Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

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

September 29, 2023
Ivan Natividad

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...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/09/29/a-history-of-innovation-berkeley-entreprene…

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

September 19, 2023
Kenny Ma

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...

https://clarivate.com/news/clarivate-unveils-citation-laureates-2023-annual-list…

Berkeley Social Sciences announces new chairs and directors

September 11, 2023
Kenny Ma

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...

UC Berkeley Social Sciences launches one-year Master of Computational Social Science program

September 18, 2023
Kenny Ma

Two UC Berkeley students and a laptop

UC Berkeley Social Sciences Dean Raka Ray announced today the launch of a new Master of Computational Social Science (MaCSS) program, which is now accepting applications for its inaugural cohort in Aug. 2024....

L&S Leads Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Awards

April 27, 2022

L&S Recipients of Distinguished Teaching Awards 2022The College of Letters & Science is well represented on the 2022 UC Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award list. L&S faculty earned four of this year’s five selections for the campus’s most prestigious honor for...

Berkeley Sociology creates endowment to honor Professor Emeritus Michael Burawoy

September 15, 2023
Kenny Ma

Professor Emeritus Michael Burawoy

UC Berkeley's Sociology Department recently received a $100,000 gift from alumna Suava Zbierski-Salameh to establish an endowment to support students in honor of ...

Most Californians oppose cash reparations for slave descendants, IGS Poll finds

September 12, 2023
Edward Lempinem

California voters are broadly opposed to paying the state’s Black residents to compensate for the longstanding harms of slavery, with opposition extending across party lines, according to a new poll released by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies.

The IGS Poll found that 60% of Californians acknowledge the deep and continuing human damage caused by centuries of slavery and the segregation and persecution of Black people that continued long after slavery legally ended in 1865. But strong...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/09/12/Most-Californians-oppose-cash-reparations-f…

UC Berkeley historian of science ponders AI's past, present and future

September 11, 2023
Jason Pohl

Headshot of Cathryn CarsonIt doesn’t take long for a conversation about artificial intelligence to take a dark turn.

New technology poses a greater threat than climate change, some have said. It poses...

https://news.berkeley.edu/2023/09/11/UC-Berkeley-historian-of-science-ponders-AI…

Social Sciences welcomes new faculty

August 24, 2023
Kenny Ma

Headshot of Tianna Bruno

Twelve new scholars have joined the Berkeley Social Sciences faculty as assistant professors in political science, anthropology, gender and women’s studies, sociology, history, ethnic studies, economics and geography. They bring passion, brilliance and commitment to the Social Sciences. Learn more about them ...

Berkeley history professor receives NEH grant for groundbreaking project on Istanbul's Greek Orthodox communities in the 19th and 20th centuries

August 15, 2023
Kenny Ma

UC Berkeley History Professor Christine Philliou has been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a 3-year research project to create a comprehensive, public-facing website to build new types of knowledge and raise public awareness about Istanbul and its constituent Orthodox Christian communities in the 19th and 20th centuries. The project, titled "Visualizing...

https://www.neh.gov/news/neh-announces-413-million-280-humanities-projects-natio…