AIRE oversees four institutes that bridge interdisciplinary research across the humanities, social sciences, and life sciences. In alignment with our mission to foster collaboration, community, and innovation, we provide centralized administrative support for these institutes, including program management, event coordination, and other essential operational functions.

Institutes

Bridge Institute

The Bridge Institute fosters interdisciplinary research at USC, exploring molecules, cells, and tissues through innovative Team-Science and Art-Science approaches. By connecting science, engineering, medicine, and the arts, it supports collaborative projects, trains researchers, and advances biomedical discovery—all guided by the values of teamwork, imagination, innovation, learning, and convergence.

Institute of Armenian Studies

The Institute of Armenian Studies advances understanding of Armenia and the Armenian diaspora through research, education, and public engagement. By fostering interdisciplinary scholarship and community connections, the institute highlights Armenian history, culture, and contemporary issues while supporting learning and dialogue across USC and beyond.

Visual Studies Research Institute

Funded primarily by USC Dornsife and building on the success of the Visual Studies Graduate Certificate, the VSRI focuses on the nature, analysis and evaluation of visual evidence in order to interrogate the relationship of seeing, believing, and proving from Antiquity to the present.

Max Kade Institute for Austrian-German-Swiss Studies

The USC Max Kade Institute is a research center devoted to German and European studies. Located several blocks north of the USC campus, the institute hosts lectures, conferences, and performances for students, faculty and the general public. Institute programs cover German and European studies broadly defined, but its main areas of emphasis include: exile studies, Cold War studies; German history, film, and aesthetics; and contemporary German and European affairs.