California Spotlight
Interview
Published August 11, 2021
Kate Pennington on Gentrification and Displacement in San Francisco
What impact does new housing have on rents, displacement, and gentrification in the surrounding neighborhood? Read our interview with economist Kate Pennington about her article, "Does Building New Housing Cause Displacement?:The Supply and Demand Effects of Construction in San Francisco.”
Learn More >Race
Interview
Published June 9, 2021
A Q&A with Social Psychologist Jack Glaser on Racial Bias and Policing
Jack Glaser, Professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy, is a social psychologist whose primary research interest is in stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. He investigates the implications of racial profiling and other forms of bias in law enforcement. We spoke with Professor Glaser for his insights on bias in policing in the wake of the past year's protests for racial justice and police reform.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published March 30, 2021
Matrix Podcast: Interview with Brittany Birberick
In this episode, Professor Michael Watts interviews Brittany Birberick, an anthropology PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley — and a former Matrix Dissertation Fellow. Birberick's dissertation project focuses on urban transformation in Johannesburg, South Africa. More broadly, she writes and thinks about economies, migration, temporality, and aesthetics within an urban context.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published February 13, 2021
Matrix Podcast: Interview with Clancy Wilmott
In this episode, Professor Michael Watts interviews Clancy Wilmott, Assistant Professor in Critical Cartography, Geovisualisation, and Design in the Berkeley Centre for New Media and the Department of Geography. Professor Wilmott comes to UC Berkeley from the Department of Geography at the University of Manchester, where she received her PhD in Human Geography with a multi-site study on the interaction between mobile phone maps, cartographic discourse, and postcolonial landscapes.
Learn More >Authors Meet Critics
Recap
Published October 16, 2020
Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City
On October 7, 2020, Dr. Brandi Thompson Summers, Assistant Professor of Geography and Global Metropolitan Studies at UC Berkeley, discussed her book Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City.
Learn More >Matrix On Point
Recap
Published October 13, 2020
Matrix on Point: The Struggle for Hong Kong
On October 1, 2021, Social Science Matrix hosted a "Matrix on Point," co-sponsored by the Center for Chinese Studies, that considered both the history and future of Hong Kong’s democracy movement. Panelists included Ching Kwan Lee, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles; Alex Chow, a doctoral student in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography; and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Chancellor's Professor of History at UC Irvine. Thomas Gold, Professor in the Graduate School at UC Berkeley, moderated the panel.
Learn More >Matrix On Point
Recap
Published September 28, 2020
Homelessness and the Bay Area Housing Crisis
On September 21, 2020, a panel of researchers, advocates, and medical practitioners joined a "Matrix on Point" discussion focused on homelessness and the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing crisis.
Learn More >Interview
Article and News
Published July 29, 2020
Q&A: Dan Lindheim on Police and the Community
An interview with the former Oakland City Administrator — and member of a new Matrix Research Team on police and the community.
Learn More >Cities
Article
Published April 8, 2020
Gangs, Labor Mobility, and Development
A Q&A with Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science, on his research showing the staggering economic toll of living within gang-controlled territory.
Learn More >Matrix Lecture
Recap
Published January 28, 2020
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor: Race for Profit
In a Matrix Distinguished Lecture, Princeton professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor explained how banks and the real estate industry have undermined black homeownership.
Learn More >Cities
Article
Published May 22, 2018
Urban Planning in China’s “Ecological Civilization”
Jesse Rodenbiker, a Ph.D. student in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, studies the process of ecological planning in China's growing urban areas.
Learn More >Inequality
Article
Published May 2, 2017
Bikes and the Changing City
UC Berkeley Geography Lecturer John G. Stehlin reflects on using the bicycle as a lens to understand gentrification and local inequities.
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