Past Events

Register to join us on April 25 for an online panel discussion with Ilya Budraitskis, Artemy Magun, Ilya Matveev, and Oxana Timofeeva, who are among the foremost philosophers and political theorists from the ranks of the Russian opposition to the war in Ukraine. When the war and the new repression began, they had to flee their country to avoid arrest and persecution. Their distinctive perspectives, not often heard either on the right or the left in the West, will shed a unique light on these urgent topics. The webinar will be moderated by Dylan Riley, Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, and Alexei Yurchak, Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.

Please join us on Friday, April 22 from 12pm-1:30pm PST for an "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 will be 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.

Racial capitalism has become a widely used term. But how should we define it, and what specific forms does it take? This talk by Catherine Hall — Emerita Professor of History and Chair of the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery at University College London — will focus on C18 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.

Presented by the Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research, this in-person panel will feature Amanda Iovino, Vice President, Polling Director, WPA Intelligence, Youngkin for Governor; Anaís López, Senior Analyst, BSP Research; David Shor, Head of Data Science, Blue Rose Research; and Mike Madrid, Principal, GrassrootsLab.

Is the public university as a growth machine a contradiction or an opportunity as the university aims to fulfill its public mission? The Berkeley Faculty Association brings two leading figures in the public conversation on the public university to unpack its public mission, including its relationship to surrounding cities, the environment, Black and Latinx workers and students, and the conditions of teaching and learning.

Through studying forms of cashless payment, such as mobile money and apps, this panel of scholars — including Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; Lana Swartz, Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia; and Kevin Donovan, Lecturer in the Centre of African Studies at the University of Edinburgh — will ask questions about how the social connections made through money are changing, and what the implications might be for our understanding of money, trust, and social connection.

Wildfires have grown dramatically over the last five years, both as a result of a century of fire suppression as well as contemporary climate change, which makes fires hotter and more destructive. Join us on April 4, 2022 for a panel discussion focused on the contemporary social and economic impacts of wildfires in California during another record-breaking fire season. Register in advance to attend.

On March 31, the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative will present a talk with Ms. Tsui Yee, a leading immigration lawyer, Dr. Gunisha Kaur, anesthesiologist and human rights researcher, and Ms. Leah Spelman, Executive Director at the Partnerships for Trauma Recovery. Moderated by Prof. Khatharya Um of Ethnic Studies, the panel will assess the extent of this trauma and how it manifests itself in the lives of migrants as they navigate their new realities. The talk will spotlight the need to study, research, and alleviate trauma in a social, economic, political, and legal framework.

This conversation considers the question: which civilizations gave rise to the notion of a shared humanity, and why? As panelist Siep Stuurman writes in his book The Invention of Humanity, "common humanity and equality are not primeval facts" that simply awaited discovery by people in one specific time and place. Instead, such ideas were "novel and potentially disruptive ways" of perceiving a broad range of human relationships.

In this Matrix on Point event, a panel of UC Berkeley scholars will discuss the Ukraine-Russia War conflict and its implications. Panelists include Yuriy Gorodnichenko, Quantedge Presidential Professor in the Department of Economics; Gérard Roland, the E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science; John Connelly, the Sidney Hellman Ehrman Professor in the Department of History; and Katerina Linos, the Irving G. and Eleanor D. Tragen Professor of Law. Daniel Sargent Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley, will moderate.

What role do new and emerging forms of media play in shaping our perceptions of China’s complex contemporary reality? This panel will explore how the formats, origins, and conventions specific to various media platforms affect public opinion about China, both within and outside the Sinosphere. They also offer cautionary tales about the facile analyses, attention-grabbing stories, and truncated sound bites and posts that drive today's media.

Please join us on Monday, March 7th from 12pm-1:30pm PST for an "Author Meets Critics" panel discussion 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. Professor Wilfahrt will be joined by Scott Strauss, Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley, and Alberto Díaz-Cayeros, Professor of Political Science and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, at Stanford University. Leonardo Arriola will moderate.