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: March 10th, 2026
12:00 PM to 1:30 PM PT

New Directions: Colonial Legacies, Post-Colonial Perspectives

Colonial legacies continue to shape political, social, and intellectual life. While colonialism is often treated as a historical period, its structures and logics persist in contemporary debates around race, territory, knowledge, and power. This panel — part of the Social Science Matrix New Directions series — will bring together UC Berkeley graduate students from anthropology, geography, and sociology to examine how colonial histories are reproduced, contested, and reimagined across different contexts.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published May 5, 2015

Center on the Politics of Development

A UC Berkeley research center advances mixed-methods research on development, envisions public policy solutions, and advocates for sustainable changes to the governance of developing communities.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published April 23, 2015

Emmanuel Letouzé: “Data for Development”

UC Berkeley demographer (and cartoonist) Emmanuel Letouzé seeks to reduce the gap in statistical data available about populations in developing nations.

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Culture

Published April 15, 2015

Thomas Laqueur: “Long Live the Dead”

In a forthcoming book, UC Berkeley Professor of History Thomas Laqueur examines how the peculiar relationship between the living and dead has evolved over time.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published April 1, 2015

Paul K. Piff: “Are the Wealthy More Narcissistic?”

Psychologist Paul Piff studies the link between wealth and social behavior, and shows how economic inequality shapes—and is shaped by—the mind.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published March 30, 2015

Kerwin Klein: “Mountain Views”

Europeans used to regard mountains as fearsome and unapproachable, but this perception has shifted over time, says UC Berkeley Professor of History Kerwin Klein.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published December 29, 2014

Bearing Witness

UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center has taken a lead role in assessing the International Criminal Court’s groundbreaking witness program.

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