Past Events

The online Berkeley Conversation, “Defending Against Disinformation,” will be held on Tuesday Sept. 21 from 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. The event will be streamed live on YouTube and on Facebook. “Defending Against Disinformation” features a panel of elite scholars who specialize in democracy, law, racial justice, communication and technology: Geeta Anand, dean of the School of Journalism; Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of Berkeley Law; Hany Farid, associate dean and head of the School of Information; Susan D. Hyde, chair of the Department of Political Science; and john powell, director of the Othering & Belonging Institute. The panel will be moderated by Henry Brady, former dean of the Goldman School of Public Policy.

Is secularism (laïcité) compatible with religious tolerance? Join us on September 13, 2021 as Professor Denis Lacorne, Senior Research Fellow at CERI (Centre d’Etudes et des Researches Internationales), Sciences Po, will explore the impact of secular regimes on religious tolerance, emphasizing religious symbols and the space granted to religious symbols in the public square.

Moderated by Democratic strategist Katie Merrill, this September 10 panel discussion will feature LA Times political reporter Seema Mehta, USC Distinguished Professor of Sociology Manuel Pastor, and IGS Poll Director Mark Di Camillo, along with results from an IGS Poll that surveyed over 8,000 California voters in the final weeks leading up to the election. 

In the upcoming virtual meeting of the UC Berkeley Center for Catastrophic Risk Management (CCRM), Paul Schulman and Emery Roe propose to review and analyze not only the practical medical and public health challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also the challenges the pandemic poses to our understanding of basic concepts applied to public organizations, their administration and management.

Join us on April 22 for a "Matrix on Point" discussion, as a group of distinguished panelists will approach questions of objectivity, disinformation, and the construction of truth from a media-consumption (rather than media-production) perspective, focusing on how internet users find information, how algorithms play a deterministic role in search results, and how lies propagate and solidify.

Join us for a panel discussion on how President Joe Biden has fared during the first 100 days of his term. Panelists will include: Mark Z. Barabak, Vanessa Tyson, Terry Bimes, and George Breslauer.

Please join us on April 19, 2021 for an "Authors Meet Critics" book talk featuring "Redistributing the Poor: Jails, Hospitals, and the Crisis of Law and Fiscal Austerity," by Armando Lara-Millán, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology.

On April 12th, Eric K. Ward, a leading expert on the relationship between racism, antisemitism, and authoritarian movements; and Michael Rothberg, an eminent scholar of historical exclusion and its legacies, will tackle important questions in contemporary Black-Jewish relations.

Presented by the Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research, this panel discussion will feature: Daron Shaw, Distinguished Teaching Professor and Frank C. Erwin J. Chair of State Politics, University of Texas, Austin; Mike Madrid, Founder of Madrid and Associates, former political Director of California Republican Party, co-founder of the Lincoln Project, leading expert on Latino voting; Kristin Olsen, Partner, California Strategies, former Vice Chair of California Republican Party, Minority Leader California State Assembly 2014-2016; John Thomas, President, Thomas Partners Strategies, Chief Strategist for Republican candidates at all levels, Campaign and Elections Journal Rising Star Award winner; Dan Schnur (Chair), Lecturer in Political Science, UC Berkeley and University of Southern California. 

This spring, the Berkeley Cannabis Research Center  will host monthly webinars focused on the intersection of cannabis policy, cannabis producing communities and the environment. Please join us on the last Wednesday of every month from 12PM - 1PM (PST). On Wednesday, February 24th, the panel will focus on "Development of Best Management Practices for Cannabis," moderated by Phoebe Parker-Shames (UC Berkeley ESPM).