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.

Matrix Lecture

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Event Date: December 4th, 2025
4:00pm-5:30pm

Alexis Madrigal: “To Know a Place”

In this Matrix Distinguished Lecture, journalist Alexis Madrigal — host of KQED's Forum and a contributing writer at The Atlantic — turns his attention to the question of how we come to know a place. Drawing on his background as a reporter, writer, and thinker of cities, landscapes, and histories, he will explore different ways of writing about and understanding place, revealing how perspective, memory, and narrative inform the stories we tell about the world around us.

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Solidarity

Published March 22, 2018

Threatened Scholars

Recorded on February 27, 2018, panelists discuss the various types of threats facing scholars around the world, as well as as solutions that have been developed by governments, academic institutions, and non-governmental organizations, including Scholars at Risk, which works to protect threatened scholars and promote academic freedom around the world.

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Matrix Lecture

Recap

Published February 6, 2018

Craig Calhoun, “Cosmopolitanism and Belonging”

On January 31, 2018, Craig Calhoun, President of the Berggruen Institute and Centennial Professor at the London School of Economics, presented the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix Distinguished Lecture, "Cosmopolitanism and Belonging."

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Climate

News

Published February 5, 2018

Matrix Hosts Advanced Workshop in Climate Economics

Social Science Matrix was honored to host the Advanced Workshop in Climate Economics, with support from SAGE Publications and Sara Miller McCune.

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Matrix News

News

Published January 8, 2018

Matrix/Sciences Po Collaboration Grants Announced

Four teams of scholars from the U.S. and France will use seed funding to tackle globally significant, cross-disciplinary research questions in the social sciences.

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Economy

Article

Published December 7, 2017

Changing the Face of Economics

UC Berkeley economics professor Dr. Martha Olney explains the importance of diversity in the field, and why she supports initiatives designed to welcome underrepresented groups to the major.

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Economy

Article

Published November 27, 2017

A Tax to Support ‘Made in the USA’

UC Berkeley economics professor Alan Auerbach works with Washington, D.C. policymakers in his quest for corporate tax reform—including implementing a tax focused on where products are consumed, not where they are produced.

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