Berkeley News

photo illustration showing, on left, two U.S. men in 2024 offering the Nazi salute, and on right, hundreds of Nazis offering the same salute in 1930s Germany.

Business & economics

Fascism shattered Europe a century ago — and historians hear echoes today in the U.S.

After the mass death and destruction of World War I, with their economies shredded by inflation and unemployment, Italy and Germany turned from democracy to dictatorships. UC Berkeley scholars see troubling parallels in contemporary American democracy.

Ussama Makdisi speaking to his class

Campus news

New Palestinian and Arab Studies program established at UC Berkeley

a librarian arranges books inside of a display case

Arts & culture

Artists’ books shine in new exhibit at the UC Berkeley Library

A photo of students on Cal’s men’s and women’s golf teams standing in 2 rows

Campus & community

$23 million gift for Cal Golf marks largest endowment in Athletics history

Spotlight: Back to School

Chancellor Rich Lyons gestures towards the camera as he speaks towards the viewer.

Chancellor Lyons welcomes UC Berkeley to a new academic year

Chancellor Lyons, wearing a Berkeley Changemaker sweatshirt, talks with a campus RA, a resident assistant, during one of the fall move-in days. She is wearing a gold

New chancellor, new housing and robot ramen help kick off Berkeley’s 2024 fall semester

Vihaan smiles while sitting in a courtyard at Berkeley

At 16, he was a cricket star. Then an accident made him rethink his future.

Research

A crowd of supporters holding signs and wearing Trump-branded shirts cheer as Donald Trump, blurred in the foreground, walks onto a stage.

Politics & society

Sociologist examines Appalachian voters’ rightward shift, with Trump as their ‘shame shield’

UC Berkeley sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild traveled to eastern Kentucky to study how pride and shame affect people’s politics. Then came ‘a perfect storm.’

outline sketches of grains: corn, wheat and rice

Research

Agriculture accelerated human genome evolution to capture energy from starchy foods

Landscape architect Walter Hood sits, smiling, as he speaks to the camera next to a still photo of a bridge.

Research

Landscape architecture is more people than plants, says UC Berkeley professor

a bearded man wearing goggles adjust equipment inside a fume hood

Research

New process vaporizes plastic bags and bottles, yielding gases to make new, recycled plastics

an orange slice of bread and an orange liquid in a white bowl being topped with a drop of amber liquid from a pipette

Research

Can fungi turn food waste into the next culinary sensation?

Arts & culture

A black and white illustration depicts an artist’s imagining of an aquifer, showing a large underground mass sprouting a collection of small arms that reach for the roots of plants growing above.

Can an aquifer be injured? Scholar brings a disability lens to ecological repair

Camilo and five other AileyCampers practice a dance on stage in 2009

Dance prepared him for the NFL. It began with a Berkeley summer camp.

More Arts & culture

Podcasts

Aileen Liu, Hernan Garcia, Christian Paiz and Arianne Eason sit in chairs on a dark stage and talk

Berkeley Talks: What is understanding? Berkeley scholars discuss

Michael Pollan and Mina Kim sit on stage in conversation

Berkeley Talks: It’s not just psychedelics that change minds, says Michael Pollan. Storytelling does, too.

People

Rich Lyons: What free speech, community mean to UC Berkeley

Rich Lyons stands pivoted toward the camera, smiling.

Rich Lyons on the future of innovation and entrepreneurship at Berkeley

Campus & community

Four researchers walk across a grassy plateau with a view of moutains in the background.

UC Berkeley launches new center focused on environmental stewardship

A person during an event for business startups at UC Berkeley demonstrates a dental implant that her company produces.

UC Berkeley ranked No. 1 for generating startup founders, companies and female entrepreneurs

More Campus & community