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Interview
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Advancing Computational Psychology: A Visual Interview with Bill Thompson
Read an interview with UC Berkeley cognitive scientist Bill Thompson, who uses computational methods and large-scale experiments to understand problems like knowledge transmission, the universality of language categories, and the social aspects of human problem-solving.
Learn More >Symposium
Recap
Jews and Other Groups Who Resisted the Nazis: Means, Motivations, and Limitations
Recorded on April 28, 2023, this video features talks and panels from an interdisciplinary, comparative symposium exploring what remains an under-examined topic in the history of World War II and the Holocaust: the multivarious paths through which ordinary men and women resisted the Nazis.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
The Binational Politics of Return Migrant Activism: Interview with Caroline Tracey
Listen to (or read) an interview with Caroline Tracey, a PhD from the UC Berkeley Department of Geography, whose research uses ethnographic, archival, and literary methods to study the American Southwest, Mexico, and the US-Mexico border. Tracey argues that women and trans deportees and returnees play an important role in community-building and activism in Mexico that has improved emplacement for all return migrants.
Learn More >Economy
Interview
Balancing Property Taxes for Schools: An Interview with Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey
Read an interview with Quitzé Valenzuela-Stookey, Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Economics, about his research on how reforming property taxes can reduce inequality among school districts in the United States.
Learn More >Matrix Lecture
Recap
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, […]
Learn More >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.
Learn More >Culture
Interview
Do Food Labels Work? A Visual Interview with Nano Barahona
For this “visual interview,” we spoke with Nano Barahona, Assistant Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley, who recently examined how a food labeling policy has changed the approaches of both consumers and food producers in Chile.
Learn More >Social Sciences Fest
Recap
2023 Social Sciences Fest Celebrates Faculty, Staff
On April 25, faculty and staff members from across the Division of Social Sciences gathered for Social Sciences Fest, the annual celebration of the social sciences at UC Berkeley. This year's celebration was held at Alumni House, and all of the division's faculty — along with their families — were invited to attend.
Learn More >Alumni
Interview
Understanding the Opioid Overdose Crisis: An Interview with David Showalter
How does the opioid overdose crisis reshape rural communities? Through their research on opioid use and opioid-related services in backcountry California, David Showalter argues that an ethnographic sensibility can help us understand how drug use both becomes an ordinary part of people’s lives and what policymakers might do to help prevent overdoses. David Showalter completed […]
Learn More >Matrix News
Faculty Fellows
2023-2024 Social Science Matrix Faculty Fellows Chosen
Four UC Berkeley professors have been selected to be Matrix Faculty Fellows for the 2023-2024 academic year: Rebecca Herman, Assistant Professor of History; Andrew Wooyoung Kim, Assistant Professor of Anthropology; Christopher Muller, Associate Professor of Sociology; and Aarti Sethi, Assistant Professor of Anthropology.
Learn More >Podcast
Interview
The Scandal of Access: An Interview with Zahra Hayat
Listen to an episode of the Matrix Podcast featuring Zahra Hayat, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, who obtained her PhD in Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Matrix Content Curator Julia Sizek spoke with Hayat about her research on pharmaceutical access in the global South, particularly in Pakistan, and the regimes of price and property on which such access is contingent.
Learn More >Affiliated Centers
News
Economy and Society Initiative to Launch at UC Berkeley
UC Berkeley is launching a new research center dedicated to political economy, a cross-disciplinary field focused on the interplay of markets and government. Funded through a generous seed grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative (BESI) will be housed within the UC Berkeley College of Letters & Science, and will be supported by Social Science Matrix.
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