Research

The Institute’s research programs and centers are dedicated to realizing the power of testimony to deepen our understanding of the origins of genocide, the development of empathy through education, the conditions that enable people to resist mass violence and identity-based hatred.

Center for Advanced Genocide Research

Founded in 2014, the Center organizes a rich academic program consisting of international fellowships and annual conferences, a lecture series and unique research opportunities such as the Interdisciplinary Research Week and the graduate student research workshop with Yad Vashem.

The Center advances interdisciplinary research by supporting the most innovative fellows, conference presenters, guest speakers, workshop and Research Week participants, as well as visiting scholars.

Featured Lecture
Locating Women in the Revolt: Gender and Spaces of Resistance at Treblinka

In this September 2020 talk, Chad Gibbs discusses how Jewish prisoners created what he terms “spaces of resistance” at Treblinka and how studying these locations can provide revelations about the roles of women prisoners in resistance. A PhD candidate in the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Chad Gibbs is the 2020-2021 Breslauer, Rutman, and Anderson Research Fellow at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research.

May 6, 2022
Hidden in the Archive: An Unknown Leaflet from a Jewish Aid Organization in 1948
In the Special Collections at the University of Southern California Libraries there is a book – large, heavy, and musty, it contains the names of thousands of Holocaust survivors who lived in the Pest region of Budapest, the capital city of Hungary, in 1947.
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November 30, 2020
My Reluctant Encounter With the USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive
I never intended to spend months listening to Holocaust testimonies. 
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November 11, 2020
Testimonies and Resistance at Treblinka: Reflections from 2020-2021 Breslauer, Rutman, and Anderson Research Fellow Chad Gibbs
My recent stay at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my academic career.  From the remarkable power and content of the Visual History Archive, to the welcoming and helpful nature of the staff and donor community, I leav
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August 31, 2020
Testimonies and the Socioeconomic Aspects of the Armenian Genocide: Reflections from 2019-2020 Junior Postdoctoral Research Fellow Mehmet Polatel
As a postdoctoral research fellow at the USC Shoah Foundation Center for Advanced Genocide Research in the 2019-2020 academic year, I carried out a research project focusing on the long-term impact of Hamidian Massacres of 1894-97 and the experiences of genocide survivors with regards to extortio
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Advancing new areas of interdisciplinary research

Keep up with recent developments from the academic unit of USC Shoah Foundation.

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By the numbers
53
Academic Disciplines
41
Research and Teaching Fellows
39
Institutional Partners
48
Lectures and Screenings
Aiming for Impact
The Center, with its innovative research program and affiliated faculty of excellence, aims to establish an intellectual hub in Los Angeles for scholars from all over the world and across disciplines to advance research on genocide and mass violence.
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The Center, with its innovative research program and affiliated faculty of excellence, aims to establish an intellectual hub in Los Angeles for scholars from all over the world.
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