Article
Interview
Published September 20, 2023
Untimely Sacrifices: An Interview with Daena Funahashi
In this interview, Nataliya Nedzhvetskaya, a Matrix Communications Scholar, spoke with Daena Funahashi, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology, about her new book, “Untimely Sacrifices: Work and Death in Finland,” based on her ethnographic work in Finnish rehabilitation programs for occupational burnout.
Learn More >Alumni
Interview
Published September 8, 2023
Gender and Political Gatekeepers: A Visual Interview with Melanie Phillips
How do we understand the barriers that women face in becoming political candidates? Read our interview with Melanie L. Phillips, who completed her PhD in the Charles and Louise Travers Political Science Department at Berkeley in 2023 and is currently a Lecturer in the Political Science Department and a Research and Evaluation Associate at School-to-School International.
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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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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.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published August 7, 2023
Listening to Rwandan Popular Music with Victoria Netanus Grubbs
This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Victoria Netanus Grubbs, a Black feminist sound theorist and abolitionist educator who is a Black Studies Collaboratory Postdoctoral Fellow at UC Berkeley. Her current book project examines how popular Rwandan music worked in the aftermath of genocide to produce a collective social body.
Learn More >Symposium
Recap
Published August 1, 2023
DEEPFAKE: A Rhetorical and Economic Alternative to Address the So-Called “Post-Truth Era”
Recorded on May 10, 2023 at Social Science Matrix, this symposium aimed to develop a critique of the current debates about Post-Truth and fakeness, and specifically of Big Tech’s effort to frame the political expression of the demos as it solidifies its control over the digital economy.
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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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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.
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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.
Learn More >Lecture
Recap
Published June 7, 2023
Consent and Legitimacy: A Revised Bellicose Theory of State-Building with Evidence from around the World, 1500–2000
Recorded on March 9, 2023, this video features Andreas Wimmer, Lieber Professor of Sociology and Political Philosophy at Columbia University, presenting a talk entitled "Consent and Legitimacy: A Revised Bellicose Theory of State-Building with Evidence from around the World, 1500–2000."
Learn More >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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Interview
Published May 17, 2023
Structural Determinants of Police Violence: Interview with Kimberly Cecilia Burke
For this episode of the Matrix Podcast, we spoke with Kimberly Cecilia Burke, a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC Berkeley, whose dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine how Black-White interracial couples understand and experience police violence in their relationships.
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