Graduate & Professional Degrees

The certificate in Visual Social Work enhances students’ ability to use unique approaches for understanding, communicating about, intervening and positively impacting complex social justice issues. The certificate is designed for students not satisfied with a purely theoretical or conceptual understanding of human problems, but who instead desire the first-person voice in the testimonial and to bring the viewer into the world of the storyteller's experience. This personalization of social issues recasts previous notions of witness and testimony by calling on the viewer to engage and empathize with the personal story of the subject through their own self-representation. Macro issues are made manifest into micro experiences. The certificate trains students how to examine issues visually, drawing from social work and other disciplines, qualitative research and archival material.

The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work offers university certificates which provide students advanced practice or research training through a social justice and intercultural competence lens that emphasizes community, organizational and environmental justice. Certificates are designed to complement and deepen training provided through our degree programs by focusing on experiential application of concepts in relation to particular and diverse client populations, settings, and systems. Each certificate consists of at least 12 units, which may in part be satisfied by courses completed for a degree program. Certificates are also available to graduate students from other disciplines and to employed professionals.

The field of visual studies encompasses a diverse range of images and artifacts as well as the history, processes and technologies of vision itself. This certificate will provide graduate students with the tools necessary to think critically about visual objects and experience and to apply that thinking to their ongoing scholarly work. Students will combine the sustained analysis of specific representations with attention to broader philosophical frameworks and historical conditions. Graduate students intending to concentrate in visual studies must be admitted to a PhD program at USC or get approval from the Program Director to enroll in the VSGC. To receive this certificate, students must take  VISS 501 Introduction to Visual Studies: Methods and Debates, a team-taught VISS 599 Special Topics course, and two other graduate seminars from an approved list of relevant courses, 500 level and above, for a total of at least 16 units. A credit/no credit option will be possible with approval by the director. Directed research may not be taken toward certificate requirements.

In addition to the completion of these course requirements, students enrolled in PhD programs must demonstrate a focus on visual studies as part of their doctoral dissertation. Alternatively, PhD students may and all other enrolled students will take an oral examination based on three research papers they have written within the context of their visual studies course work. The oral exam will be administered by faculty members affiliated with the Visual Studies Graduate Certificate. Faculty will be responsible for judging the adequacy of the visual studies component in the student's dissertation or oral examination. Students not enrolled in a PhD program will additionally be required to prepare a substantial paper (25 pages) with a deadline to be determined on enrollment in the certificate.

The Writing for Screen and Television Certificate is awarded for one year of study.

Applicants must be recognized writers outside of the field of screenwriting.

The course of study is no less than 16 units total, over two semesters. Writers, both U.S. and international, should appeal directly to the chair for admission in the fall semester.

Admission is granted to only one or two scholars a year, and is of the highest selectivity. Applicants must have earned an undergraduate degree with at least a 3.0 GPA. Additionally, candidates must show compelling reason for not applying to a formal degree program.

The general course of study is as follows:

The Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing for Screen and Television, is an intensive two-year degree program that concentrates on writing for narrative film and television. During the course of their studies, students benefit from a wide array of internship and mentorship opportunities available as a result of the university's close links to the Los Angeles film industry's top screenwriters, directors, production companies and studios.

Course work includes practical instruction in everything a working writer needs to learn about the filmmaker's art and craft. Writing is taught in small workshop-style classes. The approach focuses on the visual tools of storytelling, developing stories from characters and then on an Aristotelian three act structure. Fractured narratives, ensemble stories, experiments with time and points of view, as well as other idiosyncratic styles of storytelling, are also addressed. The curriculum covers other professional concerns, including legal issues, agents and the Writer's Guild, as well as the history and analysis of cinema and television. Classes are taught by working writers with a wide variety of skills, experience and approaches.

Each fall 32 students are selected to begin the Graduate Writing for Screen and Television Program; there are no spring admissions. Applicants must submit a supplemental application and materials to the Graduate Writing for Screen and Television Program. For specific instructions, contact the Cinematic Arts Office of Admission, University Park, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2211, (213) 740-8358 or online at cinema.usc.edu.

A total of 44 units is required. A minimum of 30 units must be 500-level or above.

The certificate in Youth Justice offers a unique opportunity for students, professionals and para-professionals to gain comprehensive training in addressing critical social issues related to community safety, with a particular emphasis on the well-being of culturally diverse, marginalized and vulnerable youth throughout their lifecycles, including systems-involved youth. The certificate offers a range of courses and educational experiences that foster an interdisciplinary approach to public safety, covering a spectrum of cultural, legal, historical and social aspects. We prioritize fostering collaboration among students, professionals, community members, youth, and other stakeholders, equipping graduates with the values, knowledge, skills, and relationships essential for frontline intervention, advocacy and the advancement of community safety.

The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work offers university certificates that provide students advanced practice or research training through a social justice and intercultural competence lens that emphasizes community, organizational and environmental justice. Certificates are designed to complement and deepen training provided through our degree programs by focusing on experiential application of concepts in relation to particular and diverse client populations, settings, and systems. Each certificate consists of at least 12 units, which may in part be satisfied by courses completed for a degree program. Certificates are also available to graduate students from other disciplines and to employed professionals.

The certificate in Youth Justice requires a minimum of 12 units.