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.

Matrix On Point

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Event Date: April 23rd, 2025
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM PT

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

This event will use the anniversary of the Page Act of 1875, one of the first federal laws to restrict immigration to the United States, as an opportunity to discuss issues of race, gender, and labor in US immigration and Asian American history. A panel of UC Berkeley professors will discuss their past or current work related to race, gender, or labor in US immigration history or Asian American Studies, and their thoughts on the legacies of the Page Act and related issues for the U.S. today. 

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Matrix On Point

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Event Date: April 25th, 2025
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM PT

Governing Giants: Law, Politics, and Antitrust

This panel will bring together scholars of political science, economics, and law to discuss new challenges in competition policy, the domestic and international dimensions of antitrust policy, and the economic, political, and social considerations that shape antitrust policy and enforcement. Moderated by Matrix Faculty Fellow Ryan Brutger (UC Berkeley, Political Science), the panel will feature Amy Pond (Washington University St. Louis, Political Science), Prasad Krishnamurthy (UC Berkeley, Law), and Michael Allen (Stanford, Political Science).

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Lecture

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Event Date: May 2nd, 2025
2:00pm-3:15pm

Politics and Governance in the Digital Age: Between Populism and Technocracy

This talk will feature Rogers Brubaker, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at UCLA, who will discuss a chapter of his recent book, Hyperconnectivity and Its Discontents. The talk will focus on the chapter "Politics," addressing the epistemic, emotional, and organizational questions that digital hyperconnectivity imposes on governance, and the resulting tensions between democracy, populism, and technocracy.

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CRELS

Recap

Published April 23, 2025

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

Published April 23, 2025

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

Published April 10, 2025

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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Podcast

Interview

Published April 1, 2025

Social, Spatial, Ecological, and Racial Fixes in New Deal South Carolina: Interview with Morgan Vickers

This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Morgan P. Vickers, an Assistant Professor of Race/Racialization in the Department of Law, Societies & Justice at the University of Washington. Vickers received their Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley.

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Interview

Interview

Published March 28, 2025

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

Published March 12, 2025

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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