Past Events

This seminar will feature Chris Hoofnagle, Professor of Law in Residence at UC Berkeley and Faculty Director of the Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity, discussing the book, "Law and Policy for the Quantum Age" (Cambridge University Press, 2022), co-authored by Simson Garfinkel, Senior Data Scientist in the Office of the Chief Information Officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The book explains the genesis of quantum information science and the development of related technologies: quantum sensing, computing, and communication. It also uses scenario analysis to consider four futures for quantum technologies. It then considers how policymakers might anticipate the benefits and risks of quantum technologies.

This conversation considers the groundbreaking work of University of Hong Kong political philosopher Ci Jiwei, author of "Democracy in China: The Coming Crisis (2019)." Panelists include journalist and author John Pomfret, who formerly served as Beijing bureau chief for the Washington Post, and Yin Shoufu, a faculty member in the Department of History at the University of British Columbia.

Join us on March 2, 2022 for a panel discussion on "Cryptography and the Future of Money," featuring Markus K. Brunnermeier, Edwards S. Sanford Professor in the Economics Department at Princeton University and director of Princeton's Bendheim Center for Finance; Stefan Eich, Assistant Professor of Government at Georgetown University; and Christine Parlour, the Sylvan C. Coleman Chair of Finance and Accounting at Berkeley Haas. The panel will be moderated by Barry Eichengreen, the George C. Pardee and Helen N. Pardee Chair and Distinguished Professor of Economics and Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley.

The Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies at UC Berkeley is convening a panel discussion on recent events in Ukraine, with Professor Steven Fish (Political Science, UC Berkeley), Professor Yuriy Gorodnichenko (Economics, UC Berkeley), and Dr. Edward Walker (ISEEES, UC Berkeley). Each speaker will deliver remarks on the current situation in Ukraine, which will be followed by a moderated Q&A session. Register to attend online.

Join us on February 24 for a Matrix Distinguished Lecture by William Davies, Professor of Political Economy at Goldsmiths, University of London. Drawing on his recent books, "Nervous States: Democracy and the Decline of Reason" and "This Is Not Normal: The Collapse of Liberal Britain," Davies identifies pivotal ways in which liberal visions of the public sphere have been damaged, and what kinds of alternatives take their place.

Please join us (in-person or online) on February 3rd, 2022 from 12-1:30pm PST for an "Author Meets Critics" panel discussion focused on the book, "Bankers in the Ivory Tower: The Troubling Rise of Financiers in US Higher Education," by Charlie Eaton, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Merced. Professor Eaton will be joined by Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Equitable Growth at UC Berkeley, and Jonathan Glater, Professor of Law at the UC Berkeley School of Law. Moderated by Jennifer Johnson-Hanks, Executive Dean of UC Berkeley’s College of Letters & Science. Co-sponsored by the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE). Register to attend.

Please join us on January 26, 2022 from 12-1:30pm for an online "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 will be joined in conversation by Asad Ahmed, Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley; and Aarti Sethi, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology.

Presented as part of Berkeley Psychology's 100 Year Celebration, this talk will feature Professor Jack Gallant, whose computational neuroimaging laboratory has developed novel algorithms and software for creating high-dimensional, high-resolution functional brain maps in individual people, revealing how the brain represents information during daily life. In this talk, Professor Gallant will summarize this technology and its potential applications in the areas of development, learning, aging and for diagnosis and monitoring of mental disorders.

This Matrix on Point panel will focus on today's remarkable political moment, marked both by a new kind of women's activism (centered on #MeToo and related movements) and by the rise of a misogynistic far-right. Panelists will explore the role that digital mediations, from social media to video games, play in this cultural complex. Featuring Sarah Sobieraj, Professor and Chair of the Department of Sociology at Tufts University; CJ Pascoe, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon; Julia Ebner, radicalisation researcher and bestselling writer; and Kishonna L. Gray, Associate Professor in the Writing, Rhetoric, Digital Studies program at the University of Kentucky. Moderated by Raka Ray, Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at UC Berkeley.

The UC Berkeley Department Department cordially invites you to attend the launch event in celebration of its 100th anniversary. This event will feature “lightning talks” – short form-presentations – from four distinguished members of the faculty, showcasing the exciting research being conducted in this top-ranked department. In addition to illustrating the cutting-edge science of Berkeley Psychology, the program will also make clear the relevance of the department's work to addressing some of the most pressing issues confronting us today. 

Join us on December 3, 12pm PST for an "Authors Meet Critics" discussion focused on "The Banks Did It: An Anatomy of the Financial Crisis," by Neil Fligstein, Class of 1939 Chancellor's Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology. Professor Fligstein will be joined in conversation by Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University and author of "Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World." Register in advance to attend this online event.

The increasing number of extreme flood events makes it necessary to shift our current management approaches, which are largely based on past flooding frequencies that may no longer hold true. But how do different countries include climate change in flood risk assessment, mapping, and management? In this webinar we will discuss this topic with experts from the EU and the U.S. by looking at examples from two EU member states, Sweden and Spain, and the State of California and the City of Miami in the United States.