Humanities

An illustration shows a man being manipulated like a string puppet by a disembodied hand.

Campus news

Why conspiracies are so popular — and what we can do to stop them

UC Berkeley Professor Timothy Tangherlini uses lessons from folklore and AI to understand how social media fuels the spread of conspiracies, and how we can use storytelling tools to stem the tide of misinformation.

Humanities

Uncovering the roots of prison labor in America

Two young girls sit closely together in this scene from the HBO series

Arts & culture

No. 1 book of the century, ‘My Brilliant Friend’, is subject of UC Berkeley research, courses

Campus & community

Berkeley Talks: Computational folklorist on how storytelling becomes belief

Michelle Yeoh stands with a hand to her mouth as Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan congratulate her.

With the help of AI, UC Berkeley researchers confirm Hollywood is getting more diverse

A robotic hand types on a computer keyboard, signifying the advances in AI technology's ability to be creative and craft stories.

Don’t worry. Study shows you’re likely a more creative writer than ChatGPT. For now.

A student reads a book in a campus library and is sitting at a large wooden table.

World Humanities Report, directed by UC Berkeley’s Sara Guyer, warns of extinction risk to human knowledge

UC Berkeley professor Nicole Holliday seated next to a still of Kamala Harris

When Kamala Harris is speaking, this professor is listening

High schoolers from Hillbrook School in San Jose talk about items on display in The Bancroft Library on Aug. 30, 2024.

60 years later, the Free Speech Movement’s legacy lives on at the UC Berkeley Library

Performers on stage in the Broadway show,

Two centuries later, performance spaces still struggle with ‘soft censorship’

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

dozens of tv screens showing various sporting events from the control room of the Beijing Olympics

What is lost — and gained — when Olympics coverage becomes a round-the-clock spectacle?

Berkeley Talks: Reconsidering Black America’s relationship to the plantation

Film changed the way people saw sexuality. Now, social media does.

Justin Davidson as a toddler smiles as he rides a horse and his mom smiles and holds him on the saddle.

Berkeley Voices: One brain, two languages

Circle-shaped headshots of Jennifer Redfearn and John Connelly, UC Berkeley's newest recipients of Guggenheim Fellowships, are in shades of blue.

UC Berkeley historian, documentary filmmaker are 2024 Guggenheim Fellows

All Humanities