Two L&S Professors Named CIFAR

Azrieli Global Scholars

May 26, 2021
Two UC Berkeley faculty members from the College of Letters & Science, Daniel Aldana
Cohen and Ellora Derenoncourt, have been named CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars(link is
external). CIFAR invites 19 exceptional early-career researchers from across the natural,
biomedical and social sciences and the humanities to join one of their interdisciplinary
research programs that address some of the most important questions facing science and
humanity. Scholars are awarded $100,000 in unrestricted research support and receive a
two-year term in a CIFAR research program. 

Daniel Aldana Cohen is an incoming assistant professor of

sociology and will join UC Berkeley in July 2021. His work focuses on the politics of climate
change, investigating the intersections of climate change, housing, political economy, social
movements, and inequalities of race and social class. 
How will this grant intersect with your area of expertise? 
I’ll be working with CIFAR’s Innovation, Equity & Future of Prosperity program. It’s a timely
moment to work on industrial policy, which is back in fashion now, and will be a key tool in
fighting the climate emergency. With this program, I plan to consider ways to generate
greater economic and racial equity through green investments, especially in this period of
post-COVID stimulus programs. For several years, the direction of my work has been
examining the politics of the climate emergency - I’ve studied eco-apartheid and the kinds of
policy that would decarbonize economic life, while tackling race and class inequalities. I also
believe any democratic energy transition has to be an anti-racist transition. Previous rounds
of public investment have not succeeded in this. This is a dimension of the climate crisis
that needs more scholarly attention. 
What aspects of this program and opportunity excite you most?
In general, I’m the happiest working across disciplinary silos, especially to understand
climate change politics, and this program will let me do that work. As social scientists, we
can see far more broadly by bringing scholars together in conversation about big changes
that are coming to the world. No one can make sense of all this alone. I’m interested in the
worlds of artificial intelligence and biomedicine, and the CIFAR fellowship will allow me to
learn from new colleagues about the big changes afoot in those fields and how they
intersect with climate politics.   

Ellora Derenoncourt is an assistant professor in the department of

economics and the Goldman School of Public Policy. She works on labor economics,
economic history, and the study of inequality.
How will this grant intersect with your area of expertise? 
CIFAR's generous award will support my research on the economics of inequality and the
economic history of institutions. Because the funds aren't restricted to any particular project,
the award allows me to pursue high-risk, high-reward projects. One of these projects
explores the impact of the Atlantic slave trade on European economic development. A once
active but now somewhat dormant literature within economics studied the effect of slavery
on the rise of capitalism, inspired by the work of historian Eric Williams. We have very little
evidence on this question using modern econometrics and causal inference. My existing
working paper on this question establishes a strong association between European port
participation in the slave trade and city growth. I plan to collect additional data that allows
me to further explore this relationship and understand mechanisms.
What aspects of this program and opportunity excite you most?
One of my favorite aspects of CIFAR is the interdisciplinary nature of the program. A core
part of my research agenda examines how unequal institutions facing Black and white
Americans have conditioned their joint economic trajectories. From total exclusion from
under slavery to continued exclusion from economic flourishing today, Black Americans
face serious barriers to equality. This work resonates strongly with that of scholars studying
questions of economic and political integration in the context of international migration. I
have already learned a great deal from exchanges with sociologists and political scientists
in my program (Boundaries, Membership, and Belonging) working on these questions.
More information about the CIFAR Azrieli Global Scholars program is available on
their website(link is external).