News

From the Dominican Republic to Russia to South Africa, the newest group of humanities faculty members joining the USC Dornsife College of Letters Arts and Sciences bring a global perspective on research. They recently shared more about their scholarship and interests.

Holocaust scholars have long relied on documents and survivor testimonies to help reconstruct the history of that tragic event. Now, they’re turning to wordless witnesses to learn more: pictures.

USC Dornsife’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research is the only non-German partner in the first major international initiative to search for and analyze images showing Nazi deportations during World War II — and they want the public’s help.

Elizabeth Van Hunnick’s endowment gift, one of the largest to a university history department, is intended to support the development of more informed leaders.

L.A.’s early 20th-century “Water Wars” over access to the precious H2O needed to fuel the city’s growth included a web of corruption and lies that inspired one of the most celebrated noir movies of all time: ‘Chinatown.’

From the communal baths of ancient Rome to the Great Stink of London and the fortuitously named Victorian sanitary engineer Thomas Crapper, we explore the strangely fascinating history of plumbing through the ages.

Students explore when humanity runs ideas and beliefs through the legal wringer, from Socrates to the Salem Witch trials, and how these spectacles have changed our culture.

The Irish government recently declared a national holiday for another patron saint of Ireland, St. Brigid. A USC Dornsife scholar and medieval historian explains her fascinating life and history.

USC Dornsife experts discuss the legacy of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s decision as the nation marks a day that will live on in infamy for many of the Japanese American families and their descendants.