A growing number of people are taking genetic ancestry tests (GAT), and companies like FamilyTreeDNA, AncestryDNA, and 23andMe now make up a multibillion-dollar industry dominating both popular and academic discourse. Literature on GAT largely attributes consumer participation to a desire for individuals to identify biological relatives, validate genealogical records, fill gaps in family histories, and […]
Research Team
Berkeley Black Geographies
The Berkeley Black Geographies (BBG) project will foster intellectual creative space and proposes an intervention into the colonial canon of academic disciplines. BBG looks at the ways that many disciplines utilize Black radical thought and geographic methods in order to mobilize rigorous and meaningful theory and praxis for interdisciplinary projects while countering the anti-Black and […]
Research Team
Child Marriage and Youth Empowerment: Directions for Future Research, Practice, and Training
Child marriage refers to a union—formal or informal—in which one or both members of a couple marry before the age of 18. Annually, an estimated 15 million girls marry before their 18th birthdays. Evidence shows that marriage below the age of 18 increases risks related to health, education, opportunity and, well-being. It increases girls' exposure […]
Research Team
Queer Ecologies: Constructions of Gender and Sexuality in Animal Behavior Science
The Queer Ecologies Prospecting Team will examine how historically exclusionary and hierarchical ideas of race, sex, and gender are both replicated and disrupted by contemporary laboratory and fieldwork practices, as well as theoretical innovations, in animal behavior sciences. The group conceives of animal behavior sciences—such as studies of mate choice and sexual display—as cultural, social, […]
Research Team
Masculinity and Capitalism
Recent decades have brought about a striking increase in inequality among men across many scales. Within the regime of globalized financialized capitalism, manufacturing has been relocated to low-wage regions, and many of the jobs have simply disappeared because of automation. At the same time, in the upper echelons of financial capitalism, elite men continue to […]
Research Team
Gender and Technology
UC Berkeley is an ideal place from which to study the tech industry. The San Francisco Bay Area serves as the headquarters of most large tech companies, including Google, Facebook, Apple, LinkedIn, as well as countless startups. UC Berkeley also produces a large number of tech workers. Yet no groups on campus are currently working […]
Research Team
Matrix GRAD SLAM
Graduate students from UC Berkeley's Social Science Departments are invited to participate in the first-ever Social Science Matrix GRAD SLAM, which is modeled after the UC Grad Slam and Three-Minute Thesis competitions organized by universities around the world. Join us for this fun event, learn about each other's work, and forge connections across fields in […]
Research Team
Matrix Solidarity Series
The Matrix Solidarity Series features talks and panels that explore—and critique—the ethical foundations, concrete implementations, and prospective designs that have fostered or may foster connectedness, inclusiveness, tolerance, and equality. These conversations are meant to serve as an argument on behalf of the premises and practices of solidarity, and an exposition of the potential of the […]
Research Team
Demystifying the Black Box of Computational Text Analysis Workflows: From Static Textual Archives to Visualizations and Reports of U.S. Congressional Activity
Computational text analysis workflows are long and complex. Too few scholars know how to evaluate critically the multiple decisions a researcher might make in preparing, processing, and analyzing data; fewer still know how to carry their own research through such workflows. This Matrix Theme Team will make this whole process transparent and understandable, by designing […]
Research Team
Continent Divided: Building Bridges, Finding Truth
Building upon the framework created through two previous Matrix Research Teams—A Polarizing Europe (2015) and Questioning the Evidence on the Integration of Immigrants in Europe (2016), this year’s Theme Team has identified key lines of inquiry in Europe’s ongoing struggle to provide a unified front in the face of mounting political division, socioeconomic upheaval, the […]
Research Team
Berkeley Infrastructure Initiative: Collaborative, Interdisciplinary Policy Research in the Public Interest
Co-sponsored by Global Metropolitan Studies, this Matrix team aspires to lay the foundations for a “Berkeley Infrastructure Initiative,” (BI2), which will bring together faculty and students with a shared interest in the planning, governance, finance, design, development, economics, and environmental effects of infrastructure. Sub-sectors of interest include transportation, housing, water, sanitation, information and communication technology, […]
Research Team
I Regret to Inform You That Your Private Information Has Been Compromised
“Privacy is one of the central issues of importance of our time,” wrote the organizers of this Matrix Prospecting Team in their successful proposal. “Despite our appreciation of privacy, police officers wear body cameras, customer loyalty programs track purchases and the Transportation Safety Administration performs full body scans. This paradox illuminates the deep ambivalence in […]