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.

Book Talk

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Event Date: May 5th, 2026
4:00pm-5:15pm

The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us

Join us on May 5 for a talk on "The Irrational Decision: How We Gave Computers the Power to Choose for Us," by Benjamin Recht, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. The conversation will be moderated by Marion Fourcade, Professor of Sociology and Director of Social Science Matrix.

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Other Events

Recap

Published March 9, 2017

Clair Brown, “Buddhist Economics”

On March 2, 2017, Clair Brown, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at UC Berkeley, discussed her new book, Buddhist Economics: An Enlightened Approach to the Dismal Science.

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Inequality

Article

Published February 20, 2017

Racism and Heart Health

UC Berkeley postdoctoral researcher Jordan B. Leitner investigates the connections between health disparities and levels of racial bias within communities.

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Interview

Article

Published December 16, 2016

Envisioning Inclusive Geography

Promoting spaces for diverse scholarship in the geography discipline is vital, say UC Berkeley Geography PhD candidates Camilla Hawthorne and Brittany Meché.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published December 7, 2016

Arlie Hochschild, “Strangers in Their Own Land”

On November 30, 2016, UC Berkeley's Social Science Matrix welcomed Arlie Russell Hochschild, Professor Emerita of Sociology, for a discussion of her new book, Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right.

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Interview

Article

Published November 28, 2016

Lawrence Rosenthal: State of the Right

In light of the upcoming panel discussion entitled, “Reflections on the 2016 Election and the Republican Party Under President Trump,” we spoke with Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, Founding Director, Chair, and Lead Researcher of the Center for Right Wing Studies, to hear his thoughts on the election.

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Other Events

Recap

Published November 1, 2016

Viet Thanh Nguyen: “Beyond Victims and Voices: On Writing as a Radical Act”

Video is now available of the October 28 presentation by Viet Thanh Nguyen, an alumnus of the UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies program whose novel, The Sympathizer, is a New York Times bestseller and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

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