Matrix On Point
Recap
Published October 12, 2022
Humanitarian Technologies
Recorded on September 26, 2022, this "Matrix on Point" panel featured a group of scholars — including Daragh Murrah, Fleur Johns, and Wendy H. Wong — examining how technology raises new questions about the efficacy of humanitarian interventions, the human rights of recipients, and the broader power relations between donors and recipients. Moderated by Berkeley Law's Laurel E. Fletcher.
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Interview
Published October 11, 2022
Reconsidering the Achievement Gap: An Interview with Monica Ellwood-Lowe
For this episode of the Matrix podcast, Matrix Content Curator Julia Sizek spoke with Monica Ellwood-Lowe, a PhD Candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology, about her research on children’s cognitive performance, and how we might think about removing barriers to children’s success.
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Interview
Published September 12, 2022
Economic Benefits of Higher Education: Zach Bleemer and Maximilian Müller
Why do people choose to go to college (or not)? What impact do race-based or financial aid policies have on higher education and the broader economy? In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek spoke with two UC Berkeley-trained economists whose research focuses on the economic impacts of higher education. Maximilian Müller completed his PhD […]
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Interview
Published August 31, 2022
A Changing Landscape for Farmers in India: An Interview with Aarti Sethi and Tanya Matthan
In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek spoke with two UC Berkeley scholars – Aarti Sethi and Tanya Matthan – who study agrarian life in India, where farmers have been forced to adapt to the rise of pesticides, genetically modified seeds, and other technologies.
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Interview
Published August 10, 2022
Institutionalizing Child Welfare: An Interview with Matty Lichtenstein
This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Matty Lichtenstein, a recent PhD from Berkeley’s Sociology Department, who studies how state and professional organizations shape social and health inequalities in maternal and child welfare. The interview focuses on Lichtenstein's research on the transformation of American child welfare and the impact of that transformation on contemporary maternal and infant health practices.
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Podcast
Published August 3, 2022
Race, Gender, and Political Speech: An Interview with Gabriella Licata
When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was insulted on the Capitol steps in July 2020, it was a brief media sensation. But what does being called an “effing bitch” mean for how we think about political speech? This episode of the Matrix Podcast features an interview with Gabriella Licata, a PhD candidate in Romance Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley, focused on how the standard language ideologies of political speech come to shape perceptions of language and people in Congress.
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Recap
Published May 18, 2022
One Million COVID Deaths
Recorded on May 10, 2022, this panel examined the physical, material and psychological toll of the past two years of rampant disease, on-and-off social distancing, and shifting economic ground. The panelists discussed the unequal distribution of the pandemic’s burden across the population and the long-term scarring that may ensue, and contemplated the (possibly more uplifting) lessons to be drawn for the future.
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Recap
Published May 9, 2022
Organize! Power and Collective Action
What can we learn from historical and contemporary cases about building organizations that engage, mobilize, and manage to wield influence on the political process? What kinds of infrastructural choices best support engagement and success in the long run? Recorded on May 5, 2022, this panel explored the varied and changing terrain of collective action to reflect on the nature, promises, and pitfalls of associational power in the 21st century.
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Interview
Published April 12, 2022
What Happened to the Week? An Interview with David Henkin
For this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek interviewed David M. Henkin, the Margaret Byrne Professor of History, about his book, The Week: A History of the Unnatural Rhythms that Make Us Who We Are. With meticulous archival research that draws on a wide array of sources — including newspapers, restaurant menus, theater schedules, marriage records, school curricula, folklore, housekeeping guides, courtroom testimony, and diaries — Henkin reveals how our current devotion to weekly rhythms emerged in the United States during the first half of the 19th century.
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Interview
Published January 20, 2022
Individual Trauma, Social Outcomes: A Matrix Podcast Interview with Biz Herman
In this episode of the Matrix Podcast, Julia Sizek interviews Biz Herman, a PhD candidate in the UC Berkeley Department of Political Science, a Visiting Scholar at The New School for Social Research’s Trauma and Global Mental Health Lab, and a Predoctoral Research Fellow with the Human Trafficking Vulnerability Lab. The podcast focuses on Herman's research on mental health and social stability at the Za’atri Refugee Camp in Jordan, as well as her broader research on the impacts of individual trauma on community coherence.
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Interview
Published January 11, 2022
Science and Socialism in Cuba
In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek interviews Clare Ibarra, a PhD candidate in history, and Naomi Schoenfeld, a public health nurse practitioner and recent PhD from the joint UC San Francisco/UC Berkeley medical anthropology program. They discuss the history of science and medicine in Cuba and its relationship to the socialist project, as well as how Cuba has developed vaccines during the current pandemic.
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Interview
Published November 4, 2021
Genetic Ancestry Testing and Reconnection: An Interview with Dr. Victoria Massie
In this episode of the Matrix podcast, Julia Sizek, a PhD candidate in Anthropology at UC Berkeley, interviews Dr. Victoria Massie, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and Faculty Affiliate for the Center for African & African American Studies (CAAAS), the Medical Humanities Program and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality (CSWGS) at Rice University, in Houston. Sizek interviews Massie about her research tracking diasporic connections between the United States and Cameroon, and the wider world of genetic ancestry testing.
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