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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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Lecture

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micha cárdenas: Poetic Operations and Trans Ecologies

In this talk, recorded on April 26, 2023, Dr. micha cárdenas, Associate Professor of Performance, Play and Design, and Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz, discussed her book Poetic Operations (Duke 2022), as well as her augmented reality artwork about climate justice and her forthcoming book, After Man: Fires, Oceans and Androids.

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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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Affiliated Centers

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Reshaping City Politics? Asian Voters’ Demands for Change in San Francisco and Vancouver

In 2022, Asian voters shocked the political establishment in San Francisco and Vancouver. Presented by UC Berkeley's Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research, this panel featured insiders from both cities, including Ken Sim’s campaign manager, a leader from Vancouver’s Canadian-Chinese community, a leader in the San Francisco school board recall campaign who was appointed to the school board herself, and scholar Neil Malhotra.

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Affiliated Centers

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John McWhorter: Pitfalls in the Policing of Language

Recorded on April 7, 2023, this video features a lecture by Professor John McWhorter, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature in the Slavic Department at Columbia University, and a regular columnist for the New York Times. Presented by the UC Berkeley Citrin Center for Public Opinion Research.

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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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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

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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

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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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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

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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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