Generations

Article

Interview

Published August 21, 2023

Language Revitalization in Oakland: A Visual Interview with Tessa Scott

Mam, a Mayan language spoken both in the highlands of Guatemala as well as in diaspora communities in Mexico and the US, is rapidly becoming one of the most widely spoken Indigenous languages in the San Francisco East Bay region. Mam-speaking migrants are part of a broader trend of Central American migrants in the United […]

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Alumni Interview

Interview

Published August 14, 2023

How Medical Expertise Shapes Gender-Affirming Health Care: An Interview with Tara Gonsalves

Read an interview with Tara Gonsalves, a recent PhD graduate of UC Berkeley and Assistant Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University, about the challenges of the categories of sex, gender, and transgender, and how these categories are used in gender-affirming health care in the United States today.

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Article

Interview

Published August 1, 2023

Advancing Computational Psychology: A Visual Interview with Bill Thompson

Read an interview with UC Berkeley cognitive scientist Bill Thompson, who uses computational methods and large-scale experiments to understand problems like knowledge transmission, the universality of language categories, and the social aspects of human problem-solving.

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Symposium

Recap

Published July 27, 2023

Jews and Other Groups Who Resisted the Nazis: Means, Motivations, and Limitations

Recorded on April 28, 2023, this video features talks and panels from an interdisciplinary, comparative symposium exploring what remains an under-examined topic in the history of World War II and the Holocaust: the multivarious paths through which ordinary men and women resisted the Nazis.

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Roundtable

Recap

Published June 13, 2023

Roundtable with Orlando Patterson: The Nature and Invention of Freedom

Recorded on May 2, 2023, this video features a roundtable conversation with Orlando Patterson focused on "The Paradox of Freedom," an interview with Patterson by David Scott conducted in 2013. Joining Patterson in conversation for this Social Science Matrix Roundtable were Ricarda Hammer, incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, and Daniela Cammack, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. The discussion was moderated by Caitlin Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley.

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Matrix Lecture

Recap

Published June 6, 2023

Slavery and Genocide: The U.S., Jamaica, and the Historical Sociology of Evil

 On May 1, 2023, Social Science Matrix was honored to present a Matrix Distinguished Lecture by Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Professor Patterson’s lecture was entitled “Slavery and Genocide: The U.S, Jamaica and the Historical Sociology of Evil.” The event was co-sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, […]

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Book Talk

Recap

Published April 17, 2023

The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy

Recorded on March 23, 2023, this talk featured Phil Gorski, Frederick and Laura Goff Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Yale University, discussing his new book (co-authored with Samuel Perry), The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy. The respondent was David Hollinger, Preston Hotchkis Professor Emeritus of History at UC Berkeley. Carolyn Chen, Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion and Professor of Ethnic Studies, moderated.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published March 21, 2023

Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America

Watch a video (or listen to the podcast) of an Authors Meet Critics book panel focused on "Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America," by Rebecca Herman, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Professor Herman was joined in conversation by Julio Moreno, Professor of History at the University of San Francisco, and José Juan Pérez Meléndez, Assistant Professor in Latin American and Caribbean History at UC Davis, and a Bridging the Divides Fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in Hunter College. Elena Schneider, Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of History, moderated.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published December 1, 2022

Authors Meet Critics: How the Clinic Made Gender

Watch a video (or listen to a podcast) of our recent “Authors Meet Critics” panel on "How the Clinic Made Gender: The Medical History of a Transformative Idea," by Sandra Eder, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Eder was joined in conversation by Laura Nelson, Danya Lagos, and Catherine Ceniza Choy.

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Podcast

Interview

Published October 11, 2022

Reconsidering the Achievement Gap: An Interview with Monica Ellwood-Lowe

For this episode of the Matrix podcast, Matrix Content Curator Julia Sizek spoke with Monica Ellwood-Lowe, a PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology, about her research on children’s cognitive performance, and how we might think about removing barriers to children’s success. 

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Article

Podcast

Published September 30, 2022

The Rise of Mass Incarceration: An Interview with Chris Muller and Alex Roehrkasse

On this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek spoke with two UC Berkeley scholars whose work focuses on explaining how mass incarceration has changed over the last 30 years. Alex Roehrkasse is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Butler University. He studies the production of racial, class, and gender inequality in the […]

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Podcast

Interview

Published September 12, 2022

Economic Benefits of Higher Education: Zach Bleemer and Maximilian Müller

Why do people choose to go to college (or not)? What impact do race-based or financial aid policies have on higher education and the broader economy? In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek spoke with two UC Berkeley-trained economists whose research focuses on the economic impacts of higher education. Maximilian Müller completed his PhD […]

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