Building a Just Social Sciences

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Building a Just Social Science

Building a Just Social Sciences aims to build a community actively engaged in the pursuit of knowledge for a better, more just, and more inclusive world, and to foster collaborations amongst students, faculty, donors, and institutional leaders.

May 3, 2021

Dean Raka Ray Photo

In May of 2021, the UC Berkeley Division of Social Sciences launched a multi-year initiative, Building a Just Social Sciences. Imagined by Dean of Social Sciences Raka Ray, this initiative builds on UC Berkeley's unique positioning as a global engine of teaching, research, and economic mobility with the objective of creating a social science that is more inclusive and more oriented towards justice. The Social Sciences seek to understand the institutions, cultures, and structures within which we live. We analyze the effects of these structures, institutions, and cultures on democratic functioning, inequality, and freedom, as well as on the stuff of our daily lives — whom we spend time with, love, work with, and aspire to be like. But this knowledge must have a purpose. The purpose of Building a Just Social Sciences is to build a community of experienced individuals and organizations who commit to, and are actively engaged in, the pursuit of knowledge for a better, more just, and more inclusive world. Our partners are fiercely committed to fostering collaborations amongst students, faculty, donors, and institutional leaders to develop new thinking and create lasting, structural change.