Kicking off this week, the challenge, which will award $10,000 in prizes overall, invites students to positively contribute to their communities, and submit short videos explaining the inspiration behind their actions and extraordinary impact. The IWitness Video Challenge is open to all secondary school students in the United States and Canada (except for Quebec) who attend public, private or home schools. Participants can access resources and submit entries at iwitness.usc.edu.

Los Angeles, January 21, 2016 – To meet growing demand for access to the world’s largest archive of genocide testimony, USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education announces its Visual History Archive Program, which will reimagine how users connect to the testimonies.Made possible by an initial transformative donation from Lee Liberman, a member of the Institute’s Board of Councilors Executive Committee, the wide-ranging, five-year plan will look to:

In the first step of an ambitious multiyear plan to significantly broaden access and meet growing demand for the world's largest archive of genocide testimony, USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education announces a landmark partnership with ProQuest, a technology company that empowers researchers at universities, libraries, schools and knowledge-driven organizations around the world.

More than 900 Holocaust testimonies recorded over four decades by the Jewish Family and Children Services Holocaust Center of San Francisco (JFCS) are now fully integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive as part of the Preserving the Legacy initiative – an ambitious plan to save recorded eyewitness testimony and bring voices of genocide survivors to a wider audience.

New Dimensions in Testimony from USC Shoah Foundation captured two top honors this week at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, the third-largest documentary festival in the world.

Twenty years after a civil war and genocide in Guatemala, USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research will host an international conference that will shed light on this little-known atrocity.

Initial evaluations from the pilot exhibition of USC Shoah Foundation's New Dimensions in Testimony – a groundbreaking project that enables audiences to have a "virtual conversation" with projected images of Holocaust survivors – is proving the new technology is a valuable tool to ensure future generations will be able to have personal interactive experiences with Holocaust survivors long into the future.

A trio of eighth-graders from New Jersey who created a poetry group that has enabled students at their school to express their hardships and appreciation for one another has won the 2016 IWitness Video Challenge sponsored by USC Shoah Foundation.

May 16, 2015 – More than 900 Holocaust testimonies recorded over four decades by the Jewish Family and Children Services Holocaust Center of San Francisco (JFCS) are now fully integrated into USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive as part of the Preserving the Legacy initiative – an ambitious plan to save recorded eyewitness testimony and bring voices of genocide survivors to a wider audience.  

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 12, 2016 – The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research has established a new endowed academic research fellowship with a gift from four longtime supporters of the Institute.

The USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research will host a symposium to honor the work of leading Holocaust scholar David Cesarani from Great Britain, who died last year just weeks after being named the Center’s inaugural Sara and Asa Shapiro Scholar in Residence.

LOS ANGELES – Sept. 6, 2016 – USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research is gearing up to host an international conference on the genocide that ravaged Guatemala at the height of the Cold War in the early 1980s. It will be the first gathering of its kind ever held.

LOS ÁNGELES – 6 Septembre, 2016 – El Centro para la Investigación Avanzada sobre el Genocidio de la Fundación USC Shoah se prepara para celebrar una conferencia internacional sobre el genocidio que devastó a Guatemala durante el apogeo de la Guerra Fría a principios de la década de 1980. Será la primera reunión de este tipo que jamás se haya celebrado.

Los Angeles, November 3, 2016 – Steven Spielberg, founder of USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education, will present Mellody Hobson and George Lucas with the Institute’s 2016 Ambassador for Humanity Award at the organization’s annual gala, to be held this year in Los Angeles on Dec. 8, 2016. Actor Harrison Ford will be one of the evening’s special guests, with additional guests to be announced. The gala presenting sponsor is The Walt Disney Company, a dedicated supporter of the organization.

In light of the heated rhetoric that has come to characterize this historically polarized presidential campaign, USC Shoah Foundation has released a new activity on IWitness – its free online education platform for secondary students – called “Skittles, Deplorables and ‘All Lives Matter’: Leadership and Media Literacy.”

