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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Patriotic display of American flags waving on white picket fence. Typical small town Americana Fourth of July Independence Day decorations.

Event Date: October 21st, 2024
12:00pm-1:30pm

Matrix on Point: Voices from the Heartland

As the nation braces for a decisive election, this conversation — featuring scholars Arlie Hochschild, Jenny Reardon, and Lisa Pruitt — seeks to illuminate the frequently overlooked yet politically potent voices emanating from America's rural heartlands and small towns. Moderated by Cihan Tuğal.

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Matrix News

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Published June 28, 2016

Fall 2016 Matrix Research Teams Announced

Climate change. Immigration. Creating resilient rural communities. These are among the issues that Social Science Matrix Research Teams will take on during the coming academic year.

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Interview

Article

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Published May 23, 2016

Mazda Farias-Virgens: “Birdsong and Human Language”

UC Berkeley anthropology graduate student Madza Farias-Virgens draws upon research into birdsong and genome sequencing to address questions related to the evolution of human language.

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Interview

Article

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Published May 10, 2016

Katherine Zubovich: “A Towering Legacy”

In her dissertation, Katherine Zubovich, a Ph.D. candidate in Russian and Soviet History at UC Berkeley, examines the history of a 1950s skyscraper project in Moscow.

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Interview

Article

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Published March 10, 2016

John Ohala: “Vocal Fry and the “Frequency Code””

John J. Ohala, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley, explores a plausible connection between lion manes and the creaky-voice phenomenon known as "vocal fry".

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Interview

Article

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Published March 1, 2016

P[art]icipatory Urbanisms: Arts of the Global City

An innovative collaboration by UC Berkeley graduate students explores the interplay between art and politics, with a focus on practitioners in New Delhi and São Paulo.

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Interview

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Published February 17, 2016

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton: “Peering Inside the Achievement Gap”

UC Berkeley social psychologist Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton researches the far-reaching effects that stereotypes and prejudice can have on minority student performance and considers new support systems to help address this challenge.

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