Social Sciences

Dolores Huerta’s legacy is the generations of labor activists she inspired from the frontlines

November 2, 2026

Ethnic Studies Professor Christian Paiz published this commentary in CalMatters.

The only time I have been arrested was with Dolores Huerta in 2004.

I was 21 and an intern with the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees union, or HERE, which was leading a campaign to unionize workers in the Agua Caliente Casino and Resort in Palm Springs.

The workers’ demands spoke of everyday concerns and needs, and of the marginal conditions in their absence:...

Berkeley Social Sciences Strategic Plan

Following more than a year of consultation, the Social Science Dean’s Office has identified a series of priorities that will guide us over the next five to seven years. On campus, we will engage our diverse student populations, both undergraduate and graduate. We will continue to ensure opportunities for them to develop analytical skills, preparing them to be honest and ethical members of society– while also preparing them for the twenty-first century workplace. We will continue supporting real innovation through social science research. More than ever before, we will seek to share our...

Latino voters shape California politics. What’s influencing their vote?

November 2, 2026

Democrat Xavier Becerra is ahead of Republican Steve Hilton in the California governor’s race, according to the latest UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies’ (IGS) poll. If he wins, Becerra will become the state’s first Latino governor since 1875.

Becerra, California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and Senate President pro tempore Monique Limón would form the strongest concentration of Latino leadership in the California Legislature’s...

Is the California Dream dead? New Berkeley podcast explores wealth inequality and other societal issues

October 29, 2026

Editor’s Note: Listen to “Socially Curious at Berkeley,” a new podcast from UC Berkeley Social Sciences here. The opinions expressed by the guests on the podcast are their own and do not represent UC Berkeley.

How did California become one of the wealthiest places in the world, yet people still struggle to pay for rent, groceries and utilities? Is the California Dream still alive? And what will it take for prosperity to be shared among...

Are California elections safe? Here's what the experts say.

October 28, 2026

With Election Day less than a week away, California’s elections have already attracted controversy. They’ve drawn scrutiny from the federal government over slow ballot counts, mail-in voting and more.

The Department of Justice sued California earlier this month over what it says could be as many as 20,000 people committing voter fraud, and it charged 28 people in California with illegally registering or voting in federal elections.

This has led to mistrust in election systems. A UC Berkeley Institute of...

What can AI learn from children?

October 14, 2026

AI models are always hungry for vast amounts of information, so it can learn how to give us human-like responses. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-3 trained on 570 gigabytes of text, or roughly 225 billion words.

But children and babies, however, do not require an enormous pool of information to learn how language works. They listen and try things like imitating the sounds of people around them – a different way of learning that’s more efficient and consumes much less energy.

Is it possible for AI to learn more like young...

Will AI decide who wins the midterms?

October 26, 2026

Artificial intelligence has been woven into the everyday lives of Americans. As voters head to the polls on November 3 for a consequential midterm election, will AI change the way they get their information and ultimately influence how they vote?

Since the 2024 presidential election, AI use has grown significantly, according to a Pew Research Center poll, which found that half of U.S. adults use AI, with a quarter of them using it daily. Two years ago, only one-third of adults had used AI platforms.

Public...

How the legacy of slavery shapes health disparities today

October 22, 2026

An institution that existed more than 150 years ago is still impacting who lives and dies today.

A new study co-authored by UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Manuel Galvan found that modern-day Black Americans have higher mortality rates in counties that had greater proportions of enslaved people in the 19th century.

The opposite was true for White Americans: counties with a greater historical reliance on slavery had lower mortality rates among White residents.

The study, “...

Social Sciences in the News: Economics Professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman in The New York Times

October 20, 2026

Economics Professors Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman were featured in an article in The New York Times titled, "How California’s Ultrarich Are Trying to Stop the World’s First Billionaire Tax."

Control of Congress is the biggest issue at stake in November’s elections. A close second might be the fight over a ballot initiative in California, Proposition 40, that seeks to impose a wealth tax on the state’s roughly 250 billionaires. If approved, it will be the world’s first billionaire tax.

At a town hall in August, one of its chief proponents, Representative Ro Khanna...