Los Angeles, Nov. 15, 2016 – USC Shoah Foundation is offering one member of the public and a guest the chance to attend its Ambassadors for Humanity Gala in December. The gala is a crucial part of the Institute’s efforts helping to forge partnerships that sustain the organization into the future. The gala raises much-needed general funds to support its educational programs including expansion of the Institute’s award-winning IWitness website, professional development for educators globally, the Center for Advanced Genocide Research, academic conferences, expanding access to the Visual History Archive and testimony preservation, to name a few.

LOS ANGELES – Dec. 1, 2016 – USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research issues a call for applications for a fellowship opportunity that enables an advanced-standing Ph.D. candidate to spend a month in residence at the University of Southern California to further the field of genocide prevention.

LOS ANGELES – Aug. 31, 2016 – In preparation for the new school year, USC Shoah Foundation unveils its annual update of IWitness, a free online resource that is among the world’s foremost education tools for teaching compassion.

Borrowing from a tradition set by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he assumed office in 1933 and announced an aggressive agenda for his first 100 days, USC Shoah Foundation will offer 100 Days to Inspire Respect starting Jan. 20, 2017, when America swears in its 45th president.

Middle and high school students have the chance to win scholarships of up to $5,000 – and additional money for their educators and schools – by entering the fourth annual IWitness Video Challenge hosted by USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education.

Los Angeles, Dec. 27, 2016 – As the United States prepares to inaugurate a new president, USC Shoah Foundation has announced the first 10 testimony-based educational resources for its “100 Days to Inspire Respect,” an IWitness educational program modeled after the aggressive 100-day agenda initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt when he took office in 1933.

At a time of heightened political uncertainty and polarization, middle and high school teachers are in need of easy-to-use resources that encourage their students to grapple with some of the most difficult but important topics: hate, racism, intolerance and xenophobia.

One of the world’s leading experts on the subject of the Holocaust is coming to USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research, where he will further develop his current project about Jewish-Arab relations in Israel and Palestine, the Center announced today.

First-person testimonial of the Holocaust, co-created by United Nations senior creative advisor Gabo Arora and produced by executive director of USC Shoah Foundation, Stephen Smith, is an official selection of festival’s Tribeca Immersive, in Storyscapes, presented by AT&T, April 21-29, 2017.

LOS ANGELES – April 26, 2017 – Scant attention has been paid to the key roles women played in the Nuremberg Trials that held Nazi perpetrators to account for their role in the Holocaust. This is the main focus of a dissertation by Diane Amann, associate dean at the University of Georgia School of Law. She will expand on her work in January 2018 when she comes as a fellow to conduct research at USC Shoah Foundation’s Center for Advanced Genocide Research at the University of Southern California.

Los Angeles, May 25, 2017 – USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education has partnered with the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) to integrate all videos from the AGBU WebTalks series—addressing both the Armenian Genocide and Armenian identity—into USC Shoah Foundation’s award-winning IWitness educational website.

Los Angeles, June 13, 2017 – A group of students from Chicago who inspired their fellow students to embrace each other’s unique identity has won the 2017 IWitness Video Challenge sponsored by USC Shoah Foundation.

LOS ANGELES - June 26, 2017 – While students across America enjoy their summer vacation, the education department at USC Shoah Foundation is busily making major new features to its award-winning IWitness educational website for educators and their students that will be ready by the time school resumes in the fall. Coming on the heels of a successful initiative, 100 Days to Inspire Respect, these new offerings will further support educators around the world by building new and innovative ways to inspire respect and empower students to take positive action in the world.

LOS ANGELES - Aug. 22, 2017 – The violent antisemitic and racist hatred seen in Charlottesville, Virginia, earlier this month combined Nazi ideology with white supremacy and drew from the dark historical legacies of the Holocaust and slavery. This hatred revealed the fissures of a long-standing American cultural and identity crisis that requires long-term strategies to provide safe ways to explore identity and difference.

Los Angeles, Sept. 7, 2017 – USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research, in collaboration with the USC Digital Humanities Program, will host an international conference in October that will focus on the opportunities and challenges presented by the advancement of digital technologies.