Deborah Sims

Deborah M. Sims is a Professor at the University of Southern California. She specializes in writing, education, and teacher training, as well as American  cultural and literary studies. She has designed and implemented professional development events for incoming faculty lecturers and graduate students at USC for many years. Her work with early career educators centers on the theory and practice of effective teaching. Professor Sims has been a USC Center for Generative Artificial Intelligence and Society Fellow since 2023. She sythesizes this work with her teacher training background in order to aid schools in AI management.

In 2022, Dr. Sims was awarded a Sustainability Across the Curriculum Grant for her course in Writing and the Environment, as well as an Advancing Scholarship in the Arts and Humanities early sabbatical for her book project on the craft of teaching writing (forthcoming 2026).  She is also known for developing The Empathy Project, a curricular unit that trains undergraduates in synthesizing emotion and critical reasoning so that they can practice empathetic problem solving.  Dr. Sims’ recent publications and speaking engagements explore methods for creating meaningful learning experiences for students and navigating the post-pandemic classroom. 

Fun Facts: Dr. Sims loves the National Parks and has appeared on several game shows.

RECENT COURSES IN WRITING, RHETORIC, AND CRITICAL REASONING:

Education and Intellectual Development: Examination of educational ideologies and the role of intellectual inquiry in culture. Recent curricula: The Tri-Partisan Dictionary Project.

Issues in Aesthetics: Analytical and creative projects in visual culture, film and television, and art. Optional sub-focus on aesthetics of the environment, rhetorics of nature, and wilderness writing.

Advanced Writing: Study of form and audience.  Enrollment limited to junior or senior level undergraduates. Courses taught in Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, and Health Sciences.

Graduate Theory and Praxis: A hands-on best practices course featuring observation and training of graduate level teachers.

Multidsciplinary Studies in Work & Career: Scholarly and practical inquiry into students’ experiences interning in careers related to Arts, Letters, & Sciences.