UC Berkeley’s flagship institute for social science research

Our purpose is captured in our name: we provide an organizational framework—a “matrix”—that supports cross-disciplinary research pursued by social scientists across the University of California, Berkeley campus and beyond.

Authors Meet Critics

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Event Date: November 13th, 2024
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM PT

Authoritarian Absorption: The Transnational Remaking of Epidemic Politics in China

Please join us on November 13 at 12pm for an Authors Meet Critics panel on "Authoritarian Absorption: The Transnational Remaking of Epidemic Politics in China," by Yan Long, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology. Professor Long will be joined in conversation by Professors Matthew Kohrman and Rachel E. Stern. The panel will be moderated by Tom Gold.

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Lecture

Event

Event Date: November 19th, 2024
4:10pm

Edward Miguel: Do Cash Transfers Save Lives?

For the Berkeley Distinguished Faculty Lectures in the Social Sciences, Edward (Ted) Miguel, Distinguished Professor of Economics, will present findings from a development economics research project based on a large-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) in Kenya.

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Global Democracy Commons

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Event Date: November 21st, 2024
4:00 PM to 5:30 PM PT

Making Sense of the Elections of 2024

Almost two decades on from the financial crisis of 2007 that helped unleash a wave of authoritarian, populist, and nativist movements in democracies around the world, a panel of faculty will consider what new social and political forces have shaped the elections in 2024. What do those election results tell us about the health or fragility of global democracy, and how might we better understand the outcome of the American election as part of a broader global process?

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Authors Meet Critics

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Event Date: December 3rd, 2024
12:00pm-1:30pm PT

Authors Meet Critics: “Sin Padres, Ni Papeles,” by Stephanie Canizales

Register to join us on December 3 for an Authors Meet Critics panel on "Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States," by Stephanie Canizales, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and Faculty Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative. Professor Canizales will be joined in conversation by Kristina Lovato, Assistant Professor of Social Welfare, and Caitlin Patler, Associate Professor of Public Policy. Sarah Song, Professor at Berkeley Law, will moderate.

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Book Talk

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Event Date: December 5th, 2024
4:00pm-5:30pm

Marion Fourcade: The Ordinal Society

Register to join us on December 5 for a talk by Marion Fourcade, Professor of Sociology and Director of Social Science Matrix, celebrating the publication of her book, "The Ordinal Society," co-authored with Kieran Healy. This event is co-sponsored by the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI).

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Podcast

Interview

Published November 1, 2024

Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and the Fragile History of American Democracy

This Matrix Podcast episode features a conversation between James Vernon, Director of the Global Democracy Commons initiative, and Hank Reichman, Professor Emeritus at Cal State East Bay, and author of Understanding Academic Freedom.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published October 24, 2024

Authors Meet Critics: Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of our Authors Meet Critics panel on "Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex," by Juana María Rodríguez, Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Professor Rodriguez was joined in conversation by Clarissa Rojas and Courtney Desiree Morris, with Alberto Ledesma moderating.

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Podcast

Interview

Published September 27, 2024

Prisoner Labor Legacies: An interview with Elizabeth Hargrett and Xander Lenc

While recent news has highlighted how prisoners have fought wildfires, prison labor is not a new phenomenon. Although incarcerated people have built highways, dams, and buildings, their contributions to American infrastructure are often made invisible. Both Elizabeth Hargrett and Xander Lenc have studied how prisoner labor has shaped America’s infrastructure with a focus on North […]

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Interview

Published September 11, 2024

Agricultural Modernization in China: Interview with Ross Doll and Coleman Mahler 

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features Matrix Postdoctoral Fellow Julia Sizek interviewing Ross Doll and Coleman Mahler, two scholars from different disciplines whose work focuses on the modernization of China. Ross Doll is Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. He researches agrarian change in Asia drawing on political ecology, cultural […]

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Matrix News

Research Teams

Published August 5, 2024

Matrix Welcomes Seven Research Teams for 2024-2025

Social Science Matrix will welcome seven new Matrix Research Teams for the 2024-2025 academic year. This year’s funded teams — three faculty-led team and four graduate student-led teams — will address diverse social science topics, including industrial policy, computational social science, data mining and algorithms, and the language of biomedicine.

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Article

Interview

Published July 22, 2024

K-Beauty in War: A Visual Interview with Claire Chun

Read our interview with Claire Chun, a Ph.D. candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Ethnic Studies with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies, whose research explores how modern conceptualizations of “Korean” and “Asian” beauty, wellness, and aesthetics are shaped by overlapping forces of U.S. militarism, tourism, and humanitarianism.

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