Past Events

Less than a month before Brazil's most important elections since the end of the military dictatorship in 1985, Berkeley Geography and Social Science Matrix are hosting the filmmaker Madiano Marcheti, whose first feature-length movie, Madalena, shows a Brazil rarely seen on film. Set in the agroindustrial interior of Mato Grosso do Sul, the film offers a profound reflection on the imbrications of political power, race, masculinity, agroindustry, and anti-LGBTQI violence in contemporary Brazilian society.

Join us on Friday, September 9, from 1-2:30pm PDT for an “Authors Meet Critics” discussion focused on "The Government of Emergency: Vital Systems, Expertise, and the Politics of Security," by Stephen Collier and Andrew Lakoff. The authors will be joined in conversation by Michael Watts and Cathryn Carson, and Aihwa Ong will moderate.

Join us on September 1st for a talk with Bradford DeLong, Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, focused on his recent book, "Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century." DeLong will be joined in conversation by Robert Brenner, Director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA. Moderated by Steven Vogel, Professor of Political Economy and Co-Director of the Network for a New Political Economy (N2PE). This event is co-sponsored with N2PE.

This course covers the mechanics underlying machine learning methods and discusses how these techniques can be leveraged by social scientists to gain new insight from their data. Specifically, the course will cover: decision trees, random forests, boosting, k-means clustering and nearest neighbors, support vector machines, kernels, neural networks, and ensemble learning. We will also discuss best practices concerning tuning, error estimation, and model interpretability.

Floods are the most destructive natural hazard, both at the national and international scale, and they disproportionately affect people of color and the poor. To understand this uneven exposure to floods requires that we understand the history of land use and institutional structures that have resulted in current exposure and inequitable allocation of resources for flood protection and for post-disaster aid (‘procedural vulnerability’). In this presentation, panelists Danielle Zoe Rivera (UC Berkeley) and Jessica Ludy (US Army Corps) will draw upon their research on these topics and discuss pathways to improving on the current situation. 

As we approach the grim milestone of one million deaths in the United States, taking stock of the personal and collective consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic becomes an urgent task for social scientists worldwide. This Matrix on Point panel will examine the physical, material and psychological toll of the past two years of rampant disease, on and off social distancing and shifting economic ground. It will analyze the unequal distribution of the pandemic's burden across the population, discuss the long-term scarring that may ensue, and contemplate the (possibly more uplifting) lessons to be drawn for the future.

Join us on May 5 for a "Matrix on Point" panel on organizing, power, and collective action, featuring Arisha Hatch, Vice President and Chief of Campaigns at Color Of Change; Professors Liz McKenna and Hahrie Han, from Johns Hopkins University; Professor Michelle Oyakawa, from Muskingum University; Professor Margaret Levi, Director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford University; and Professor Marshall Ganz, the Rita E. Hauser Senior Lecturer in Leadership, Organizing and Civil Society at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Register to attend this in-person lecture by John Sides, William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair and Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University, focused on his new co-authored book, "The Bitter End: The 2020 Presidential Campaign and the Challenge to American Democracy."

We are delighted to announce that the UC Berkeley Social Sciences Fest and Matrix Open House will be held in-person again this year! The Social Sciences Fest is an occasion to celebrate the UC Berkeley Division of Social Sciences, welcome new faculty members, and honor this year’s distinguished teaching and service award recipients. Please come, celebrate each other, learn about what’s new at Social Science Matrix, and participate in the amazing community that is Berkeley Social Science!

As part of an ongoing series of events celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley, this online event will showcase three faculty members and their research: Professors Robert Knight, Sheri Johnson, and Jason Okonofua. The cutting-edge research of each of these faculty and their students uniquely illustrates how psychological science can contribute to solving a broad range of big problems at both the individual and societal levels. Register to attend.

Register to attend this online panel discussion, which brings together members of the 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.

In this lecture, Dr. Nina Ansary, an award-winning Iranian American author, historian and UN Women Global Champion for Innovation, will speak about the unknown history of women's activism in Iran, particularly peace activism, challenging the stereotype in the West of Iranian women as powerless and oppressed after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. She will discuss particular cases and overall trends that will make us think differently about both the challenges women have faced in Iran and about the courageous women who distinguished themselves across many fields and expanded the possibilities for women everywhere. UC Berkeley's Dr. Minoo Moallem will respond, and Christine Philliou wil moderate.