Alice Baumgartner, assistant professor of history, has received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship. The prestigious award includes $60,000 and supports her project “Slavery After Abolition: How Freedom Seekers from New Mexico to Alaska Invoked the Thirteenth Amendment to End Slavery in the United States (1862–1977),” leading to a book on laborers’ use of the 13th Amendment to seek relief from coercive work conditions in the American West. Read More
On April 2, the Joint Educational Project (JEP) STEM Education Programs hosted a teacher professional development opportunity focused on neurobiology. This workshop was in partnership with neurobiologist Sarah Bottjer, professor of biological sciences and psychology, whose research focuses on brain-behavior relationships in songbirds. The workshop was supported by a National Science Foundation grant titled “The Role of Cortico-Basal Ganglia Circuits in Skill Learning During Development.” Read More
The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently awarded $1 million in support of a collaborative program between Rio Hondo Community College in Whittier, Calif., and USC. The program aims to help community college students at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs) transition to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) degree programs at baccalaureate-granting institutions. Read More
In the 17 academic years between 2002–03 and 2018–19, California schools closed for nearly 34,000 days across 6,664 individual schools due to wildfires, natural hazard impacts, infrastructure and student safety concerns. Wildfires were the biggest cause of school closures in California, causing nearly two-thirds of all unplanned closures in the state. Read More
Between 2017 and 2020, wildfires in California burned across nearly 8 million acres (approximately 8% of the state) and destroyed over 45,500 structures. These recent wildfires have left dozens of communities throughout California beginning the long process of rebuilding and recovery. Read More
We are delighted to announce that the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) has approved our grant application to its Humanities Initiatives at Colleges and Universities for “Images Out of Time: Visual and Material Culture in a Digital Age.” Read More
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has granted us $500,000 to support intersectional studies at the Consortium for Gender, Sexuality, Race and Public Culture. The grant will extend across 42 months to support several initiatives to bolster intersectional work. Read More
With the reconciliation package stalled in Washington, D.C., progressive champions have lamented their failure to capture the public imagination and secure support for a social safety net that fits our 21st-century economy. This is not a new issue. Progressives have often faced difficulties articulating their agenda, frequently getting caught in a game of telephone in which their plans for full inclusion get garbled into pleas for “special interests” and a laundry list of specific policies. Read More
With the reconciliation package stalled in Washington, D.C., progressive champions have lamented their failure to capture the public imagination and secure support for a social safety net that fits our 21st-century economy. This is not a new issue. Progressives have often faced difficulties articulating their agenda, frequently getting caught in a game of telephone in which their plans for full inclusion get garbled into pleas for “special interests” and a laundry list of specific policies. Read More
The food environment in Los Angeles County changed tremendously during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a project convened by Public Exchange at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, USC researchers are working across disciplines to develop a new approach to understanding food systems, food access and food security across L.A. County. They’re mapping the landscape of where food is located and connecting that with individuals’ food habits and behaviors to determine how these issues can be addressed through policy changes. Read More
