The Academy in the Public Square
Our Doors Are Open
The world needs new ways of thinking about complex problems. Yet, the unmatched potential for university researchers to generate solutions is often overlooked.
The Academy in the Public Square initiative encourages engagement between USC Dornsife faculty and communities beyond our institution. We’re swinging open our doors — becoming the go-to source for expertise. We’re offering new ways of thinking about complex issues affecting people and communities today. We’re communicating scholarship in ways that non-experts can actually understand. And, working with leaders across the public and private sectors, we are emphasizing the enormous value of research universities as society’s most productive and prolific driver of innovation.
Public Exchange
If your organization had a dedicated research arm with experts in just about any subject you could imagine, what problems would you be able to solve?
As the centerpiece of the Academy in the Public Square, Public Exchange amplifies social impact by making academic expertise more easily accessible than ever before. The first-of-its-kind hub connects leaders in the public and private sectors with the right team of USC researchers and streamlines the collaborative process, providing project management from start to finish.
Shaping the Conversation
USC Dornsife experts provide insights that shape and expand public discourse on complex issues of the day.
USC Dornsife Research in the News
Quantum coatings: USC’s Rosa Di Felice on cutting-edge anti-corrosive materials
The USC Dornsife professor’s groundbreaking approach to quantum computing has earned recognition in the Airbus-BMW Quantum Computing Challenge.
Parenting through disaster: How California’s wildfires are affecting children and families
As families cope with the loss of homes, schools and communities, USC experts offer guidance to help parents and children make sense of tragedy, protect their health and find hope.
Newly discovered photos of Nazi deportations show Jewish victims as they were last seen alive
Descendants of survivors helped researchers identify 279 deportees and tell their stories, giving “previously faceless victims a voice,” writes project co-founder Wolf Gruner of USC Dornsife’s Center for Advance Genocide Research.
How the oil industry and growing political divides turned climate change into a partisan issue
The climate policy pendulum is swinging back again with Trump in office. Money, lobbying and talking about red vs. blue states all play a role in the political and public divide.
A national, nonpartisan study of the Los Angeles fires could improve planning for future disasters
The Los Angeles fires may be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. A USC expert on safety, risk reduction and complex systems calls for a blue-ribbon commission to analyze their causes.
How best to improve L.A. County residents’ lives? Ask them
As USC Dornsife’s LABarometer marks its fifth anniversary, survey director Kyla Thomas notes the broad insights and significant benefits the survey offers Angelenos.
For America’s 250th anniversary, USC Dornsife scholars lead commemorative initiatives
Humanities faculty will engage the public in educational forums related to the milestone and help select some of the United States’ most important historical documents.
Political polls face significant challenges, but they still hold value according to USC research
A USC Dornsife political scientist takes to the public airwaves to explain the basics behind polling and why their numbers sometimes don’t match the final voting results.
USC Dornsife scholars weigh in on debate questions
USC Dornsife scholars suggest several questions they’d like Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump to address regarding critical issues that aren’t getting as much attention as others.
Big lithium plans for Imperial Valley, one of California’s poorest regions, raise a bigger question: Who should benefit?
The promised ‘white gold rush’ would extract lithium, used in EV batteries, alongside geothermal power production. USC professors shed light on how this could reshape some of California’s poorest regions.
War in Ukraine: Destruction seen from space – via radar
Photographs of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut shows block after block of destroyed buildings. A USC scholar examines how satellite radar provides a different view – a systematic look at the destruction of the whole city.
5 scholars honored with USC Dornsife Communicator of the Year Awards
The annual awards recognize individuals who excel as “public scholars,” sharing their expertise to benefit society.
As 2024 elections approach, experts examine the rising tide of independent voters sweeping the nation
AI meets policing: USC leads LAPD body cam study
The Los Angeles Police Department is stepping into the future, leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze the communication between officers and drivers during traffic stops.The research is led by a multidisciplinary team based at USC, including scholars from psychology, sociology, engineering, computer science, computer science, public health, and public policy.
Dornsife Dialogues
Check out our series of stimulating online forums in which leading experts and distinguished alumni from USC Dornsife share new perspectives and research-based findings on timely topics. Now available in podcast form!
Complex Insights into Identity
USC Dornsife’s Viet Thanh Nguyen, the Pulitzer-winning author of The Sympathizer, contributes frequently to the public discourse about race and American identity — including pieces for The Atlantic, Time, The New York Times, and more. With his bestselling novel recently adapted into an HBO series, whole new audiences are engaging with his distinct perspective.
The MacArthur Fellow Shaping the Public Discourse on Race, Citizenship and Belonging
In any given year, Natalia Molina can be seen in dozens of national media outlets making her expertise accessible to a wide audience. The Distinguished Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity and Dean’s Professor of American Study and Ethnicity’s expertise could not be more vital to this moment in American life: her research centers on race and citizenship.
Molina’s work has earned her a MacArthur “genius” grant in 2020. The Los Angeles Times called her recent book, A Place at the Nayarit: How a Mexican Restaurant Nourished a Community — which chronicles how immigrant workers shaped the neighborhood of Echo Park — an “essential Los Angeles book.” She was also part of the L.A. Civic Memory Working Group, a group convened by the mayor of Los Angeles’s mayor to make recommendations on how to preserve the city’s history.
Sought-Out Source
Ian Anderson, who recently earned his doctorate in psychology, explains how to curb the flow of misinformation on social media in published news articles and as a speaker at the Nobel Prize Summit on misinformation. It’s work that earned him a USC Dornsife Communicator of the Year award.
Contact Us
USC Dornsife Office of Communication
1150 S. Olive St, 24th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Phone: (213) 821-6797
Fax: (213) 821-6057
communication@dornsife.usc.edu