New Directions
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Event Date: March 10th, 2026
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM PT
New Directions: Colonial Legacies, Post-Colonial Perspectives
Colonial legacies continue to shape political, social, and intellectual life. While colonialism is often treated as a historical period, its structures and logics persist in contemporary debates around race, territory, knowledge, and power. This panel — part of the Social Science Matrix New Directions series — will bring together UC Berkeley graduate students from anthropology, geography, and sociology to examine how colonial histories are reproduced, contested, and reimagined across different contexts.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published July 27, 2023
The Binational Politics of Return Migrant Activism: Interview with Caroline Tracey
Listen to (or read) an interview with Caroline Tracey, a PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, whose research uses ethnographic, archival, and literary methods to study the American Southwest, Mexico, and the US-Mexico border. Tracey argues that women and trans deportees and returnees play an important role in community-building and activism in Mexico that has improved emplacement for all return migrants.
Learn More >Economy
Interview
Published June 26, 2023
Balancing Property Taxes for Schools: An Interview with Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey
Read an interview with Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey, Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Economics, about his research on how reforming property taxes can reduce inequality among school districts in the United States.
Learn More >Roundtable
Recap
Published June 13, 2023
Roundtable with Orlando Patterson: The Nature and Invention of Freedom
Recorded on May 2, 2023, this video features a roundtable conversation with Orlando Patterson focused on "The Paradox of Freedom," an interview with Patterson by David Scott conducted in 2013. Joining Patterson in conversation for this Social Science Matrix Roundtable were Ricarda Hammer, incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, and Daniela Cammack, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. The discussion was moderated by Caitlin Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley.
Learn More >Lecture
Recap
Published June 7, 2023
Consent and Legitimacy: A Revised Bellicose Theory of State-Building with Evidence from around the World, 1500–2000
Recorded on March 9, 2023, this video features Andreas Wimmer, Lieber Professor of Sociology and Political Philosophy at Columbia University, presenting a talk entitled "Consent and Legitimacy: A Revised Bellicose Theory of State-Building with Evidence from around the World, 1500–2000."
Learn More >Matrix Lecture
Recap
Published June 6, 2023
Slavery and Genocide: The U.S., Jamaica, and the Historical Sociology of Evil
On May 1, 2023, Social Science Matrix was honored to present a Matrix Distinguished Lecture by Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Professor Patterson’s lecture was entitled “Slavery and Genocide: The U.S, Jamaica and the Historical Sociology of Evil.” The event was co-sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, […]
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Interview
Published May 17, 2023
Structural Determinants of Police Violence: Interview with Kimberly Cecilia Burke
For this episode of the Matrix Podcast, we spoke with Kimberly Cecilia Burke, a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC Berkeley, whose dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine how Black-White interracial couples understand and experience police violence in their relationships.
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