Nearly $600,000 in Federal Funding Secured for USD’s VIP Lab

The University of San Diego (USD) and Rep. Sara Jacobs announced today that $580,000 in federal funding has been secured to help expand the work of the university’s Violence, Inequality, and Power Lab (VIP Lab) at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies.

The VIP Lab examines how different socio-political inequalities intersect, creating systemic issues that often facilitate violence and manipulate understandings of how to address it. This funding will help expand the VIP Lab’s work by launching a new fellowship program.

The VIP Lab fellowship has been uniquely designed to increase research on the relationship between inequalities and violence, which remains sorely underfunded. The program will recruit research fellows with specific backgrounds that make them experts in their field. Among them: a veteran, someone with a law enforcement background, and someone directly impacted by the criminal justice system. The inaugural class will consist of eight fellows from around the world who will research topics related to violence against women, violence in the community or political violence. At the end of the program, an annual report and conference will showcase the fellows’ findings. 

“Violence is in large part representative of power relationships that serve certain individuals or populations at the expense of others, often through systems of structural exclusion that create cycles of harm and disempowerment,” said Rachel Locke, Director of the VIP Lab. “Yet, while the centrality of power inequalities is increasingly known to drive violence, research on the topic is sparse.”

The VIP Lab was established in January 2022 to help reverse this trend, investing in learning and creative collaborations to shift harmful systems of power and reinforce systems of peace and justice. The Lab received some funding from USD’s Strategic Initiative program, which gives financial backing to USD faculty, staff, and students, to help them get innovative ideas off the ground. 

“The work being done through the VIP Lab allows us to move past the anecdotes and headlines,” USD President James Harris, DEd said. “To more fully and more accurately understand the scope and scale of urgent challenges, and to become a part of the change this world so desperately needs.”

Rep. Jacobs advocated for the program and helped secure the funding through Congress’ 2023 Omnibus Appropriations Bill. Jacobs is a former Scholar in Residence at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and knows first-hand the importance of the work being done at the school and the VIP Lab.

“Understanding the role inequality plays in perpetuating the cycle of violence is key to building a more peaceful, just, and equal society,” said Congresswoman Sara Jacobs. “That’s why I was so proud to secure $580,000 in federal funding for USD’s Violence, Inequality, and Power Lab Fellowship program – to support their cutting-edge analysis, shape the broader field of study, and invest in the next generation of research. This funding will help add much-needed data to the conversation on inequality driving violence and conflict here at home and around the world.”

You can learn more about the VIP Lab here, and the upcoming fellowship program here.

About the University of San Diego

Strengthened by the Catholic intellectual tradition, we confront humanity’s challenges by fostering peace, working for justice and leading with love. With more than 8,000 students from 75 countries and 44 states, USD is the youngest independent institution on the U.S. News & World Report list of top 100 universities in the United States. USD’s eight academic divisions include the College of Arts and Sciences, the Knauss School of Business, the Shiley-Marcos School of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Leadership and Education Sciences, the Hahn School of Nursing and Health Science, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, and the Division of Professional and Continuing Education. In 2021, USD was named a “Laudato Si’ University” by the Vatican with a seven-year commitment to address humanity’s urgent challenges by working together to take care of our common home.