Methods

CRELS

Recap

Published April 23, 2025

Consequential Sentences: Computational Analyses of California Parole Hearing Transcripts

Recorded on April 1, 2025, this video features a talk by AJ Alvero, a computational sociologist at Cornell University, presenting findings from an analysis of parole hearing transcripts in California. This talk is part of a symposium series presented by the UC Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Training Program (CRELS), which […]

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CRELS

Recap

Published April 23, 2025

Alex Roehrkasse: The New Contours of Mass Incarceration

Recorded on March 18, 2025, this video features a talk by Alexander F. Roehrkasse, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Butler University. In the talk, Roehrkasse presents new evidence of declining Black–White inequality and skyrocketing educational inequality in U.S. prison admissions.

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New Directions

Recap

Published February 19, 2025

New Directions in the Study of Fringe Politics

Fringe politics today is highly diverse and dynamic, reflecting the rapid social, technological, and economic changes of the 21st century. While the term “fringe” suggests ideas or movements outside the political mainstream, many fringe ideologies have increasingly influenced, or even reshaped, national and global political landscapes. Recorded on February 4, 2025, this panel brought together a group of UC Berkeley graduate students from the fields of geography, anthropology, and sociology for a discussion on politics on the fringe through the lens of such topics as QAnon, religious studies, and California secessionism.

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Podcast

Interview

Published December 16, 2024

Gendered Violence in Insurgencies: Interview with Tara Chandra

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Tara Chandra, a consultant and independent researcher who received a PhD in Political Science with a Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from UC Berkeley. The interview focused on Chandra's work on gendered violence in insurgencies and counterinsurgencies.

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New Directions

Recap

Published December 16, 2024

New Directions in the Study of Labor

In this panel, an interdisciplinary group of UC Berkeley graduate students explored the evolving dynamics of work, management, and labor organization. The panel featured presentations by William Darwell (Jurisprudence and Social Policy), Kristy Kim (Economics), and Vera Parra (Sociology). Moderated by John Logan, Visiting Scholar at the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published December 12, 2024

Authoritarian Absorption: The Transnational Remaking of Epidemic Politics in China

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of or our Authors Meet Critics panel featuring "Authoritarian Absorption: The Transnational Remaking of Epidemic Politics in China," by Yan Long, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology. Professor Long was joined in conversation by Matthew Kohrman and Rachel E. Stern, with Tom Gold moderating.

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Podcast

Interview

Published December 4, 2024

Emotion, Race, and Gender: Interview with Gold Okafor

Listen to our interview with Gold Okafor, a PhD candidate in social and personality psychology at UC Berkeley who investigates racial and gender disparities through emotion. The interview focuses on Okafor's paper, "Measuring Mindfulness in Black Americans: A Psychometric Validation of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire," as well as other research topics.

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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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Alumni

Interview

Published June 25, 2024

Anti-Mining Politics in Colombia: A Visual Interview with Ángela Castillo

What can the battle around a new mine in Colombia tell us about the past and future of environmentalist organizing in Latin America? Matrix Postdoc Julia Sizek interviewed Ángela Castillo, who is a recent PhD graduate from UC Berkeley’s Anthropology Department and is now Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Pitzer College.

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Podcast

Interview

Published May 31, 2024

The Emotions of Dyadic Relationships: An Interview with Jenna Wells and Felicia Zerwas

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Jenna Wells and Felicia Zerwas, who at the time of the interview were Ph.D. candidates in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology. The interview was conducted by Julia Sizek, Matrix Postdoctoral Fellow.

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New Directions

Recap

Published April 14, 2024

New Directions in Greening Infrastructure

Recorded on March 20, 2024, this panel features three early-career scholars from UC Berkeley presenting their research on the greening infrastructure and the green energy transition. The panel included Johnathan Guy, PhD Candidate in Political Science; Caylee Hong, a PhD candidate in Anthropology, and Andrew Jaeger, PhD Candidate in Sociology. The panel was moderated by Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. Co-Sponsored by the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative, the Berkeley Climate Change Network, and the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative.

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Recap

Published April 2, 2024

Understanding AI: Humanities x Social Sciences x Technology

While advances in the performance of AI models have seen enormous successes, a profound understanding of how learning happens inside the models remains to be thoroughly explored. On March 6, 2024, Social Science Matrix hosted a symposium focused on understanding and interpreting AI, an important new frontier in AI research. Speakers identified immediate challenges in AI interpretability and explored how the humanities, social sciences, and the tech world can join forces in this highly consequential research.

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