Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

L&S faculty and staff honored with 2023 Excellence in Advising & Student Services awards

November 13, 2023

UC Berkeley’s Council on Advising and Student Services and awards planning committee recently announced the recipients of the 2023 Excellence in Advising & Student Services Awards, which recognize the recipients' positive and innovative impacts on student learning, engagement, and belonging on the Berkeley campus.

The a...

Berkeley Sociology hosts talk on 2024 Election and MAGA Movement

November 1, 2023
Berkeley Sociology and the College of Letters and Science will host an inaugural lecture on the 2024 Election in remembrance and celebration of the late Sociology Emeritus Professor Neil J. Smelser. The event, open to the public, will feature Sociology Professor Emerita Arlie Hochschild, a distinguished member of Berkeley Sociology, friend and colleague of Professor Smelser. In this talk, Hochschild will pay tribute to Smelser by drawing on his extraordinary cornucopia of ideas to help understand the forces at work in the 2024 election. How has the MAGA movement come to dominate the...

A Call for Community on Campus

October 12, 2023

Chancellor Carol Christ sent to the following message to the Berkeley campus community Thursday afternoon.

We are increasingly concerned by the growing prevalence of online threats, doxxing and harassment connected to the conflict between Israel and Hamas. We decry any calls for violence in any form or support for terrorism as we continue to mourn the loss of innocent life. We understand this rhetoric is creating deep fear and concern among many members of our campus community. With that in mind, we want to share an extraordinary message, written by two of our faculty, one who is...

Rescuing dissent: Inside the year-long mission to bring prominent Putin critics to UC Berkeley

October 23, 2023

 Russian dissidents article image

Russian social science professors Ilya Matveev and Ilya Budraitskis, renowned for their expertise on authoritarianism, fled their country after Russia invaded Ukraine. A faculty and staff coalition helped give them a safe harbor at UC Berkeley.

Economics Prof. Emmanuel Saez wins Wihuri International Prize

October 9, 2023

Berkeley Economics Professor Emmanuel Saez

UC Berkeley Economics Professor Emmanuel Saez has been awarded the 2023 Wihuri International Prize for his work on specializing in tax policy and economic inequality, the Wihuri International Prizes Fund announced on Monday.

A globally recognized researcher in public economics, Professor Saez...

A history of innovation: Berkeley entrepreneurs, companies that changed the way we live

September 29, 2023

The culture and spirit of innovation at UC Berkeley throughout history can be seen in the changemakers — the Berkeley students, researchers, entrepreneurs, faculty members and alumni — who have helped in countless ways to improve our lives and our world.

Well-known innovators from Berkeley include Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, whose development of CRISPR is arguably the world's most important scientific advancement in decades, and...

UC Berkeley Economics professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman named 2023 Citation Laureates

September 19, 2023

UC Berkeley Economics professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman have been named 2023 Citation Laureates, Clarivate and its Institute for Scientific Information announced on Tuesday. This distinction recognizes that both Saez and Zucman are among the world's top economists whose work is considered to be of Nobel-prize class.

Both Saez and Zucman...

UC Berkeley Psychology and Economics departments Ranked No.1 by U.S. News

September 19, 2023

U.S. News college rankings

In its 2024 national rankings for best colleges, U.S. News and World Report ranked UC Berkeley Social Sciences departments of Psychology and Economics No. 1 for their undergraduate programs. Overall, UC Berkeley is once again the No. 1 public school in the country, tied with UCLA. In spring 2023, U.S. News ranked Berkeley Psychology No...

Berkeley Social Sciences announces new chairs and directors

September 11, 2023

Berkeley Social Sciences recently announced the appointments of 11 new department chairs and directors. They include:

Sabrina Agarwal Sabrina Agarwal, the new chair of the Department of Anthropology. Professor Agarwal’s research interests include bioarchaeology, biological...