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 1st, 2025
4:00 PM to 5:30 PM PT

New Directions: Borderlands

Borders reflect the many social, historical, and political forces that shape global movement and identity. While borders often suggest fixed lines of division, the experiences within and around them increasingly influence national and global understandings of belonging, sovereignty, and human rights. This panel brings together a group of UC Berkeley graduate students from the fields of history, sociology, and ethnic studies for a discussion on borders and their impact, particularly through the lens of migration, mobility, and resistance across the U.S.-Mexico border. 

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Research Highlights

Article

Published July 29, 2014

Social Networks from History

A new tool developed by a team at UC Berkeley can help build “prosopographies,” social networks based on names, affiliations, and other historical data.

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Research Highlights

Article

Published July 22, 2014

Do You Trust the Police?

A team of UC Berkeley researchers are helping devise new methods for measuring levels of trust between local communities and the police.

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