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This is Us. Urban density is our geopolitical destiny

Vishaan Chakrabarti, Dean of College of Environmental Design | November 9, 2020

In the days, weeks, and years ahead, we have much work to do. In our college, this work is particularly acute because geography is destiny, and our destiny is density. Red states and blue states? Fuggedaboutit! Elections in the United States are increasingly about our cities and the communities that enliven them.

On Un-Naming Barrows Hall

Ron Hendel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies | July 29, 2020

There are many complicated issues here about how to judge, remember, and commemorate the past, which are not easily resolved. But I hope we can agree that we should tell the truth about past. This should be our starting point for all consequential discussions, a point that has been under some stress lately.

A Tale of Two Dropouts: Arts, Humanities, and Education for the Future

Timothy Hampton, professor of French and comparative literature, director of the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities | July 23, 2020

No one at Berkeley would ever encourage a student to drop out of the university. But you can learn a lot from studying what college dropouts do with their lives. Recently, I have been thinking about two famous dropouts who have been in the news. Observers of the political situation and the state of public … Continue reading »

Lessons from the history of anthropology

Rosemary Joyce, professor of anthropology | July 4, 2020

I am trained as an anthropologist and believe deeply in the future of my discipline. But if we are going to be able to move forward into the future I want to see happen– a future being shaped by my students, who come from much more diverse communities than ever before — we have to … Continue reading »

On the Renaming of Anthropology’s Kroeber Hall

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, anthropology professor | July 1, 2020

I was deeply distressed  to learn about an administrative plan to remove the name of AL Kroeber from Kroeber Hall. The decision was not discussed with the anthropology faculty. Moreover, the ‘statement’ on Alfred Kroeber was woefully  misinformed and  in the pop style of social media “cancel culture”, based on shaming and removing public figures … Continue reading »

An open letter to my neighbor who accused me of stealing

Sandra Bass, Associate Dean and Executive Director UC Berkeley Public Service Center | June 26, 2020

Recently while shopping in my San Francisco neighborhood, I was racially profiled and accused of stealing by another customer. This was not the first time I was racially profiled in a city known for its progressivism. This open letter is an invitation to all, and particularly those who count themselves among the “woke,” to dig … Continue reading »

Cuba HIV/AIDS: Epidemics and Containment

Nancy Scheper-Hughes, anthropology professor | June 22, 2020

The principle upon which the fight against disease should be based is on the creation of a robust body; But not the robust body created by the artistic work of a doctor upon a singular weak organism; rather the creation of a robust body by the work of the entire social collective upon the entire … Continue reading »

How to Globalize Clean Energy

David Roland-Holst, Adjunct Professor, Agricultural and Resource Economics | June 20, 2020

This blog was co-authored with Cecilia Han Springer, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School.   Abstract Renewable energy is an essential component of our defense against emergent climate risk. While renewable generation and distribution technologies hold enormous promise now and are enjoying rapid innovation, … Continue reading »

All lives can’t matter until black lives matter too

john a. powell, director, Othering & Belonging Institute | June 17, 2020

All lives matter ignores history and resists efforts to improve the lives of black people specifically, who have been struggling for 400 years under the weight of anti-black racism to belong in this country and to have our humanity seen.

We need to move from ritualized responses to reparation

Sandra Bass, Associate Dean and Executive Director UC Berkeley Public Service Center | June 5, 2020

Shifts in the social terrain, if navigated skillfully and boldly, could serve as the catalyst we need to finally embark on the long journey towards a reckoning that has been over 400 years in the making.

We’ll be carried forward upon the whispers of our elders

Sandra Bass, Associate Dean and Executive Director UC Berkeley Public Service Center | May 3, 2020

  “Dearly beloved, we have gathered here today To get through this thing called life” ~Prince One evening in early March, before we were all sent home to shelter, I got a call from my mother. She told me that her cousin and her cousin’s husband had been rushed to the hospital. Both were diagnosed … Continue reading »

Don’t let physical isolation become emotional isolation

john a. powell, director, Othering & Belonging Institute | March 19, 2020

We hope you are staying healthy and safe during this period of uncertainty as governments around the world take dramatic and unprecedented measures to try to contain the pandemic currently disrupting life on our planet. As has been pointed out in many commentaries on the current situation, the pandemic exposes the inadequacies of our health … Continue reading »