Matrix Lecture
Recap
Published December 16, 2025
Alexis Madrigal: “To Know A Place”
Recorded on December 4, 2025, this video features a Social Science Matrix Distinguished Lecture, “To Know a Place,” presented by journalist and author Alexis Madrigal. In this talk, Madrigal turns his attention to the question of how we come to know a place. Drawing on his background as a reporter, writer, and thinker of cities, landscapes, and histories, he explores different ways of writing about and understanding place, revealing how perspective, memory, and narrative inform the stories we tell about the world around us.
Learn More >Matrix Teach-In
Recap
Published December 16, 2025
Seth Lunine: “Promise & Precarity: Exploring Oakland Through Community Engaged Scholarship”
Recorded on November 17, 2025, this video features a lecture by Seth Lunine, Lecturer in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, who presented a talk reflecting on his experiences with collaborative scholarship between UC Berkeley undergraduates and community-based organizations in Oakland’s Fruitvale District.
Learn More >Matrix On Point
Recap
Published November 17, 2025
Matrix on Point: Spaces for Thriving
Physical spaces profoundly influence community well-being. Recorded on November 3, 2025, this panel brought together experts to explore how thoughtful planning and strategic policy can shift power toward communities, creating conditions where all can thrive. The discussion bridged diverse perspectives on environmental conservation, design psychology, and disability studies to illuminate steps toward more just and inclusive environments.
Learn More >Matrix On Point
Recap
Published March 12, 2025
Los Angeles Wildfires: Risk, Resilience, and Collective Action
Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of this Matrix on Point panel focused on the management of wildfires in urban areas, recorded in the weeks following the devastating fires in Los Angeles. The panel featured Christopher Ansell, Kenichi Soga, and Marta Gonzalez, and was moderated by Louise Comfort.
Learn More >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 […]
Learn More >California Spotlight
Recap
Published November 13, 2023
California Spotlight: From Boom to Doom in San Francisco
Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of our California Spotlight panel focused on the current state of commercial real estate in San Francisco — and what lies ahead. Panelists included Nicholas Bloom, from Stanford University; Ted Egan, Chief Economist of the City and County of San Francisco; and Nancy Wallace, from Berkeley Haas. Amir Kermani, from Haas School of Business and the National Bureau of Economic Research, moderated.
Learn More >Article
Interview
Published November 8, 2023
Mapping the Los Angeles Ethnoburbs: An Interview with Margaret Crawford
In this interview, Aidan Lee, a PhD student in the UC Berkeley Department of History and a 2022-2023 Matrix Communications Scholar, interviewed Margaret Crawford (shown above), Director of Urban Design, Professor of Architecture and Urban Design in the UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design, about her research on California's “ethnoburbs,” and why they are now permanent features of America’s built landscape.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published July 27, 2023
The Binational Politics of Return Migrant Activism: Interview with Caroline Tracey
Listen to (or read) an interview with Caroline Tracey, a PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, whose research uses ethnographic, archival, and literary methods to study the American Southwest, Mexico, and the US-Mexico border. Tracey argues that women and trans deportees and returnees play an important role in community-building and activism in Mexico that has improved emplacement for all return migrants.
Learn More >Affiliated Centers
Recap
Published April 28, 2023
Reshaping City Politics? Asian Voters’ Demands for Change in San Francisco and Vancouver
In 2022, Asian voters shocked the political establishment in San Francisco and Vancouver. Presented by UC Berkeley's Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research, this panel featured insiders from both cities, including Ken Sim’s campaign manager, a leader from Vancouver’s Canadian-Chinese community, a leader in the San Francisco school board recall campaign who was appointed to the school board herself, and scholar Neil Malhotra.
Learn More >Panel
Recap
Published May 24, 2022
Floods and Equity: A Panel Discussion
Floods are the most destructive natural hazard, both at the national and international scale, and they disproportionately affect people of color and the poor. In this presentation, recorded on May 12, 2022, panelists Danielle Zoe Rivera and Jessica Ludy drew upon their research to discuss pathways to improving on the current situation.
Learn More >Matrix Research Team
Recap
Published May 3, 2022
Digital Transformations in Global Land, Housing, and Property
Recorded on April 27, 2022, this panel discussion brought together members of the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix Research Team on Digital Transformations in Property and Development to discuss how state, corporations, and grassroots actors are employing digital technologies to remake global land, housing, and property.
Learn More >California Spotlight
Recap
Published April 12, 2022
The Social and Economic Impacts of Wildfires
Recorded on April 4, 2022, this panel focused on the contemporary social and economic impacts of wildfires in California during another record-breaking fire season. How have fires changed during the last five years, and with what impacts on the economy? How might policy-makers and economists respond to the changing fire season? The panel was co-sponsored by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) and presented as part of the Social Science Matrix California Spotlight series.
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