Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

America’s Top Colleges 2021: For The First Time A Public School Is Number One

September 8, 2021
Christian Kreznarublic universities can deliver the most outstanding education to the broadest range of students at the most affordable price. That’s the message of Forbes’ 2021 ranking of top colleges. For the first time ever on a national ranking of Am

Public universities can deliver the most outstanding education to the broadest range of students at the most affordable price. That’s the message of Forbes’ 2021 ranking of top colleges.

For the first time ever on a national ranking of America’s best colleges, a public school, the University of California at Berkeley, is in the No. 1 spot (In 2009 West Point topped our list, but military academies are slightly different animals). Of the top 25 schools in the Forbes ranking, six are public, including three other U.C.s, the University of Michigan and the University of Florida.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/christiankreznar/2021/09/08/americas-top-colleges-2…

Memory of Dr. Sam Dubal '15 Honored Through $1M Anthropology Fellowship

September 7, 2021

Sam Dubal '15The Sam Dubal Fellowship in Critical Cultural and Medical Anthropology honors the legacy of Sam Dubal, M.D., Ph.D. ’15, as an anthropologist, activist, medical doctor, professor, and ardent contributor to many vibrant intellectual communities. Dubal’s family generously established a fellowship following his tragic disappearance during a hike on Mt. Rainier in October 2020. The Dubal family’s gift,...

"This Is Tax Evasion, Plain and Simple": Berkeley Economics Professor Gabriel Zucman in a NYT op-ed

July 7, 2021
Hagit Caspi

Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, director of the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Center on Wealth and Income Inequality at UC Berkeley Gabriel Zucman writes in a co-authored op-ed in the New York Times:

For the Biden administration to give working families a real leg up, it should push Congress to enact a 25 percent minimum tax, which would bring in about $200 billion in additional revenue each year. Over 10 years, that money would be ...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/07/07/opinion/minimum-corporate-tax.htm…

Can Food Labels Help Combat Obesity? New research from Berkeley Economics

August 19, 2021

A new Youtube video by Econimate asks whether food labels can help combat obesity.

The video is based on new research by Berkeley Economics professor Nano Barahona and Ph.D. student Cristóbal Otero, Sebastián Otero (Stanford), and Joshua Kim, on the equilibrium effects of food labeling policies.” Based on a new working paper.

Watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWHGwxJwvP4

Building a Just Social Sciences

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...

Psychologist Alison Gopnik wins Carl Sagan prize for promoting science

August 10, 2021
Yasmin Anwar

Alison Gopnik, psychologist, wins Carl Sagan PrizePsychologist Alison Gopnik, a world-renowned expert in child development and author of several popular books including The Scientist in the Crib, The Philosophical Baby, and The Gardener and the Carpenter, has won the 2021 Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization.

The prize, which comes with $5,000 in cash, is awarded by...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/08/10/psychologist-alison-gopnik-wins-carl-sagan-…

UC Berkeley's Division of Social Sciences Awarded Grant for Faculty Diversity

August 3, 2021
Michelle Phillips

The Division of Social Sciences in the College of Letters & Science received a grant totaling nearly $500K from the UC Office of the President for its proposal, Advancing Faculty Diversity in the Social Sciences. Part of the UC’s systemwide Advancing Faculty Diversity (AFD) program, this funding seeks to improve faculty diversity and enrich teaching, research and service missions among all UC campuses.

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Cal Alumnae Group, Women in Leadership Circle, Expands Program Across California

July 20, 2021

It’s no secret that UC Berkeley attracts outstanding women from all walks of life, all over the world, to pursue their educational goals. As these women transition from academic to professional careers, having a network of Cal alumnae ready and available for support can be a transformative benefit. In 2019, Jennifer Youstra ‘88 and Jessica Rothenberg-Aalami ‘94 partnered with the Social Sciences division in the College of Letters & Science to formally establish such a network and created the UC Berkeley Women in Leadership Circle (WILC).

Since its...

Meet Ethan Willbrand '21

July 15, 2021
Michelle Phillips
L&S Student Spotlight: Ethan Willbrand ‘21
Majors: Psychology (Social Sciences Division) and Molecular & Cell Biology (Biological Sciences Division)

Ethan Willbrand '21, L&S graduateFrom the moment he completed his first psychology class in high school, Ethan Willbrand knew he wanted to learn more about the brain and to explore how humans think and act. But it...

For neuroscientists, a checklist for eliminating gender bias

July 7, 2021
Robert Sanders

In 2019, Anaïs Llorens and Athina Tzovara — one a current, the other a former University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral scholar at the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute (HWNI) — were attending a scientific meeting and pleased that one session, on gender bias in academia, attracted nearly a full house. The problem: The audience of some 300 was almost all women.

Where were the men, they wondered? More than 75% of all tenured faculty in Ph.D. programs around the world are men, making their participation key to solving the problem of gender bias, which negatively impacts the...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/07/07/for-neuroscientists-a-checklist-for-elimina…