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Produced by the University of California, Berkeley’s Social Science Matrix, the Matrix Podcast features interviews with scholars from across the UC Berkeley campus (and beyond). Listen and subscribe on Google Podcasts or Apple Podcasts.

Roundtable

Recap

Roundtable with Orlando Patterson: The Nature and Invention of Freedom

Recorded on May 2, 2023, this video features a roundtable conversation with Orlando Patterson focused on "The Paradox of Freedom," an interview with Patterson by David Scott conducted in 2013. Joining Patterson in conversation for this Social Science Matrix Roundtable were Ricarda Hammer, incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley, and Daniela Cammack, Assistant Professor of Political Science at UC Berkeley. The discussion was moderated by Caitlin Rosenthal, Associate Professor of History at UC Berkeley.

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Matrix Lecture

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Slavery and Genocide: The U.S., Jamaica, and the Historical Sociology of Evil

 On May 1, 2023, Social Science Matrix was honored to present a Matrix Distinguished Lecture by Orlando Patterson, John Cowles Professor of Sociology at Harvard University. Professor Patterson’s lecture was entitled “Slavery and Genocide: The U.S, Jamaica and the Historical Sociology of Evil.” The event was co-sponsored by the Townsend Center for the Humanities, […]

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Podcast

Interview

Structural Determinants of Police Violence: Interview with Kimberly Cecilia Burke

For this episode of the Matrix Podcast, we spoke with Kimberly Cecilia Burke, a PhD candidate in Sociology at UC Berkeley, whose dissertation uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine how Black-White interracial couples understand and experience police violence in their relationships.

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Matrix On Point

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Matrix on Point: Border Crossing

For this Matrix on Point panel, we asked UC Berkeley PhD candidates — Pauline White Meeusen, Gisselle Perez-Leon, and Adriana P. Ramirez — to share their ongoing research on borders and migration. Moderated by Irene Bloemraad, Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative (BIMI), which co-sponsored the event.

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Lecture

Recap

Training Bourgeois Selves: Magnus Hirschfeld and the Subsumption of Pederasty

Recorded on February 22, 2023, this video features a lecture by Professor Kadji Amin, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Emory University. In this talk, “Training Bourgeois Selves: Magnus Hirschfeld and the Subsumption of Pederasty,” Amin discusses a key architect of Modern Sexuality, the German Jewish homosexual sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld.

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Lecture

Recap

The Modern American Industrial Strategy: Building a Clean Energy Economy from the Bottom Up and Middle Out

Recorded on March 22, 2023, this talk — "The Modern American Industrial Strategy: Building a Clean Energy Economy from the Bottom Up and Middle Out" — features Heather Boushey, a member of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers and Chief Economist to the Invest in America Cabinet.

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Book Talk

Recap

The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy

Recorded on March 23, 2023, this talk featured Phil Gorski, Frederick and Laura Goff Professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at Yale University, discussing his new book (co-authored with Samuel Perry), The Flag and the Cross: White Christian Nationalism and the Threat to Democracy. The respondent was David Hollinger, Preston Hotchkis Professor Emeritus of History at UC Berkeley. Carolyn Chen, Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for the Study of Religion and Professor of Ethnic Studies, moderated.

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Matrix On Point

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Matrix on Point: Wealth and Taxes

Recorded on April 3, 2023, this panel featured Duncan Wigan from Copenhagen Business School and UC Berkeley's Gabriel Zucman discussing aspects of the global ecosystem of tax avoidance, including how corporations and individuals move across multiple legal jurisdictions to maintain wealth and avoid paying taxes. Moderated by Marion Fourcade, Director of Social Science Matrix.

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Social Science / Data Science

Recap

Jo Guldi: Towards a Practice of Text Mining to Understand Change Over Historical Time

Recorded on March 8, 2023, this video features a lecture by Jo Guldi, Professor of History and Practicing Data Scientist at Southern Methodist University. Co-sponsored by Social Science Matrix, the UC Berkeley Department of History, and D-Lab, the talk was presented as part of the Social Science / Data Science event series.

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Lecture

Recap

Jo Guldi, “The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights”

 Most nations in Asia, Latin America, and Africa experienced some form of “land reform” in the 20th century. But what is land reform? In her book, The Long Land War: The Global Struggle for Occupancy Rights, Professor Jo Guldi approaches the problem from the point of view of Britain’s disintegrating empire. She makes the case that land […]

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Panel

Recap

Economics and Geopolitics in US International Relations: China, Europe, and the Global South

 The pandemic and the war in Ukraine have reshaped global geopolitics, trade, and security. How will these changes affect the relationship between the US and China, Europe, and the Global South? How will they impact US firms operating globally, and how might foreign leaders — and notably the Chinese leadership — respond? Recorded on […]

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Matrix On Point

Recap

Matrix on Point: Myths and Misinformation

In this panel, recorded on March 15, 2023, a group of scholars who study false histories and conspiracy theories discussed how misinformation circulates, and the effects of such myths and stories on society.

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