By Anna Mayor, College of Arts and Sciences
A distinguished panel of jurors selected Dr. Joshua Scacco, an associate professor of communication in the USF College of Arts and Sciences, for the 2025 Class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows, making him USF’s first faculty member to receive this recognition.
Scacco, who also serves as the founding director of the Center for Sustainable Democracy, was one of 26 scholars chosen from a pool of more than 300 nominees who will each receive $200,000 to support research aimed at understanding and addressing political polarization.
"The accomplishments of our faculty reinforce the University of South Florida’s unwavering commitment to research and scholarship,” said Prasant Mohapatra, USF provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. “As the first faculty member at USF to be a part of this prestigious program, Dr. Scacco’s accomplishment reflects the significant societal impact of this work and the high-caliber work of our faculty."
Scacco will study the dynamics of politically-polarized public health issues and how communities can mitigate polarization.
“Each of us has an obligation to put in the work every day to preserve and promote the possibilities of democracy,” Scacco said.
“One contemporary challenge is access to and availability of quality public health
information, a challenge that acutely affects some communities who may be intentionally
targeted with malicious content on some public health matters,” said Scacco. “Healthy
communities are necessary for democratic processes and culture to flourish. Understanding
how information quality challenges contribute to polarized public health attitudes
while working to mitigate them will be an important purpose of this fellowship and
the Center’s work.”
As part of the Andrew Carnegie Fellows program, Scacco will be able to advance the
work of the Center for Sustainable Democracy at USF, where he alongside university
faculty, students, and the Center’s community partners are committed to building a
broader democratic community.
“Each of us has an obligation to put in the work every day to preserve and promote
the possibilities of democracy,” Scacco said. “I am grateful for the opportunity afforded
by this fellowship to do my small part, and I hope that this moment will be the first
of many such opportunities like this earned by my faculty colleagues.”