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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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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Recap
Published April 15, 2023
Jo Guldi, “The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights”
Most nations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa experienced some form of “land reform” in the 20th century. But what is land reform? In her book, The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights, Professor Jo Guldi approaches the problem from the point of view of Britain’s disintegrating empire. She makes the case that land […]
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Recap
Published March 21, 2023
To Defend This Sunrise: Black Women’s Activism and the Authoritarian Turn in Nicaragua
Recorded on March 7, 2023, this Authors Meet Critics panel focused on "To Defend This Sunrise: Black Women’s Activism and the Authoritarian Turn in Nicaragua," by Courtney Desiree Morris, Assistant Professor and Vice Chair of Research in Gender and Women’s Studies at UC Berkeley. Morris was joined in conversation by Tianna Paschel, Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of African American Studies. The panel was moderated by Lok Siu, Chair of the Asian American Research Center and Professor of Ethnic Studies and Asian American/Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley.
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Recap
Published March 21, 2023
Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America
Watch a video (or listen to the podcast) of an Authors Meet Critics book panel focused on "Cooperating with the Colossus: A Social and Political History of US Military Bases in World War II Latin America," by Rebecca Herman, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Professor Herman was joined in conversation by Julio Moreno, Professor of History at the University of San Francisco, and José Juan Pérez Meléndez, Assistant Professor in Latin American and Caribbean History at UC Davis, and a Bridging the Divides Fellow at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies in Hunter College. Elena Schneider, Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of History, moderated.
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Interview
Published February 14, 2023
The Scandal of Access: An Interview with Zahra Hayat
Listen to an episode of the Matrix Podcast featuring Zahra Hayat, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, who obtained her PhD in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Matrix Content Curator Julia Sizek spoke with Hayat about her research on pharmaceutical access in the global South, particularly in Pakistan, and the regimes of price and property on which such access is contingent.
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Interview
Published August 31, 2022
A Changing Landscape for Farmers in India: An Interview with Aarti Sethi and Tanya Matthan
In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek spoke with two UC Berkeley scholars – Aarti Sethi and Tanya Matthan – who study agrarian life in India, where farmers have been forced to adapt to the rise of pesticides, genetically modified seeds, and other technologies.
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Interview
Published August 30, 2022
How Climate Change Became a Security Emergency: An Interview with Brittany Meché
How has climate change become an international security problem? In this interview, Brittany Meché, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Affiliated Faculty in Science and Technology Studies at Williams College, discusses her research on how expert explanations of climate migration rework the afterlives of empire in the West African Sahel.
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Recap
Published May 3, 2022
Engineering Vulnerability: In Pursuit of Climate Adaptation
Recorded on April 22, 2022, this “Author Meets Critics” panel focused on the book Engineering Vulnerability: In Pursuit of Climate Adaptation by Sarah Vaughn, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Professor Vaughn was joined in conversation by Stephen Collier, Professor of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley, and Sugata Ray, Associate Professor in the Departments of History of Art and South and Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley. The panel was moderated by Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and Director of the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative, or (SC)2. This event was co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Office of Sustainability.
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Recap
Published April 22, 2022
Catherine Hall: “Racial Capitalism: What’s In A Name?”
Racial capitalism has become a widely used term – but how should we define it and what specific forms does it take? Recorded on April 20, 2022, this talk by esteemed historian Catherine Hall focused on 18th-century Jamaica and the ways in which two separate sets of practices – racisms and capitalism – intersected to form a system embedded in both the metropolitan and the colonial states.
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Recap
Published March 8, 2022
Precolonial Legacies in Postcolonial Politics
Watch the video of our “Author Meets Critics” panel focused on the book, "Precolonial Legacies in Postcolonial Politics: Representation and Redistribution in Decentralized West Africa," by Martha Wilfahrt, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science. Recorded on March 7th, 2022, the panel included Scott Straus and Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, and was moderated by Leonardo Arriola.
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Recap
Published February 3, 2022
The King and the People: Sovereignty and Popular Politics in Mughal Delhi
On January 26, 2022, Social Science Matrix hosted an “Authors Meet Critics” panel discussion focused on the book, "The King and the People: Sovereignty and Popular Politics in Mughal Delhi" (Oxford University Press), by Abhishek Kaicker, Associate Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of History. Professor Kaicker was joined in conversation by Professors Asad Ahmed and Aarti Sethi. The panel was moderated by Professor Pradeep Chhibber.
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