HOMELAND SECURITY, 10 YEARS LATER
ERROLL SOUTHERS is a USC professor on counter-terrorism and associate director of the USC Homeland Security Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events (CREATE). “Replacing aging (airport) technology designed to detect last year’s explosive device with new technology also designed to detect the same device demonstrates a disturbing lack of imagination,” Southers wrote in a recent op-ed. He said the U.S. must focus its intelligence capabilities on understanding the human element.
OTHER SECURITY ISSUES
MICHAEL BARR is a senior instructor with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and an instructor with the USC Aviation Safety Programs. He is an aviation expert specializing in aircraft accident investigation and prevention who can speak about airplane safety.
CLIFFORD NEUMAN is the director of the USC Center for Computer Systems Security. He is an expert on computer security, including e-commerce, online payments, remote network access, and cyber security for critical infrastructure, such as the power grid.
MILIND TAMBE is a professor of computer science who developed a system that uses randomness to improve security (such as randomizing security screenings at airports). He received a commendation from the city of Los Angeles in 2009 for his service to the Airport Police Division and Los Angeles World Airports for the development of ARMOR (Assistant for Randomized Monitoring Over Routes).
TOLERANCE ON THE RISE?
VARUN SONI, the only non-ordained, non-Christian university dean of religious life in the United States, said: “College freshman were eight years old when 9/11 happened. Their youth was framed by it.” But instead of becoming insular, the 9/11 generation has embraced diversity at school, home and work, Soni said.
SARAH GUALTIERI, faculty advisor to the Middle East Studies Program at USC and associate professor of history and American Studies and Ethnicity, can discuss Arab American youth. “Amidst the negative outcomes — the increased profiling, hate crimes, the monitoring — there is an affirmative story,” Gualtieri said. “Young people have asserted their Arab American identity, in contrast to their parents . . . they have embraced civil rights.” She added that young Arab Americans have broader solidarity with people of color, as expressed in poetry, film and the arts.
9/11 AS A WATERSHED IN PUBLIC MEMORIALS
DAVID C. SLOANE, a USC professor of urban planning and development and history, said memorials stemming from the 9/11 attacks propelled shifts in how Americans commemorate tragedy, including roadside or spontaneous memorials such as the ones along the chain-link fence around the former World Trade Center site. "The tragedies also signified a willingness of Americans to mourn in public," Sloane said. He said the official projects, including the museum and memorials to be unveiled this fall, are more conflicted, trying to respond to the postmodern age while satisfying more conservative attitudes toward memorial design.
AMERICAN USE OF HARD AND SOFT POWER
PHILIP SEIB is director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy and professor of journalism and international relations at USC. He is author of several books, including The Al Jazeera Effect (2008) and Global Terrorism and New Media: The Post-Al Qaeda Generation (2010). Seib is available to discuss President Obama’s ongoing efforts to “reset” the U.S.-Arab relationship and the U.S. State Department’s use of soft power to reach out to the Arab world. He can also talk about how technology has changed foreign policy, including Al-Qaeda’s new media strategy. Contact Seib at (213) 740-9611 (office), (626) 710-3955 (cell) or at [email protected].
CLAYTON DUBE heads the USC U.S.-China Institute and can discuss how the attacks of 9/11 influenced the relationship between the United States and China. In particular, Dube can discuss the mixed Chinese reaction to 9/11 and the relationship between Pakistan and China.
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT OF A NEVER-ENDING "WAR" ON TERROR
MARY L. DUDZIAK, professor of law, history and political science, can talk about the way 9/11 has been remembered and the consequences of referring to the post-9/11 era as “wartime.” She is editor of September 11 in History: A Watershed Moment?, author of War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences (forthcoming) and contributing editor of the current issue of the Magazine of History, September 11: Ten Years After, published by the Organization of American Historians.
JEFF VICTOROFF, associate professor of clinical neurology and psychiatry, can discuss revisiting the idea of a "war on terror" and finding alternatives to this concept. His areas of expertise include psychosis and aggression, PTSD, anxiety, terrorism and the psychology of terrorism. Contact through USC Health Sciences Media Relations at (323) 442-2823.
LANITA JACOBS, associate professor of anthropology and American studies and ethnicity, wrote an essay on African American comics and irony after 9/11, to be included in the forthcoming anthology A Decade of Dark Humor: How Comedy, Irony, and Satire Shaped Post-9/11 America. She can discuss dark humor as a response to tragedy.
MEDIA: FROM COMPLICITY IN THE IRAQ BUILDUP TO WIKILEAKS
MARC COOPER, associate professor in the Annenberg School for Journalism & Communication, can discuss the evolution of the media’s relationship to power since 9/11. Cooper is an award-winning journalist and author and founder of Annenberg Digital News, a 24/7 online news site. ANDREW LIH, new media researcher in the Annenberg School, wrote The Wikipedia Revolution and can discuss WikiLeaks as an example of grassroots journalism on national security.
DID 9/11 DEEPEN THE PARTISAN DIVIDE?
ANN CRIGLER, chair of the political science department at USC, is an expert on how emotions affect our political views. She is available to discuss how the specter of 9/11 loomed over U.S. politics in the last decade and whether politics have become more partisan as a result. Contact
JESSE GRAHAM, a psychologist in the USC Dornsife College, studies political ideology, partisanship and morality. He has noted a general conservative shift following 9/11, as people show loyalty to one's nation and respect for authorities.
SHAFIQA AHMADI, a professor with the USC Rossier School of Education who also has taught at the USC Gould School of Law, has conducted research showing the passage of the Patriot Act has discouraged foreign students from coming to study at American colleges.
U.S. DEPENDENCE ON FOREIGN OIL
Donald Paul is research professor of engineering, earth sciences, and policy, planning and development. He is an expert on oil; before coming to USC, Paul had a 33-year career at Chevron in a variety of positions in research and technology, exploration and production operations, and executive management. He will be available to comment on U.S. dependence on oil.
To search for other USC experts go to www.usc.edu/uscnews/experts/.
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