Healing Memory

Professor Román's research focuses on theatre and performance studies, with an emphasis on contemporary US culture; American studies, with an emphasis on race, sexuality, and the performing arts; Latina/o studies with an emphasis on popular culture; and queer studies with an emphasis on archival practices, subcultural histories, and artistic production, primarily in twentieth century America. He has written and edited books about AIDS and the arts, Latino studies, and contemporary US culture and performance. His current projects include a book on the racial politics of American theatre in the 1940s; a study of the memoirs of pre-Stonewall gay and lesbian activists; and a historical project on AIDS and cultural production in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Psychologist Skip Rizzo conducts research on the design, development and evaluation of virtual reality (VR) systems targeting the areas of clinical assessment, treatment rehabilitation and resilience. This work spans the domains of psychological, cognitive and motor functioning in both healthy and clinical populations.

Rizzo, whose work using virtual reality-based exposure therapy to treat PTSD received the American Psychological Association’s 2010 Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Treatment of Trauma, is the associate director for medical virtual reality at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies.