August 2025

USC & USC Dornsife News Stories

• What will it take to end the Russia-Ukraine war? Two experts tell us
  Robert English and Steve Swerdlow
• What we really think about the ultra-wealthy
  Morteza Dehghani and Jackson Trager (PhD student)
• USC Dornsife’s new dean on the value of the liberal arts – and what sets the College apart
  James S. Bullock
• Outsmart an island fox? Not so fast
  Kimberly Schoenberger (PhD student)
• The twins making waves at USC Dornsife
  Amelia Batt (student) and Sarah Batt (student)
• Scientists reveal how microbes collaborate to consume potent greenhouse gas
  Moh El-Naggar
• Mathematicians use ‘neglected’ particles that could rescue quantum computing
  Aaron Lauda
• Can the seafloor help the ocean absorb more carbon dioxide?
  Will Berelson
• Trojan undergrads spend summer immersed in life-changing research
  Peter Kuhn, Elizabeth Kunz (student), Ayla Seddighnezhad (student) and Julian Moreno (student)

Conversation Articles / Op-eds

• By ‘focusing on the family,’ James Dobson helped propel US evangelicals back into politics – making the Religious Right into the cultural force it is today
  By: Richard Flory – The Conversation, Yahoo New Zealand, Audacy, Religion News Service and Leader-Telegram
• Can AI think – and should it? What it means to think, from Plato to ChatGPT
  By: Ryan Leack – Japan Today
• Trump Is Single-Handedly Torpedoing the U.S.-India Partnership
  By: Derek Grossman – World Politics Review, Yahoo News
• Los Angeles Is Its Own Literary Genre
  By: David L. Ulin – Zócalo Public Square
• If tackle football isn’t safe for girls, why do we let boys play?
  By: Michael A. Messner – Los Angeles Times
• Los Angeles Is Contaminated Now
  By: David L. Ulin – The New York Times and DNYUZ

E-newsletters

• Aug. 25: Alumni Newsletter
• Aug. 26: Parent Newsletter
• Aug. 28: Faculty and Staff Newsletter

Videos

• Professor’s Guide to Crushing Your College Years
  Joe Árvai, Sami Assaf, James Bullock, Derrick Morton, Donal Manahan, Lori Meeks and Susan Kamei
• Welcome to a New School Year, USC Dornsife Trojans!
  James Bullock
• USC’s Center for the Political Future: Beacon of Bipartisanship
  Robert Shrum, Mike Murphy and Chuck Todd

Let us know if you have any comments about this Dornsife Brief email us at communication@dornsife.usc.edu