hominins, sarah feakins

A paper appearing online recently in <em>NeuroImage</em> indicates that the brain works overtime to comprehend and empathize with people who have physical abnormalities. The lead author was Sook-Lei Liew who conducted the research while at USC Dornsife's Brain and Creativity Institute.

Is The Bachelor on the Right Track?

January 25, 2013

A new USC Dornsife study has found evidence suggesting that the brain works hard to understand those who have different bodies when watching them in action. According to the study’s lead author, the finding supports… more>

categories: research, graduate research, diversity, faculty diversity

tags: lisa aziz-zadeh, national science foundation graduate research fellowship, research, sook-lei liew, tong sheng, usc brain and creativity institute

Macarena Gómez-Barris studies representations of politics and culture in the wake of Chile's dictatorship under Gen. Augusto Pinochet through the lens of memories. Photo by John Livzey.

Shadows & Symbols

January 9, 2013

At Villa Grimaldi in Santiago, Chile, the majority of buildings that stood on the grounds between 1974 and 1977 have been demolished. There are no known photographs or historical registers that capture what transpired during… more>

categories: faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity, usc dornsife magazine

tags: american studies and ethnicity, chile, humanities, macarena gómez-barris, memory, pinochet, publication, social sciences, sociology, usc dornsife magazine

The 13 professors honored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science bring the number of USC Dornsife AAAS fellows to 47.

Lucky Thirteen

November 30, 2012

Chosen by their peers in recognition of their research that significantly raises the bar of our understanding of science worldwide, an unprecedented 13 scientists from USC Dornsife have been elected fellows of the 2012… more>

categories: faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity, awards

tags: aaas fellows, alan watts, american association for the advancement of science, anna krylov, arieh warshel, awards, daniel lidar, engineering, faculty, fengzhu sun, hanna reisler, john mcardle, margaret gatz, mark thompson, natural sciences, norman arnheim, science, susan friedlander, susan montgomery, thomas jordan

USC Dornsife's Susan Forsburg served as the corresponding author on a recent paper about mutated cells that continue to replicate their DNA even after treated with chemotherapy drugs. Photo by Eric O'Connell.

Mutant Cells Dig in Their Heels

November 20, 2012

Certain mutated cells keep trying to replicate their DNA — with disastrous results — even after medications rob them of the raw materials to do so, according to new research from USC. New imaging techniques… more>

categories: research, faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity

tags: cancer research, dna, marc green, molecular biology, natural sciences, sarah sabatinos, susan forsburg

USC Dornsife's Katrina Edwards delivers a lecture after receiving the 2012 Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine Science during a recent ceremony at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography just outside Halifax, Nova Scotia. Photo by Kelly Bentham.

Oceanographer Makes Waves

November 16, 2012

Katrina Edwards, professor of biological sciences, earth sciences and environmental studies in USC Dornsife, has been awarded the 2012 A.G. Huntsman Award for Excellence in Marine Science. She is the third woman to receive… more>

categories: faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity, awards

tags: a.g. huntsman award, center for dark energy biosphere investigations, katrina edwards, marine science, natural sciences, oceanography

Humans and songbirds are both matching their own early vocalizations to the neural representation of vocal auditory memory. This encoding and integration process is very likely to be disrupted in people with disordered speech and we can begin to understand this by studying the songbird brain.

A Little Bird Told Me

November 9, 2012

Although less than half the size of a walnut and weighing one gram, the brain of a songbird is fully capable of generating complex learned behaviors. Songbirds are one of the few groups of animals other than humans that… more>

categories: research, faculty research, graduate research, diversity, faculty diversity, usc dornsife magazine

tags: jennifer achiro, natural sciences, neurobiology and psychology, sarah bottjer, usc dornsife magazine

After earning an honorary degree from the Open University of Catalonia, University Professor Hanna Damasio of USC Dornsife notes that technical progress permits a fruitful crossroads where cognitive neuroscience meets with social and political sciences, economics, humanities, medicine, neurology, psychiatry and pediatrics. Photo courtesy of Open University of Catalonia.

Damasio Celebrated in Spain

November 2, 2012

University Professor Hanna Damasio, Dana Dornsife Chair in Neuroscience and professor of psychology and neurology, has received a doctora honoris causa from the prestigious Open University of Catalonia, in Barcelona,… more>

categories: research, faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity

tags: award, cognitive neuroscience, dana and david dornsife cognitive neuroscience imaging center, hanna damasio, natural sciences, neurology, psychology, research

The Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray of USC Dornsife (left) was recently honored for his work in the community in an event at Doheny Memorial Library hosted by USC President C. L. Max Nikias. Photo by Dietmar Quistorf.

Tested By Fire

October 18, 2012

The Rev. Cecil “Chip” Murray’s first trial by fire happened in the early 1950s. Then a young U.S. Air Force navigator, Murray was in a warplane when it erupted in flames on the tarmac. The pilot escaped the… more>

categories: faculty research, diversity, faculty diversity, community engagement

tags: c. l. max nikias, cecil “chip” murray, diversity, humanitites, publication, religion, usc cecil murray center for community engagement, usc center for religion and civic culture

USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

News & Events

RSS

USC Dornsife News

Scientist and Filmmaker

You Did It!

Amazing Adventures in Undergrad Research

Head of the Class

A Big Leg Up

News