Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

Julie Thao is finding ways to heal trauma in her Hmong community

May 14, 2021

Julie Thao '21Julie Thao graduates this year with a bachelor’s in Asian American and Asian diaspora studies from the Department of Ethnic Studies, and a minor in global public health. Here, Thao reflects on the impact of violence and war on her family, and why Hmong American history is ignored.

Kim Nalley, Ph.D. graduate, on the renaissance of Black protest music

May 18, 2021

Kim Nalley '21Kim Nalley graduated in May 2021 with a Ph.D. in history from the College of Letters & Science. In her dissertation, “G.I. Jazz,” she looks at African Americans as jazz artists, as well as occupiers, in post-World War II Germany.

Grad Student Spotlight: Rachel Lim, PhD candidate in Ethnic Studies

May 4, 2021

Republished from BCSR:

As part of our series spotlighting UC Berkeley graduate student research, BCSR recently had the opportunity to sit down with Rachel Lim, a PhD Candidate in Ethnic Studies studying Korean diaspora in the Americas. She is completing a dissertation entitled “Itinerant Belonging: Korean Transnational Migration to and from Mexico.” Her work has been recently published or is forthcoming in The Journal of Asian American Studies and Verge: Studies in Global Asias.

Read more:...

Dr. Jovan Lewis, L&S faculty, appointed to Newsom's Reparations Task Force

May 7, 2021

As the country continues to confront a history of racial injustice, deeply rooted in the legacy of slavery and systemic racism, today, Governor Gavin Newsom appointed five individuals to serve on the newly formed Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. The formation of this task force was made possible by the Governor’s signing of AB 3121, authored by then-Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), which established a nine-member task force to inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations.

Join us for a panel on April 1: The Long History and Present Surge of Anti-Asian Violence

March 25, 2021

Please join us on April 1 at 5pm PDT for a panel discussion on rising anti-Asian violence in America. This timely panel will consider both the long history of anti-Asian racism and present-day patterns linked to the pandemic and to cultural anxieties about Asian ascendancy and Western decline.

The panel will feature presentations by Professors Russell Jeung (San Francisco State University), Catherine Choy (UC Berkeley), and Kimberly Hoang (University of Chicago). Michael Lu, Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health, will offer an introduction, and Raka Ray, Dean of the Division...

Lessons for U.S. Health Reform: Ideas from Health Care around the World

May 4, 2021

 Ideas from Health Care around the World

What can the U.S. learn from other health systems? Health economics and policy research in the U.S. has been primarily focused either on the details of the U.S. health care system or occasionally on systems in other countries at an aggregate level. Our belief, however, is that more detailed studies of health care in many nations outside of the U.S., particularly those in Europe...

Four L&S faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

April 22, 2021

L&S Faculty Electees into American Academy of Arts and SciencesSix UC Berkeley faculty members and top scholars have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), a 241-year-old organization honoring the country’s most accomplished artists, scholars, scientists and leaders who help solve the world’s most urgent challenges.

Four of the six newest...

David Card, Berkeley Economics Professor, elected to the National Academy of Sciences

April 26, 2021

David Card, an economist in the College of Letters & Science's Social Sciences Division, was one of three UC Berkeley faculty members elected to join the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a 158-year-old institution whose membership recognizes distinguished achievements in original research.

World-renowned anthropologist Paul Rabinow dies at 76

April 26, 2021

Paul Rabinow, a world-renowned anthropologist, theorist and interlocutor of French philosopher Michel Foucault, his former comrade, died from cancer at his home in Berkeley on April 6. He was 76.

A professor emeritus of anthropology, Rabinow joined the UC Berkeley faculty in 1978 after earning his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He retired in 2019.

KQED Forum in conversation with Professor Nikki Jones: Nation Reacts to Guilty Verdict in George Floyd Killing

April 21, 2021

NPR's Forum spoke to Nikki Jones, professor of African American Studies, UC Berkeley, author of "The Chosen Ones: Black Men and the Politics of Redemption," about the results of the Derek Chauvin trial and the meaning of justice in America.