By Jessica Newfield (MPA Candidate '21) One day at a time. That’s what our close ones, our colleagues, and our meditation apps keep telling us these days. It is a given at this moment that mental health is a struggle for many of us as we are experiencing different forms of pandemic fatigue and US election-related anxiety. And this is with an ever-changing backdrop of climate uncertainty. No pressure.  According to a recent study by the American Psychology…

In 1964, civil rights activists organized a voter education and registration campaign to enfranchise Black Mississippians and to spotlight the intense, often violent, resistance faced by Black voters in the South. Freedom Summer drew volunteers from all over the United States, many of whom were college students.  Goldman School faculty member and One Fair Wage President Saru Jayaraman imagined a 2020 version of Freedom Summer, with college students working to enfranchise voters, especially in swing states. But what could this look…

In November 2019, Aja Houle (MPA candidate ‘21) walked into the Oakland Police Department. She was there to file a report on the man who had trafficked her when she was just fourteen years old. It was an important step in the thirteen-year-long journey of courage and recovery that’s led Aja from the trauma of being a commercially sexually exploited child (CSEC) to being an advocate and a policy student at the Goldman School. In addition to being a…

By Jessica Newfield (MPA Candidate '21) The right to representation is the foundation of a functioning democracy. Though the US has seen centuries of voter suppression laws and actions depriving Americans of the right to vote, the 2020 election has made it more blatant than ever that this right is still being denied to  American citizens.  New York Times writer and former White House reporter Jim Rutenberg states that “Voter fraud is an adaptable fiction, and the president has…

The state line between Missouri and Kansas is five blocks from AJ Herrmann’s (MPP ‘17) house.  This simple geographic fact contributes to the complexity that is Kansas City, one metro area spread out across two states and six counties. There are ongoing concerns about housing, jobs, violent crime, and education, and, in recent months, the addition of a global pandemic and protests for racial justice and policing reform.  “It’s been quite a season…

by Jessica Newfield (MPA Candidate '21) The Goldman School community is heavy-hearted at the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. To many of us, she was an icon of the second wave feminism movement that paved the way for legal and policy reform to protect women’s reproductive health and equal pay rights. She was a symbol of dissent against a highly patriarchal justice system, while staying strategically nonpartisan throughout her career, and withstanding the disruptive waves of frequent political…

Sudha Shetty is the Assistant Dean for International Partnerships and Alliances at the Goldman School of Public at UC Berkeley. Her research area is focused on International Child Abduction and the intersection of Violence Against Women and is a PI on the grant from the Department of Justice. She has also served as the Director of the International Fellowship Program and a graduate faculty at the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs where she…

The Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley invites applications for a tenure track or tenured appointment to the faculty, most likely at the advanced Assistant or Associate Professor rank, with an expected start date of July 1, 2021. We seek applications from intellectually exciting scholars whose research informs and advances the design and analysis of policy and who will teach innovative courses to a diverse student body. We are especially interested in candidates whose research and expertise…

Dear UC Public Policy Community and Friends: We are writing as the Deans of the four UC Public Policy Schools to defend academic research efforts, such as Critical Race Theory, against the attacks of the President’s Office of Management and Budget (see September 4th letter from OMB on "Training in the Federal Government").  Becoming anti-racist is a core tenet of the American creed that begins with the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation that all human…

Dr. Anibel Ferus-Comelo draws upon over 20 years of community-engaged research and teaching to her joint appointment at the Center for Labor Research and Education and the Goldman School of Public Policy. She directs the Labor Studies program at UC Berkeley through courses, internships, and collaborative research initiatives. Her own scholarship has focused on the implications of corporate restructuring for workers and labor organization at different nodes of global production networks in the world’s most lucrative industries. She has…