Past Events

Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published October 24, 2024

Authors Meet Critics: Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of our Authors Meet Critics panel on "Puta Life: Seeing Latinas, Working Sex," by Juana María Rodríguez, Professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Professor Rodriguez was joined in conversation by Clarissa Rojas and Courtney Desiree Morris, with Alberto Ledesma moderating.

Learn More >

Article

Recap

Published May 1, 2024

Faculty, Staff Celebrate Social Sciences Fest 2024

On April 18, faculty and staff from the Division of Social Sciences — along with their families — convened at the Faculty Club for Social Sciences Fest, the annual celebration of the social sciences at UC Berkeley. The event included Dean Raka Ray providing an overview of recent highlights and presenting the Distinguished Teaching and Service Awards.

Learn More >

Panel

Recap

Published April 14, 2024

Storytelling and the Climate Crisis

Contemporary writers and activists have described the climate crisis as, in part, a crisis of the imagination, of culture, and of storytelling. Recorded on March 11, 2024, this panel featured a group of authors and scholars of different genres — science fiction, journalism, history, literary fiction, and comedy — discussing how the climate crisis has impacted their craft and what practices of storytelling have to offer us at this pivotal moment in human history. This panel was co-sponsored by the UC Berkeley Department of English, the Department of History, and the Berkeley School of Journalism.

Learn More >

New Directions

Recap

Published April 14, 2024

New Directions in Greening Infrastructure

Recorded on March 20, 2024, this panel features three early-career scholars from UC Berkeley presenting their research on the greening infrastructure and the green energy transition. The panel included Johnathan Guy, PhD Candidate in Political Science; Caylee Hong, a PhD candidate in Anthropology, and Andrew Jaeger, PhD Candidate in Sociology. The panel was moderated by Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley. Co-Sponsored by the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative, the Berkeley Climate Change Network, and the Berkeley Economy and Society Initiative.

Learn More >

California Spotlight

Recap

Published April 5, 2024

Conservatorship: Inside California’s System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness

Recorded on March 18, 2024, this California Spotlight panel focused on Alex V. Barnard’s book, "Conservatorship: Inside California’s System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness. Professor Barnard was joined by Lauren Rettagliata, whose comments on her lived experience of the system complement Barnard's discussion of his research. The discussion was moderated by Jonathan Simon, Lance Robbins Professor of Criminal Justice Law at Berkeley Law.

Learn More >

Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published April 5, 2024

Authors Meet Critics: “Terracene: A Crude Aesthetics,” Salar Mameni

Recorded on March 4, 2024, this Authors Meet Critics panel focused on Terracene: A Crude Aesthetics, by Professor Salar Mameni, Assistant Professor in UC Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies. Professor Mameni was joined by Mayanthi Fernando, Associate Professor of Anthropology at UC Santa Cruz; Sugata Ray, Associate Professor of South and Southeast Asian Art and Architecture in the Departments of History of Art and South & Southeast Asian Studies at UC Berkeley; and Stefania Pandolfo, Professor of Anthropology at UC Berkeley.

Learn More >

Recap

Published April 2, 2024

Understanding AI: Humanities x Social Sciences x Technology

While advances in the performance of AI models have seen enormous successes, a profound understanding of how learning happens inside the models remains to be thoroughly explored. On March 6, 2024, Social Science Matrix hosted a symposium focused on understanding and interpreting AI, an important new frontier in AI research. Speakers identified immediate challenges in AI interpretability and explored how the humanities, social sciences, and the tech world can join forces in this highly consequential research.

Learn More >

Lecture

Recap

Published March 3, 2024

Understanding Land-based Psychological Trauma in Light of Epistemic Justice

 Recorded on February 8, 2024, this video features a lecture by Dr. Garret Barnwell, South African clinical psychologist and community psychology practitioner. The talk was moderated and coordinated by Andrew Wooyoung Kim, Assistant Professor of Biological Anthropology at UC Berkeley. Listen to the talk as a podcast through the player below, or on Google […]

Learn More >

Matrix On Point

Recap

Published March 1, 2024

Surveillance and Privacy in a Biometric World

Watch the video (or read the transcript) of our Matrix on Point panel on how biometric identification might change our understanding of the relationship between people, private industry, and their government. Featuring John Chuang, School of Information; Lawrence Cohen, Anthropology and South and Southeast Asian Studies, and Jennifer Urban, Berkeley Law. Moderated by Berkeley Law's Rebecca Wexler.

Learn More >

Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published February 5, 2024

Authors Meet Critics: “The Unnaming of Kroeber Hall,” Andrew Garrett

Recorded on January 19, 2024, this "Authors Meet Critics" panel centered on the book, "The Unnaming of Kroeber Hall: Language, Memory, and Indigenous California," by Andrew Garrett, Professor of Linguistics and the Nadine M. Tang and Bruce L. Smith Professor of Cross-Cultural Social Sciences in the Department of Linguistics at UC Berkeley. Professor Garrett was joined in conversation by James Clifford, Professor Emeritus at UC Santa Cruz; William Hanks, Berkeley Distinguished Chair Professor in Linguistic Anthropology; and Julian Lang (Karuk/Wiyot), a storyteller, poet, artist, graphic designer, and writer, and author of "Ararapikva: Karuk Indian Literature from Northwest California." Leanne Hinton, Professor Emerita of Linguistics at UC Berkeley, moderated.

Learn More >

Book Talk

Recap

Published January 28, 2024

Vincent Bevins – “If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution”

Watch the video (or listen to the podcast) of Vincent Bevins discussing his book, "If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution," which tells the story of the recent uprisings that sought to change the world – and what comes next. The panel was moderated by Daniel Aldana Cohen, Assistant Professor of Sociology at UC Berkeley and Director of the Socio-Spatial Climate Collaborative, or (SC)2.

Learn More >

Authors Meet Critics

Recap

Published December 19, 2023

Trevor Jackson, “Impunity and Capitalism: the Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830”

Recorded on December 5, 2023, this Authors Meet Critics panel focused on Impunity and Capitalism: the Afterlives of European Financial Crises, 1690-1830 (Cambridge University Press, 2022), by Trevor Jackson, Assistant Professor of History at UC Berkeley. Professor Jackson was joined by Anat Admati, the George G.C. Parker Professor of Finance and Economics at Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and William H. Janeway, Affiliated Member of the Economics Faculty at Cambridge University.  The panel was moderated by David Singh Grewal, Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law.

Learn More >