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). REGISTER.

Following the police murder of George Floyd, there have been calls to “Abolish, Defund, and Reform” the police. Elected officials around the country have called for 50% reductions in the police budgets that account for much of local government spending. At the same time, there is little agreement on the meaning of what could or should be defunded or what can be reformed; in many cases, the very language of this movement has impeded the necessary public debate about the appropriate role of police and policing in our society. Presented as part of the "Reimagining Democracy" series, this panel will bring together experienced police, elected officials and faculty experts at UC Berkeley to address these critical, and timely, issues. This event is sponsored by the Social Science Matrix and the Goldman School of Public Policy and is part of the Reimagining Democracy Town Hall Series. REGISTER

It feels like a precursor to a bad joke: What do foreign agents, white supremacists, conspiracists, snake oil salesmen, political operatives, white academics, and a disgruntled bunch of zoomers have in common? The groups have collided in a centrifuge of chaos online, where the tactics they use to hide their identities and manipulate audiences are more prevalent than ever. Social media companies are trying to patch the holes in a failing sociotechnical systems, where the problems their products have created are now shouldered by journalists, universities, and health professionals, just to name a few. What can be done to restore moral and technical order in a time of pandemonium? Join us for a lecture by Dr. Joan Donovan, Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. REGISTER HERE.

In his new book, Bloc by Bloc: How to Build a Global Enterprise for the New Regional Order, Steven Weber, a political scientist and professor in the UC Berkeley School of Information, puts forward a compelling new model for global organization that integrates modern developments in technology and governance. He will discuss the book with Vinod K. Aggarwal, Professor of Political Science, and Homa Bahrami, Senior Lecturer in the Haas School of Business. REGISTER HERE

Please join us on February 3, 2021 at 12:00 PST (3:00pm ET) for a Matrix Distinguished Lecture by Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. Professor Allen’s lecture will focus on the findings of Our Common Purpose: Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century, a report by the American Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship. REGISTER HERE.

How well can ordinary people do in identifying the veracity of news in real time? Using a unique research design that has involved crowdsourcing popular news articles from both mainstream and suspect news sources that have appeared in the past 24 hours to both ordinary citizens and professional fact checkers, Joshua Tucker, Professor of Politics at New York University, will report on the individual level characteristics of those likely to incorrectly identify false news stories as true, the results of interventions to attempt to reduce the prevalence of this behavior, and the prospects for crowdsourcing to serve as a viable means for identifying false news stories in real time. He will also report preliminary findings from a replication of this study focusing exclusively on news about Covid-19. REGISTER HERE.

The Center for Democracy, Toleration and Religion is pleased to work in conjunction with Reset Dialogues on Civilizations to host the conference “Toleration in Comparative Perspective: Concepts, Practices, Documents” from January 19-23, 2021, over Zoom. The conference gathers scholars to talk about the ways in which religious toleration has been articulated and practiced in places and periods outside of modern “Western” history. Each day will feature a thematic panel — on spaces, philosophy, law, political theory, and textual interpretation — that brings together speakers from across fields and disciplines. The conference will begin with a keynote address by Professor Denis Lacorne, senior research fellow with the CERI (Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales) at Sciences Po, Paris. His books in English include Religion in America: A Political History (Columbia, 2011) as well as Language, Nation, and State: Identity Politics in a Multilingual Age (2004) and With Us or Against Us: Studies in Global Anti-Americanism (2005), both co-edited with Tony Judt.

Register Here

Within the next 30 years, slow-onset climate change may impel as many as 143 million people living in the Global South to relocate within their countries of origin. Longer-range forecasts predict that by 2070 rising temperatures may render one-fifth of the earth’s landmasses uninhabitable, forcing international migration on a massive scale. Among the displaced, low-income populations will be particularly vulnerable, and cities in the Global North may have to absorb and provide services for these immigrants. Given the politicization of migration in recent years, and the lack of international policies to protect climate refugees, climate change is anticipated to reinforce global inequalities. This Matrix On Point not only will address the dynamically interconnected humanitarian, ecological, and geopolitical impacts of climate migration, but will also propose forward-looking and compassionate policies that can help mitigate displacement, address global inequalities, and support refugees forced to leave their homelands due to extreme weather, devastated ecosystems, and other climate-related issues. REGISTER HERE

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an unprecedented shutdown of the global economy. Governments (mostly in advanced economies) responded with an array of programs, from increased unemployment benefits, stimulus payments, small business assistance loans, and broad monetary support. In spite of these unprecedented interventions, all financed by a rapid expansion of public debt, the economic outlook continues to be very uncertain nearly nine months into the pandemic. What are the likely near- and long-term consequences of the pandemic for the global economy? Which populations have been most affected? Which industries are likely to recover, and which will not? How should we evaluate the success of economic measures taken by governments in the U.S. and around the world? Co-sponsored by the Clausen Center for International Business and Policy, and presented as part of the Berkeley Haas "New Thinking in a Pandemic" series, this “Matrix on Point” will bring together a panel of scholars to discuss the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. REGISTER HERE.

A new generation of authoritarians has risen to power in democracies around the world. Since coming to office, these rulers have manipulated laws and reconfigured state bureaucracies, undermining civil liberties, flouting representative institutions, attacking the free press, and subverting international law. Figures like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey, Viktor Mihály Orbán in Hungary, Narendra Modi in India, and Donald Trump in the United States have all attained office by embracing, and in some instances co-opting, conservative populist movements. This Matrix On Point panel will consider not only the illiberal tactics these right-wing autocrats have used to consolidate power and further their objectives, but also what it will take to undo the damage they have inflicted upon democratic institutions. Co-sponsored by the Institute of International Studies. REGISTER HERE.