Social Sciences (Faculty & Staff)

Sociology Professor Emerita Arlie Russell Hochschild wrote an op-ed that was published today in the The New York Times.

“We’re losing our best and brightest,” Roger Ford, the 58-year-old president of an energy startup, told me sadly one day as we ambled through a hillside cemetery brightened by graveside flowers. “Too many young people are leaving these mountains looking for jobs in cities, and too many of the ones who stay behind have been caught in an opioid epidemic.”

Mr. Ford has lived here in Kentucky’s Pike County all his life. Around us lay the graves of his...

The first cohort of the Master of Computational Social Sciences (MaCSS) program has officially graduated, capping off a year-long journey of discovery, innovation and transformation.

Over the past year, these students have learned to use computational tools to answer complex questions about human behavior and the social world, a pioneering combination of technology and social science that reshapes how we understand the world.

MaCSS graduates were filled with joy and excitement as they celebrated this milestone...

Sociology Professor G. Cristina Mora and Ethnic Studies Professor Nicholas Vargas, both of whom are affiliated with UC Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies (Mora is the co-director), wrote an op-ed that was published today in the Los Angeles Times.

News and social media feeds inundate us with dramatic scenes of immigration policing. Viral videos of immigrant mothers picked up on sidewalks near their homes, news...

Berkeley Economics Professor Edward Miguel has spent his career uncovering the structural forces behind poverty, instability and inequality. As the Oxfam Professor of Environmental and Resource Economics and co-director of the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), he leads groundbreaking research that ties together rural finance, climate change, conflict and human capital — often through long-term fieldwork in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Miguel's research isn't just about diagnosis. It's about evidence-based solutions, such as a recent study on post-harvest loans in Kenya that's...