USC Dornsife News

Remembering H. Edward Ransford, sociologist and pioneering race relations expert who led influential research on the 1965 Watts Riots and taught for four decades at USC.

USC Dornsife senior Anthony Khoory is fascinated by the many elements — cultural, linguistic and otherwise — that make people “the same, but different.”

Comparing national law enforcement databases with the Fatal Encounters open-source database, USC Dornsife researchers find significant discrepancies in reporting of deaths caused by police.

Models show that some 4 million people in the US have lost a grandparent to COVID-19. But until now, there has been little research that looks into the mental health effects of losing a grandparent.

COVID-19 deaths tend to be more unexpected and traumatic than other types of deaths. A USC Dornsife sociologist explains the mental health burdens facing the millions who’ve lost a relative to the coronavirus.

Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity Manuel Pastor enters the academy’s class of 2022 with such luminaries as authors Sandra Cisneros and Salman Rushdie, retired military leader and diplomat John R. Allen, singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie and actor Glenn Close.

Pamela Schaff directs USC’s Narrative Medicine master’s program, which helps health workers enhance healing by focusing on patients’ stories. [1¼ min read]

The National Officer Involved Homicide Database, developed by researchers at the USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research, includes data from more than a dozen sources regarding factors that may be associated with officer-involved homicides. [3 min read]

USC Dornsife’s Andrew Lakoff provides an in-depth history of the country’s disaster preparedness agencies and systems. [5 min read]