The Office of the Vice President for Research is excited to showcase projects created by the inaugural cohort of Excel funded faculty research initiatives. Excel is an internal grant program supporting meritorious scholarly and creative projects by USC faculty working in the liberal arts, humanities and social sciences.
2022-2023 Excel funded projects showcase
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Porous City: An Ethnography of Air Pollution in London
Dr. Barnes used her Excel funding to explore the race and class effects of air pollution on daily life in urban London. With an emphasis on a diverse West London neighborhood with high levels of air pollution, Barnes' project reveals how life in these high traffic areas creates unseen dangers in the air. Her multidimensional ethnographic approach to this research provides insights into the systemic inequalities which impact people and the pollutants in their homes and environments.
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War Gems: The Diamond Industry in Nazi-Occupied Europe
Dr. Coenen Snyder’s third book investigates the gem trade during World War II. This project explores the tensions of genocidal ideologies and the Nazi exploitation of Europe and exposes the ruthlessness of American consumer markets thought the conflict. The book is one of several publications coming from Coenen Snyder’s Excel funded research. Follow the link here to review a recently published article entitled “The Cost of Diamonds.”
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Girls Speak: Decriminalizing Youth with Poetic Media Making
Dr. Ivashkevich’s work in art education spans mediums in order to reach youth in the juvenile justice system and provide opportunities for transformative justice through artmaking. Funded by Excel, Ivashkevich facilitated three filmmaking workshops for girls in a local juvenile arbitration program and showcased these works alongside pieces by survivors of SA on the USC campus in the Mike Brown Gallery in March of 2024. Ivashkevich’s forthcoming article "Toward an anti-carceral art pedagogy: Youth poetic media making for transformative justice" will be published in Studies in Art Education, Issue 65(4).
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Mining Religion: Religious Sites and Extractive Industries Across the Americas
Dr. Janzen's Excel project explores the religious practices of miners in the Americas, dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. This research took her to churches, mining sites and archives from the U.S. to Brazil. Janzen's exploration of these underground religious practices and their impactions are discussed in a recent podcast produced by the Hagley Museum in Delaware and will be expanded upon in a forthcoming article.
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Dark Gardening: Seed Stories and Black Survival
Dr. Keyser's Excel-funded work focuses on current crises of racial and environmental destruction in Black American literature and botanical imagery. The project centers the idea of stories as a means of Black survival through seed, root and legacy. From this work, Keyser was able to contribute several book chapters and presented a panel paper on urban gardens at the Modernist Studies Association conference in October 2023. She delivered a keynote talk at USC's spring 2024 comparative literature conference and has an article under review for publication.
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Coping with workplace racial discrimination against Asian employees in the restaurant industry: Intervention strategies for targets and bystanders
Recent surges in anti-Asian racism create a higher risk of potential workplace discrimination for Asian employees in the service industry. Dr. Kawon Kim's Excel funded study investigates the effects of workplace racial discrimination on Asian employees' mental health and workplace behavior, hoping to provide insight into how employers can create socially just work environments for their employees. Kim has published two articles based on the study.
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Dancing for the Dead: Funeral Strippers in Taiwan
Dr. Moskowitz created a documentary film about the Taiwanese tradition of exotic dancing for funeral processions. His Excel funding helped to mobilize an in-depth exploration of the practice in Taiwan, where he was able to interview funeral industry strippers and people in various parts of the country about their position on the unique custom. You can watch the final production on YouTube!
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Building Your Faculty Life: The Hidden Curriculum of Thriving as a Black Faculty Member
Dr. Peltier’s Excel funding supported her work on the forthcoming book Talking Faculty: The Linguistic and Professional Choices of Black Faculty in U.S. Higher Education. Peltier’s chapter details the nuance of daily life as a Black faculty member studying language.
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Aware: Increasing Media Literacy and Social Emotional Learning through Micro-credentialing
Excel funding provided Dr. Vogler resources to create five micro-credentials which are available to teachers in South Carolina (and other states) via CarolinaCrEd, an online teacher education service through the College of Education. Data from Dr. Vogler's study on the impact of media literacy on students’ social and emotional learning (SEL) is currently under evaluation for a forthcoming article.
