UC Berkeley’s flagship institute for social science research

Our purpose is captured in our name: we provide an organizational framework—a “matrix”—that supports cross-disciplinary research pursued by social scientists across the University of California, Berkeley campus and beyond.

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.

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COVID-19

Article

Published May 6, 2020

Disaster Preparedness and Seeking Equity Amidst COVID-19

An interview with Sarah Vaughn, Assistant Professor in the UC Berkeley Department of Anthropology, on how different communities prepare for and respond to pandemics and disasters.

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Health

Published April 29, 2020

Berkeley Interpersonal Contact Study

Researchers from the UC Berkeley Department of Demography use survey methods to measure the effect of "social distancing."

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Inclusion

Published April 22, 2020

COVID-19 is Blind to Legal Status, but Can Disproportionately Hurt Immigrants

 COVID-19 is blind to legal status, but can still disproportionately hurt immigrants, argue Jasmijn Slootjes and Irene Bloemraad from the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative.

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COVID-19

Published April 17, 2020

Student Futures and Life Under COVID-19

Michael Watts writes that innovative solutions are needed to support students and universities in the era of COVID-19.

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Health

Published April 13, 2020

Hand-washing in the Time of COVID-19

In the era of COVID-19, the public health directive to "wash your hands" is a challenge for people with limited access to clean water, writes UC Berkeley researcher Isha Ray.

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Cities

Article

Published April 8, 2020

Gangs, Labor Mobility, and Development

 A Q&A with Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science, on his research showing the staggering economic toll of living within gang-controlled territory.

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