Social Sciences

Geography professor is challenging colonial legacies through mapping

May 14, 2025
By Aubrey Spowart

Berkeley Geography Professor Clancy Wilmott is conducting innovative research on the political stakes of mapping in its digital and physical forms.

She focuses on critical cartography, a subfield of geography that critiques the structures behind how mapping knowledge is produced. Wilmott’s research perceives mapping as a tool not just for representation, but also as a means of influencing the world. Her work at UC Berkeley, which intersects critical cartography, new media and spatial practices, bridges theory and practice through community-...

Berkeley Sociology is a family tradition for this Cal graduate

May 19, 2025
By Ashley Park

Michael Temprano is continuing a family tradition having graduated on Sunday with a bachelor's degree from the UC Berkeley Sociology Department. As the third Temprano sibling to join their mother in earning a sociology degree from UC Berkeley, Michael's academic journey is a powerful testament to how education, family values and social consciousness can intersect to shape a future rooted in change.

His family shares sociology as a foundation, but each applies those principles to their own journeys in life. Michael plans to push for advocacy and change by becoming a plaintiff-side...

Political economy graduate channels family tragedy into health startup

May 12, 2025
By Aubrey Spowart

Samir Hooker’s path to higher education was anything but easy. He grew up in a neighborhood surrounded by instability and violence, and at just nine years old, he lost his father to gun violence. Not long after, his mother began a years-long struggle with chronic illness. Despite his hardships, however, Samir’s perseverance and dedication to his family drove him to keep working towards his goals.

Now, as he prepares to graduate from UC Berkeley next week with a degree in political economy, Samir is rewriting his future. Motivated by the health...

For Shaudi Fulp, politics is about tangible outcomes

May 12, 2025
by Alexander Rony

Shaudi Fulp graduated from UC Berkeley in 2004 with bachelor’s degrees in legal studies and political psychology, later returning for her master’s in political science. She now helps emerging and mature companies build government affairs teams and strategies across the globe. Even though she lives in Southern California, Fulp is very involved with campus, offering guidance through the Berkeley Social Sciences Dean’s Advisory...

Six UC Berkeley alumni named 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners

May 12, 2025

This week, the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners announced by Columbia University included six UC Berkeley alumni, and additional members of the campus community were finalists for the prestigious award.

Announced each May, the prizes are considered the country’s most sought-after awards in journalism, arts and letters and have been awarded since 1917. Newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer, who died in 1911, left money to Columbia University to launch a journalism school and establish the Pulitzer Prize. An...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2025/05/08/six-uc-berkeley-alumni-named-2025-pulitzer-…

Annual Baxter Lecture examines constitutional approaches to political division

May 12, 2025
By Jessica Ballardo

The potential of the U.S. Constitution to reshape today’s fractured political system was the focus of this year’s Ambassador Frank E. Baxter Lecture by Yuval Levin, a conservative political analyst and expert on public policy and the constitutional system.

Levin’s lecture, titled “Can the Constitution Unify Americans?,” argued that it can be done by following the ideals...

Americans Haven’t Found a Satisfying Alternative to Religion

April 21, 2025
Lauren Jackson, The New York Times

On Sundays, I used to stand in front of my Mormon congregation and declare that it all was true.

I’d climb the stairs to the pulpit and smooth my long skirt. I’d smile and share my “testimony,” as the church calls it. I’d say I knew God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, prayer, spirits and miracles were all real. I’d express gratitude for my family and for my ancestors who had left lives in Britain, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Norway to pull wagons across America and build a Zion on the plains. When I had finished, I’d bask in the affirmation of the congregation’s “amen.”

...

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/18/style/religion-america.html?unlocked_article_…

Two UC Berkeley Social Sciences alumni win 2025 Pulitzer Prizes

May 7, 2025
By Kenny Ma

Two UC Berkeley Social Sciences alumni received 2025 Pulitzer Prizes — one for shedding light on the dangers of train crossings in Houston, and the other for revealing the history of Soviet dissent.

Anthropology alumna Sharon Steinmann, an opinion video journalist for the Houston Chronicle, was part of a four-person team, including UC Berkeley History of Art alumna...

Geography curriculum planner Alli Warren balances creativity and precision while supporting Berkeley’s mission

May 6, 2025
Chauncey Walker
Meet Alli Warren, Curriculum Planner for UC Berkeley’s Geography Department and Interdisciplinary Social Science Programs (ISSP). With a background in nonprofit work, graduate school administration, and campus curriculum planning, Alli brings a thoughtful, detail-oriented approach to scheduling, enrollment management, and course development. A published poet as well, she balances creativity and precision—both in her writing and in supporting Berkeley’s academic mission behind the scenes.

UC Berkeley mortality database researchers ponder the question of human longevity

May 8, 2025
By Jessica Park

Today, we are living increasingly longer lives compared to 150 years ago. However, the question is, can that trend go on?

The Human Mortality Database (HMD), operated jointly by Berkeley Demography researchers, processes data that can help answer that question.

Co-led by Demography researcher Magali Barbieri, HMD is a collaboration between Berkeley and two other organizations, the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Germany and the French Institute for Demographic Studies in Paris....