2016 to 2017

• Assembling Critical Theory and Practices in Design and the Social Sciences

  Contacts

  • Richmond Wong

  

  The social sciences have long been interested in the processes and products of art, media, and design, exploring how material objects and media infrastructure are shaped by and give rise to cultural norms, historical values, and social systems. Design shapes our daily lives through the technologies, infrastructures, and artifacts around us.

• Coordinated Learning Opportunities around Geospatial Information, Analysis, and Technologies

  Contacts

  • Patty Frontiera

  

  The rise of geospatial technologies has transformed the idea of "place" in social science research. At UC Berkeley, multiple units and programs provide instruction in methods and technologies for working with geospatial data. Yet until now, there has been little alignment and collaboration among these different divisions.

• Examining the Global Reach of Algorithms

  Contacts

  • Morgan Ames

  

  A foundational concept in computer science, algorithms—loosely defined as a set of rules to direct the behavior of machines or humans—have shaped infrastructures, practices, and daily lives. As a result, the need to understand the implications of the development and deployment of algorithms has become ever more pressing, both in academia and public discourse.

• Network on Adolescent Well-being and Development (NAWD)

  Contacts

  • Emily Ozer

  

  The dominant approach to adolescent health is organized around specific problems such as pregnancy, sexually-transmitted infections, or violence, lacking an integrative development lens and sufficient attention to how contexts—families, schools, neighborhoods, and beyond—shape health and behavior.

• Political Economy and Society Curriculum Working Group

  Contacts

  • Alan Karras

  

  With approximately 450 students per year, the field of Political Economy (POLECON) is the largest of the interdisciplinary majors within UC Berkeley’s International and Area Studies Teaching Program (IASTP).

• Resilience and Transcommunity Knowledge-Sharing in Agroecosystems at the Base of the Himalaya

  Contacts

  • Isha Ray

  

  Disaster events and environmental shocks disproportionately affect rural and poor populations. The Nepali Himalayas are a particularly vulnerable hotspot, as earthquakes are common and more than 80% of the rural population is dependent on agriculture and home-produced food.

• Rethinking Identity and Linguistic Diversity in an Age of Immigration

  Contacts

  • Maryam Moeini Meybodi

  

  In what ways does the process of immigration enable or constrain the transformation and preservation of language and identity? This question is at the heart of an interdisciplinary Matrix Research Team focused on investigating the dynamic interaction between language, identity, and immigration.

• The Future of the Humanities and Humanistic Social Sciences PhD at Berkeley

  Contacts

  • Claudia von Vacano

  

  Led by Anthony Cascardi, Dean of Arts and Humanities at UC Berkeley, and Claudia von Vacano, Executive Director of D-Lab and the Digital Humanities, this Matrix project team aims to examine the current professional relevance of liberal arts doctoral preparation at Berkeley.

2015 to 2016

• A Polarizing Europe

  Contacts

  • Jeroen Dewulf

  

  The term “extremism” has been used often in the context of Europe over the past few years, from religious extremism that fuels terrorism and hate crimes to the movement of Europe's political parties toward the "extremes" of right and left.

2015

• Biomedical and Social Science Collaborative

  

  In Spring 2015, Social Science Matrix sponsored a prospecting seminar to support the Biomedical and Social Science Collaborative (BMSSC), which brought together faculty and graduate students from the fields of biostatistics, medicine, and political science to study issues related to governance and global health delivery.