USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is the heart of the University of Southern California. The largest, oldest and most diverse of USC’s 19 schools, USC Dornsife is composed of more than 30 departments and dozens of research centers and institutes. USC Dornsife is home to approximately 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 750 faculty members with expertise across a spectrum of academic fields.
Our frontline scholars are working to find solutions to society’s toughest challenges by advancing human health, preserving and improving our environment, and strengthening our communities. Together, we are defining scholarship of consequence for the 21st century.
Trisha Tucker, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
As Harry Potter turns 20, a scholar says protesters who try to censor books do not trust young readers to discern the difference between fantasy and reality. But why?
Some minorities are less likely to think that their college dreams could become a reality.
AP Photo/Tim Boyd
While most Americans do aspire to higher education, college is not a reality for many. But why is the gap between hopes and reality larger for some? And how can we strive for equity?
Rand Wilcox, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Any field that collects and analyzes data relies on statistical techniques to make sense of it all. Modern, more accurate methods should supplant the old ways… but in many cases, they haven’t yet.
Don’t underestimate what I get about the world around me.
Baby image via www.shutterstock.com.
Henrike Moll, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
A revolution in the tools and techniques developmental psychologists use to investigate kids’ knowledge and capabilities is rewriting what we know about how and when children understand their world.
A Christian movement led by popular independent religious entrepreneurs, often referred to as ‘apostles,’ is changing the religious landscape of America.
Many children who cross the U.S. Mexico border illegally remain undetected and must fend for themselves on the other side.
California Gov. Jerry Brown signs SB350 on Oct. 7, 2015. The bill calls for increasing the state’s renewable electricity use to 50 percent and doubling energy efficiency in existing buildings by 2030.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
California has set ambitious goals for cutting carbon emissions and shifting to a clean energy economy. How will this strategy affect the state’s huge economy? An economist weighs the evidence.
Richard Flory, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Americans are increasingly choosing not to identify with any religious tradition. But this group of irreligious people is a complex one – with different relationships to religion.
Old books know best.
Old books via www.shutterstock.com
Khatera Sahibzada, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Many managers say they’re uncomfortable giving negative feedback, yet employees tend to consider it helpful to improving importance. Research – and a 13th-century saying – offers some tips.
No other nation has conjoined business success and piety quite like America has. Is Donald Trump’s election a strange perversion of this tradition?
Chinese President Xi Jinping, center, U.S. President Barack Obama and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shake hands during a joint ratification of the Paris climate change agreement in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, Sept. 3, 2016.
How Hwee Young/Pool Photo via AP
Matthew E. Kahn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Although Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax invented by China, Chinese leaders believe cutting carbon emissions will generate economic and political payoffs at home and abroad.
Jennie A. Brownscombe’s ‘The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth’ (1914).
Wikimedia Commons
Peter C. Mancall, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The Pilgrims were thankful for finally being able to vanquish Thomas Morton and Ferdinando Gorges, who spent years trying to undermine the legal basis for settlements in Massachusetts and beyond.
Signs of satisfaction after Donald Trump was elected.
Jeff Karoub/AP
Kate Johnson, University of Southern California and Joe Hoover, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
While research has long suggested that we like others who are like us, a new study offers insight into how we choose to support those who share our views of ‘moral purity.’ It may explain how we voted.
Dana and David Dornsife Professor of Psychology and Director of the Wrigley Institute for Environment and Sustainability, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences