Equity-related social science research depends upon data and materials from a wide variety of public and private institutions. IPIRA contracting officers review, negotiate, and sign research data use and material transfer agreements, supporting UC Berkeley’s world-leading scholars efforts to deepen our understanding of the inequality in society and formulate new approaches to address the challenge of creating a more equitable society. Here are a few examples of Berkeley studies into the diversity of human experience made possible by access to research data, illuminating a broad range of identities, behaviors, values, and policies.
Conrad Miller, associate professor in the Haas School of Business, is a labor economist working with criminal justice and criminal court records. Dr. Miller studies inequality between social groups with a focus on race and gender, pursuing: (1) what role do firms play in producing labor market inequality between social groups?; (2) what are the consequences of discrimination?; and (3) what are the effects of policy responses to discrimination? Collaborator: Graduate student researcher, Jess Nelson.
Tim Thomas, postdoctoral scholar and research director at the Urban Displacement Project, specializes in urban sociology, demography, and data science. His studies of eviction data show how neighborhood change, housing, and displacement affects household socioeconomic stratification and mobility by race and gender in the United States.
Cecilia Mo, the Judith E. Gruber Associate Professor of Political Science and Associate Professor of Public Policy at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, obtained audio and video materials from the Museum of Chinese in America for her research into interventions to improve America’s attitudes, beliefs and actions toward Asian Americans. Her work explores cultivating democratic citizenship, understanding and addressing the negative consequences of rising inequality, combatting modern day slavery, and reducing prejudice.
Kim Harley is faculty director of the Wallace Center for Maternal, Child, and Adolescent Health, associate director of the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH) Associate Director, Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health, and associate adjunct professor in the School of Public. Data from menstrual period track app BioWink advances her maternal, child, and adolescent health research, making it possible for her to address environmental health issues in underserved communities.
Rohini Haar, assistant adjunct professor in the Berkeley School of Health, is also a Berkeley Law Human Rights Center research fellow, and an emergency physician at Kaiser Medical Center. Access to Syrian Civil Defense data makes it possible for Dr. Haar to evaluate the public health impacts of attacks on healthcare in Syria