What is Rooted?
Rooted features short narrative pieces by USC student writers about how sustainability is experienced, questioned, and imagined on campus and across Los Angeles. This site contains work from writers enrolled in Writing 150: Issues in Sustainability and Writing 340: Writing Sustainability into Action during fall 2025. The first print anthology of selected student writing is slated for publication in August 2026. Together, the site and anthology showcase sustainability not as a buzzword, but as something lived, debated, and shaped by students themselves in their everyday lives.
How did this project come into being?
As USC Writing Program professors who teach sustainability-themed classes, we felt a record of students’ observations, experiences, and analyses was especially urgent to create in the aftermath of the 2025 LA fires and in the context of sustainability efforts and changes on and near USC’s campus, including the initiatives of Assignment: Earth and the sale of the land that held the community Peace Garden. At its heart, Rooted is about writing for real audiences, learning through experience, and building a community of writers who are paying close attention to the world around them. This project is grounded in a belief in the power of writing in this time of ecological and cultural transformation.
What’s next for Rooted?
We plan to continue to publish student writing on the site at the end of each semester and in a print anthology each summer. If you have questions about this project or would like to be involved as a student or instructor, please reach out to Professors Liz Blomstedt, Rebecca Fullan, Rochelle Gold, and Corinna Schroeder – our email addresses can be found in the footer of this website. We welcome your dialogue and participation!