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Matrix On Point

Recap

150 Years of Border Control: The Legacy of the 1875 Page Act

Recorded on April 23, 2025, this panel marked the 150th anniversary of the Page Act of 1875, one of the first federal laws to restrict immigration to the United States — especially Asian immigration, as the law prohibited the importation of Asian contract workers, prostitutes (a provision targeted against Chinese women), and criminals.

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Matrix News

Iris Hui Memorial Fund

Ethnic Studies PhD Student Receives Iris Hui Memorial Scholarship

Irene Franco Rubio, a doctoral student in the UC Berkeley Department of Ethnic Studies, has been selected to receive the 2025 Dr. Iris Hui Memorial Graduate Student Scholarship. Irene is a first-generation scholar-activist whose research explores multiracial coalition-building, grassroots resistance, and social movement histories in the U.S. Southwest.

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Matrix On Point

Recap

Matrix on Point: The New Gender Gap

New research reveals a growing gender gap in attitudes across a range of topics, particularly striking among younger generations. Recorded on April 7, 2025, this panel brought together experts to discuss the contours and complexities of this “new gender gap” and explore its ramifications for politics, demography, and societal cohesion.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Native Lands: Culture and Gender in Indigenous Territorial Claims

Recorded on April 4, 2025, this video features an Authors Meet Critics panel on the book "Native Lands: Culture and Gender in Indigenous Territorial Claims," by Shari Huhndorf, Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. "Native Lands" analyzes the role of visual and literary culture in contemporary Indigenous campaigns for territorial rights.

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CRELS

Recap

Consequential Sentences: Computational Analyses of California Parole Hearing Transcripts

Recorded on April 1, 2025, this video features a talk by AJ Alvero, a computational sociologist at Cornell University, presenting findings from an analysis of parole hearing transcripts in California. This talk is part of a symposium series presented by the UC Berkeley Computational Research for Equity in the Legal System Training Program (CRELS), which […]

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CRELS

Recap

Alex Roehrkasse: The New Contours of Mass Incarceration

Recorded on March 18, 2025, this video features a talk by Alexander F. Roehrkasse, Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Butler University. In the talk, Roehrkasse presents new evidence of declining Black–White inequality and skyrocketing educational inequality in U.S. prison admissions.

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Matrix On Point

Recap

Mainstreaming Psychedelics

Psychedelics are steadily moving from the fringes of counterculture to the heart of mainstream society, driven by a growing body of research and shifting public perception. As psychedelics shed their stigma, they are catalyzing a broader conversation about mental health, spirituality, and the boundaries of human consciousness. Recorded on March 6, 2025, this panel featured Diana Negrin, David Presti, Charles Hirschkind, and Graham Pechenik, with Poulomi Saha moderating.

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Interview

Interview

The State of Higher Education: Interview with Lorna Finlayson

As universities across England and Wales continue to announce redundancies and close departments and programs, James Vernon, Director of the Global Democracy Commons project, spoke with political theorist Lorna Finlayson about the nature of the crisis, why academics are relatively restrained in their responses to it, and how students offer some hope for alternative visions of higher education.

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Matrix On Point

Recap

Los Angeles Wildfires: Risk, Resilience, and Collective Action

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of this Matrix on Point panel focused on the management of wildfires in urban areas, recorded in the weeks following the devastating fires in Los Angeles. The panel featured Christopher Ansell, Kenichi Soga, and Marta Gonzalez, and was moderated by Louise Comfort.

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Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Society Despite the State: Reimagining Geographies of Order

Recorded on February 10, 2025, this "Authors Meet Critics" panel centered on the book "Society Despite the State: Reimagining Geographies of Order," by Gerónimo Barrera de la Torre, Assistant Professor of Geography at UC Berkeley, and Anthony Ince, Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Human Geography at Cardiff University and British Academy Mid-Career Fellow. The authors were joined in conversation by Dylan John Riley and Anna Stilz, and Jake Kosek moderated.

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Podcast

Interview

Interview with Julia Sizek: Regulating Off-Roading in the California Desert

Julia Sizek is a writer and anthropologist who studies the California desert and rural land management more broadly. Her work focuses on the politics of land in the California desert, including: the cultural politics of conservation acquisition in the railroad checkerboard, the rhetoric of environmental impact reporting, and the legal geographies of off-highway vehicle use. […]

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New Directions

Recap

New Directions in the Study of Fringe Politics

Fringe politics today is highly diverse and dynamic, reflecting the rapid social, technological, and economic changes of the 21st century. While the term “fringe” suggests ideas or movements outside the political mainstream, many fringe ideologies have increasingly influenced, or even reshaped, national and global political landscapes. Recorded on February 4, 2025, this panel brought together a group of UC Berkeley graduate students from the fields of geography, anthropology, and sociology for a discussion on politics on the fringe through the lens of such topics as QAnon, religious studies, and California secessionism.

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