Matrix On Point
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Event Date: October 28th, 2026
3:30pm-5:00pm
Matrix on Point: The State of U.S. Immigration Enforcement and Surveillance
Federal immigration enforcement in the United States is increasingly shaped by the convergence of surveillance technologies, data systems, and on-the-ground policing practices. This panel will bring together a group of scholars from diverse disciplines to examine the social and political consequences — and the stakes for rights in an era of technological governance.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
Published January 11, 2022
Science and Socialism in Cuba
In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek interviews Clare Ibarra, a PhD candidate in history, and Naomi Schoenfeld, a public health nurse practitioner and recent PhD from the joint UC San Francisco/UC Berkeley medical anthropology program. They discuss the history of science and medicine in Cuba and its relationship to the socialist project, as well as how Cuba has developed vaccines during the current pandemic.
Learn More >Matrix On Point
Article
Published January 5, 2022
Matrix on Point: Democracy, Misogyny and Digital Media
On December 13, 2021, Matrix convened a diverse group of speakers to discuss today’s remarkable political moment, marked both by a new kind of women’s activism (centered on #MeToo and related movements) and by the rise of a misogynistic far-right. Panelists included Sarah Sobieraj, an award-winning teacher and researcher with expertise in US political culture, extreme incivility, digital abuse and harassment, and the mediated information environment; C.J. Pascoe, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Oregon and co-editor of Socius Journal; Julia Ebner, a radicalisation researcher and bestselling writer based in London; and Kishonna L. Gray, Associate Professor in the Writing, Rhetoric, Digital Studies program at the University of Kentucky. The panel was moderated by Raka Ray, Dean of the Division of Social Sciences at UC Berkeley.
Learn More >Special Event
Recap
Published December 10, 2021
Berkeley Psychology 100 Year Celebration
Recorded on December 8, 2021, this video features a series of talks by members of the University of California, Berkeley Department of Psychology, in celebration of the department's 100th anniversary. The event featured “lightning talks," short form-presentations from four distinguished members of the faculty, showcasing the exciting research being conducted in this top-ranked department.
Learn More >Grad Student Profile
Interview
Published December 10, 2021
Addressing Latinx Social Inequality in Later Life
For this Q&A, Julia Sizek, Matrix Content Curator and a PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology, spoke with two graduate students from UC Berkeley — Isabel García Valdivia and Melanie Z. Plasencia — whose research examines what aging looks like for the Latinx communities in the United States, particularly in California, Mexico, and New Jersey.
Learn More >Authors Meet Critics
Recap
Published December 8, 2021
Author Meets Critics: “The Banks Did It: An Anatomy of the Financial Crisis”
Watch the video of our “Authors Meet Critics” discussion focused on "The Banks Did It: An Anatomy of the Financial Crisis," by Neil Fligstein, Class of 1939 Chancellor’s Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Sociology. Professor Fligstein was joined in conversation by Adam Tooze, Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Professor of History at Columbia University and author of Crashed: How a Decade of Financial Crises Changed the World (2018) and Shutdown: How Covid Shook the World's Economy (2021). This event was co-sponsored by the Network for a New Political Economy (N2PE).
Learn More >Grad Student Profile
Interview
Published November 30, 2021
The History of Astronomical Illustration: Q&A with Lois Rosson
How do we imagine and illustrate outer space? Lois Rosson, a PhD candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of History, focuses on the history of astronomical illustration as a lens into the history of science and technology. She worked at NASA for two years before starting graduate school, and recently completed a research internship at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Matrix content curator Julia Sizek interviewed Rosson about her dissertation research, drawing on astronomical illustrations that Rosson features in her work.
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