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.

New Directions

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Event Date: October 14th, 2026
4:00pm-5:30pm

New Directions: Green Transitions

This panel will bring together advanced graduate students from UC Berkeley whose research examines the forces shaping green energy transitions around the world. Drawing on emerging scholarship spanning energy systems, technological change, environmental policy, and social equity, the discussion will explore how societies can navigate the opportunities and tradeoffs of decarbonization, and what is at stake for communities, economies, and the future of the planet.

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Podcast

Interview

Published March 30, 2020

Matrix Podcast: Interview with Desiree Fields

In this episode, Michael Watts talks with Desiree Fields, Assistant Professor of Geography and Global Metropolitan Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Fields' research explores the financial technologies, market devices, and historical and geographic contingencies that make it possible to treat housing as a financial asset, and how this process is contested at the urban scale.

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COVID-19

Article and News

Published March 27, 2020

COVID-19: UC Berkeley Social Sciences Portal

A portal for insights about the COVID-19 pandemic from the UC Berkeley social science community

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Workshop/Symposium

Recap

Published March 21, 2020

2020 Advanced Workshop in Climate Change Economics

On January 31 to February 1, Social Science Matrix hosted the Advanced Workshop in Climate Change Economics, which brought together leading scholars from universities around the world to apply the tools of micro- and macroeconomics to understand and tackle the challenge of climate change.

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Matrix Lecture

Recap

Published March 20, 2020

Alexandra Gillies, “Crude Intentions”

Recorded on March 4, 2020, this video features a lecture by Alexandra Gillies, an expert on oil-sector corruption and author of the book "Crude Intentions: How Oil Sector Corruption Contaminates the World."

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Other Events

Recap

Published March 16, 2020

Immigration and the American Ethos

A panel discussion on the book Immigration and the American Ethos, by Morris Levy, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California, and Matthew Wright, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of British Columbia.

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Matrix On Point

Recap

Published March 10, 2020

Election Manipulation

Recorded on March 3, 2020, this Matrix On Point panel consider a wide range of issues related to the security and fairness of our elections.

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