Matrix Research Teams

Matrix Research Teams are groups of scholars who gather regularly to explore or develop a novel question of significance in the social sciences. Successful research teams integrate participants from several social-science disciplines and diverse ranks (i.e. faculty and graduate students); address a compelling research question with real-world significance; and deploy or develop appropriate methodologies in creative ways. Matrix teams may address any social science research question, theoretical or empirical, drawing on any of the social sciences. Matrix is especially interested in original and emerging approaches that explore new theoretical and empirical questions, and that combine research at different scales and from different methodologies.

Research Team

Data / Science / Inquiry

The past decades have witnessed a series of transformative shifts in the computational and statistical techniques that scientists use to collect, analyze, and share data. As early as 2008, pop media outlets such as Wired were predicting “the end of theory,” based on the provocative claim that “the data deluge makes the scientific method obsolete.” […]

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Research Team

Synching Sounds: A Phonological Phenomenon

Ask most English speakers to say the word “orangutan” and they are likely to say, “orangutang”. This switch is not a fluke, according to Sharon Inkelas, Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley. Rather, it is an example of a phenomenon called “agreement by correspondence,” or ABC. A similar pattern emerges with the word “smorgasbord,” which […]

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