Matrix News
Article
Published July 10, 2026
Matrix Welcomes Eight Research Teams for 2026-2027
Social Science Matrix is pleased to welcome eight new Matrix Research Teams — three faculty-led teams and five graduate student-led teams — for the 2026-2027 academic year. The teams will address topics such as the political economy of wildfire risk, the global politics of declining fertility, and the use of digital tools for governance and development in South Asia.
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Interview
Published November 1, 2024
Free Speech, Academic Freedom, and the Fragile History of American Democracy
This Matrix Podcast episode features a conversation between James Vernon, Director of the Global Democracy Commons initiative, and Hank Reichman, Professor Emeritus at Cal State East Bay, and author of Understanding Academic Freedom.
Learn More >Authors Meet Critics
Recap
Published October 24, 2024
Authors Meet Critics: Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex
Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of our Authors Meet Critics panel on "Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex," by Juana María Rodríguez, Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Professor Rodriguez was joined in conversation by Clarissa Rojas and Courtney Desiree Morris, with Alberto Ledesma moderating.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published September 27, 2024
Prisoner Labor Legacies: An interview with Elizabeth Hargrett and Xander Lenc
While recent news has highlighted how prisoners have fought wildfires, prison labor is not a new phenomenon. Although incarcerated people have built highways, dams, and buildings, their contributions to American infrastructure are often made invisible. Both Elizabeth Hargrett and Xander Lenc have studied how prisoner labor has shaped America’s infrastructure with a focus on North […]
Learn More >Interview
Published September 11, 2024
Agricultural Modernization in China: Interview with Ross Doll and Coleman Mahler
This episode of the Matrix Podcast features Matrix Postdoctoral Fellow Julia Sizek interviewing Ross Doll and Coleman Mahler, two scholars from different disciplines whose work focuses on the modernization of China. Ross Doll is Ciriacy-Wantrup Postdoctoral Fellow in the UC Berkeley Department of Geography. He researches agrarian change in Asia drawing on political ecology, cultural […]
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Research Teams
Published August 5, 2024
Matrix Welcomes Seven Research Teams for 2024-2025
Social Science Matrix will welcome seven new Matrix Research Teams for the 2024-2025 academic year. This year’s funded teams — three faculty-led team and four graduate student-led teams — will address diverse social science topics, including industrial policy, computational social science, data mining and algorithms, and the language of biomedicine.
Learn More >Alumni
Interview
Published June 25, 2024
Anti-Mining Politics in Colombia: A Visual Interview with Ángela Castillo
What can the battle around a new mine in Colombia tell us about the past and future of environmentalist organizing in Latin America? Matrix Postdoc Julia Sizek interviewed Ángela Castillo, who is a recent PhD graduate from UC Berkeley’s Anthropology Department and is now Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Pitzer College.
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