News

A look back in time to understand our present: California local government publications from the 1976 Bicentennial

July 6, 2026
Paul D King

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, it is the perfect moment to look back fifty years to the nation’s previous milestone: the 1976 Bicentennial.

Through the lens of the California Local Government Documents Digitization Collection, we can explore a range of the pressing issues that shaped local governance at the time. Across the...

IGS is hiring a 2026-2027 Media and Design Student Assistant!

June 29, 2026
Ezra Bristow
Student Assistant II (This is a work-study position) Start Date: 8/12/2026 Pay: $19.61/hour, approximately 8-12 hours per week Reports to: IGS Event and Communications Director Job Description:

The Institute of Governmental Studies is searching for a motivated, passionate, positive, student assistant to support content creation, and video production highlighting our programs, events, and student opportunities. The Event and Media Student Assistant reports to the IGS Event and Communications Coordinator...

IGS is Hiring a 2026-2027 Communications and Admin Student Assistant!

June 29, 2026
Ezra Bristow
Student Assistant II (This is a work-study position) Start Date: 8/12/2026 Pay: $19.61/hour, approximately 8-12 hours per week Reports to: IGS Event and Communications Director Job Description:

The Institute of Governmental Studies is searching for a creative, detail-oriented student assistant to help advance the Institute's digital reach by supporting communications strategy, content scheduling, and administrative operations. This position provides communications support across the...

IGS is hiring a 2026-2027 Events and AV Student Assistant!

June 29, 2026
Ezra Bristow
Student Assistant II (This is a work-study position) Start Date: 8/12/2026 Pay: $19.61/hour, approximately 8-12 hours per week Reports to: IGS Event and Communications Director Job Description:

The Institute of Governmental Studies is searching for a detail-oriented and technically proficient student assistant to support the audio-visual elements of our events and programs. This position provides event support for our classes, lectures, major events, seminars, socials, and workshops,...

Remembering Paloma Foster (1990-2026), a 2024 Democracy Camp in DC Fellow

June 29, 2026
Madeleine Kashkooli

The Daily Californian published a tribute to Paloma Foster, a UC Berkeley re-entry student parent and 2024 IGS Democracy Camp in DC fellow, who died on June 21 at age 35. Foster was a Regents' and Chancellors' Scholar majoring in political science, with minors in public policy and ethnic studies, and channeled her own experiences with incarceration and the foster system into a deep commitment to criminal justice reform. IGS Events and Communications Director Ezra Hom-Bristow, who first met Foster during Democracy Camp, remembered her as "extremely magnetic" and "passionate in a way that...

KQED features IGS Library Director Kris Kasianovitz in coverage of the planned closure of the Bay Area's National Archives facility

June 25, 2026
Adhiti Bandlamudi

KQED reported on the National Archives and Records Administration's plan to close its Bay Area facility in San Bruno, which holds more than 75,000 cubic feet of immigration, court, and genealogical records, including original documents from the landmark birthright citizenship case United States v. Wong Kim Ark and Alcatraz inmate records. Kris Kasianovitz, library director at the IGS Library at UC Berkeley, said the closure "feels like an attack on access to key government records," emphasizing their long-term value as historical evidence. Federal officials have not specified...

Berkeley News covers new Berkeley IGS Poll finding that defending democracy is California voters' top priority in the governor's race

June 5, 2026
Ed Lempinen

Berkeley News reported on a new Berkeley IGS Poll, led by IGS Co-Director Eric Schickler, which found that a strong majority of California voters across party lines want candidates for governor and president to prioritize defending democracy and voting rights. The poll found that 80% of likely voters in the June 2 primary called the issue very important to their vote, ranking it above the cost of living, education, homelessness, and crime, while just 27% of registered voters believe state leaders are doing enough to defend democracy. Schickler noted that despite this apparent convergence...

Rails Across the Bay: Exploring a Forgotten Transportation Future

June 2, 2026
Kyra Eyerman

My role as a Digitization Technician here at IGSL involves manually digitizing local government documents page by page. At face value, government documents might appear trivial to the untrained eye, but in working with our collection I have been struck by the idea that all the little things that affect everyday life that we often take for granted in our cities, from the sounds we hear to the air we breathe, are the result of deliberate engineering and policy decisions, often made long before their full impacts were understood.

I was particularly captivated by the...

Berkeley News spotlights new book co-authored by IGS Co-Director G. Cristina Mora examining how Californians rationalize the state's deepening wealth gap

May 28, 2026
Lila Thulin

Berkeley News profiled Normalizing Inequality: How Californians Make Sense of the Growing Divide, a new book co-authored by IGS Co-Director and UC Berkeley sociology professor G. Cristina Mora and Berkeley African American Studies professor Tianna Paschel. Drawing on 136 in-depth interviews with middle-class residents of Los Angeles County and the Central Valley, the book identifies three key patterns (exceptional framing, spatial comparison, and bounded blame) through which Californians rationalize profound economic disparities while maintaining a progressive self-image. The...

East Bay Express covers April Berkeley IGS Poll findings on California voters' concerns about the state of American democracy

May 19, 2026
Janis Hashe

The East Bay Express reported on findings from the April Berkeley IGS Poll of 5,962 registered California voters on the state of American democracy, drawing extensively on remarks by IGS Co-Director Eric Schickler at the April 27 Sacramento event co-sponsored by IGS and the UCLA Voting Rights Project. The article highlights key poll findings, including that 68% of respondents feel American democracy is under attack, 64% cited voter suppression as a major concern, and 79% believe corporations have too much influence on elections. Schickler noted that while California voters broadly...