Faculty

Assal Habibi is Associate Professor of Psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences and an Associate Research Professor at the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California. Her research examines how biological dispositions and learning experiences shape the development of cognitive, emotional and social abilities, with a focus on the role of music and the arts in health and development across the lifespan. Habibi’s work uses electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods and longitudinal and cross-sectional research designs to study how music training influences brain function, learning and academic achievement.

She has received support from federal agencies and private foundations, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Endowment for the Arts and the GRoW @ Annenberg Foundation. Habibi’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including Cerebral Cortex, NeuroImage and Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. She leads a multi-year longitudinal study in collaboration with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, investigating how early music training affects brain development and socio-emotional growth.

Habibi’s interdisciplinary work includes collaborations with USC Thornton faculty member Beatrice Ilari on the role of music education in child development. She is a classically trained pianist with extensive experience teaching music to children.