Research Themes

The USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research fosters research on all areas of Holocaust and genocide studies research and focuses its activities on three central research themes:

• Resistance to Genocide

  To study conditions and factors – historically and contemporarily – that enable people, groups and societies to slow down or stop the course of mass violence. Here, the Center focuses on acts of resistance that inhibit the impact of genocidal ideology and/or defy its policies.

• Violence, Emotion, and Behavioral Change

  To explore the nature of mass violence and its emotional, social, psychological, historical and physical impacts on individual behavior, and to deepen the understanding of the individual experience as reflected in personal testimonies of survivors, witnesses and perpetrators. The Center advances the application of such knowledge in fostering behavior and/or behavioral change in resisting mass violence.

• Digital Genocide Studies

  To examine how large digital data sets, such as the fully indexed 55,000 video testimonies of USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, can be used for a sophisticated analysis of complex human phenomena. The Center seeks to establish patterns of behavior in the field of mass violence and resistance to mass violence.