Matrix On Point
Recap
Published April 10, 2025
Mainstreaming Psychedelics
Psychedelics are steadily moving from the fringes of counterculture to the heart of mainstream society, driven by a growing body of research and shifting public perception. As psychedelics shed their stigma, they are catalyzing a broader conversation about mental health, spirituality, and the boundaries of human consciousness. Recorded on March 6, 2025, this panel featured Diana Negrin, David Presti, Charles Hirschkind, and Graham Pechenik, with Poulomi Saha moderating.
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Recap
Published November 4, 2021
Matrix on Point: The Rights and Lives of Non-Citizens
Recorded on October 29, 2021, this panel discussion considered forms of non-citizenship and marginalization around the world, with a special focus on refugees, stateless people, and undocumented migrants. Panelists included Noora Lori, from the Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University; Itamar Mann, University of Haifa, Faculty of Law; and Cecilia Menjívar, UCLA; Serena Parekh, Northeastern University. Moderated by UC Berkeley's Irene Bloemraad.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published November 4, 2021
Genetic Ancestry Testing and Reconnection: An Interview with Dr. Victoria Massie
In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, interviews Dr. Victoria Massie, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Faculty Affiliate for the Center for African & African American Studies (CAAAS), the Medical Humanities Program and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS) at Rice University, in Houston. Sizek interviews Massie about her research tracking diasporic connections between the United States and Cameroon, and the wider world of genetic ancestry testing.
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Interview
Published November 3, 2021
Land, Camps, and the Remains: Heba Alnajada on the History of Syrian Refugee Camps
Heba Alnajada is a Ph.D. Candidate in Architecture History at the University of California, Berkeley, and a 2021-2022 ACLS/Mellon Fellow. Her dissertation project situates the Syrian refugee crisis within an architectural and socio-legal history that spans from the late Ottoman period to present-day Jordan. Social Science Matrix content curator Julia Sizek interviewed Alnajada about her research, using images from her dissertation.
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Call for Papers
Published November 2, 2021
Call For Papers: Managing Distributed Safety and Security in a Hyper-Connected World
UC Berkeley scholars are co-editing a special issue of Safety Science, an international medium for research in the science and technology of human and industrial safety. Papers are sought that address the challenges of safety and security as “messy” problems whose components are hard to define. Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2022
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Recap
Published October 29, 2021
Music, the Diaspora, and the World: A Conversation with Angélique Kidjo
In this conversation, recorded on October 28, 2021, the University of California, Berkeley's Social Science Matrix, together with the Townsend Center for the Humanities, Cal Performances, and the Black Studies Collaboratory, took advantage of the precious artist-in-residency of Angélique Kidjo on the UC Berkeley campus to open a conversation about the global circulation of African musical forms and musicians, its worldwide significance, and its social power.
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Recap
Published October 29, 2021
Matrix on Point: New Directions in Studying Policing
Contemporary movements like Black Lives Matter and the prison abolition movement point to the long histories of police violence and mass incarceration in the United States and elsewhere, demanding new approaches to approaching the history and present of policing. In this Matrix on Point panel, recorded on October 25, 2021, UC Berkeley graduate students were joined by outside experts in discussing the impacts of policing on the lives and health of officers and the communities they serve, as well as how contemporary policing practices are related to an unjust past.
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