A group photo of OBI staff
WE ALL BELONG IN THE CIRCLE OF HUMAN CONCERN

Othering is the problem of our time. Belonging is the solution.

The Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley advances groundbreaking approaches to transforming structural marginalization and inequality. We are scholars, organizers, communicators, researchers, artists, and policymakers committed to building a world where all people belong.

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Featured Content

Understanding Authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is rising around the world — threatening democracy, human rights, and the fundamental dignity of diverse communities. This resource library is a curated collection of articles, essays, tools, and analyses designed to help you...

Featured Work

Letter Concerning the Starvation of Gaza

Editor's note: The ideas expressed in this letter are not necessarily those of the Othering & Belonging Institute or UC Berkeley, but belong to the signers.
  • Impact Story
  • August 28, 2025

Impact Story: Bridging in the biosciences by building a better environment

When Caroline Williams thinks about ecosystems, she doesn’t just picture insects pollinating flowers or birds feeding on seeds. She imagines people—students and faculty, scientists and staff—woven together in networks of support and care. “In an...
  • Blog
  • August 21, 2025

Normalizing the Exceptional

For the past ten years or more, I’ve had the sense that debates on migration policy keep looping back on themselves, like a political Groundhog Day–at least, on the surface. Amongst most of the political leadership in Europe and North America, the predominant themes, once the remit of far-right politicians, seem to stay the same...
  • Video
  • August 6, 2025

Opportunity Explained

What is opportunity—and how is it shaped by race and structural inequality? Based on insights from Stephen Menendian, Head of Research at OBI, this visual explainer breaks down life pathways, equity, and systems change in a powerful new way.
  • August 15, 2025

Asia-Pacific Environmental Organization Survey

The Global Justice Program at the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, United States, invites your organization to participate in a survey on the activities and perspectives of climate, agri-food, and environmental organizations in the Asia-Pacific region.
  • Annual Reports
  • July 20, 2025

2024: Building a World Where Everyone Belongs

OBI is a think-and-do tank dedicated to building a world where every person—no matter their race, class, education, gender, politics, religion, ability, or background—is recognized and valued.
  • Blog
  • July 16, 2025

From Us-and-Them to Us-and-Us

Caption: Movement groups film 'Power in Belonging' video series in Santa Ana, CA alongside OBI staff. Production by Time of Day. In OBI’s community-engaged research, we often hear community members and neighbors express a readiness to bridge that...
  • Curriculum
  • July 2, 2025

A Resource Guide for Belonging-Builders

Around the world, people are seeking effective ways to build just, equitable, and inclusive institutions that can serve everyone without fueling fragmentation, division, and fear. At the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI), we’ve answered this call...

Areas of Work

The faculty, staff, researchers, and affiliates of the Othering & Belonging Institute work together with multidisciplinary approaches to learn, research, and construct solutions for society's most pressing issues. Our programs and initiatives are all designed to effect transformative change.

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Areas of Work

The faculty, staff, researchers, and affiliates of the Othering & Belonging Institute work together with multidisciplinary approaches to learn, research, and construct solutions for society's most pressing issues. Our programs and initiatives are all designed to effect transformative change.

SEE ALL AREAS
Arts and Cultural Strategy
Othering & Belonging Conference
Bridging & Belonging
Climate Justice
Health
Food Systems
Housing
Islamophobia
Narrative Strategy
Targeted Universalism
Featured Content

Transformative Research Toolkit

Introduction We have seen and participated in transformative research strategies that defeated proposed jail expansions, won millions of dollars for community-prioritized programs, and built new community-led organizations that changed a political...

Featured Publications

Racial Disparities Dashboard

This project provides data on critical life outcomes for American society, and highlights areas of progress and regress in closing disparities.
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Fear, Grievance, and the Other

The goal of this paper is to provide a primer on key concepts that help us understand the rise, strategies, and tactics of exclusionary, nativist, and populist movements today, and to advance the framework of authoritarian populism as an analytical tool that informs practical efforts to combat these movements, address structural marginality, and advance democracies rooted in belonging.
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Principles for Reframing the National Security Narrative

Our public discourse is seeded with dangerous and counterproductive ideas concerning national security that are so deeply embedded we may often be unaware that we, as story tellers, are invoking or reinforcing them in our own narrations. Thus, over...
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Rebuilding Public Power

This 90-minute workshop dives into the history of how corporate power is organized in the United States and contemporary cases of how growing corporate power has rolled back successful gains in democratic rights, environmental justice, migrant...
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Global South Lab

The Global South Lab intends to unearth the wealth of Global South experiences, perspectives, and visions to foster mutual understanding and deeper bridging, improve people's lives, and preserve our planet. To this end, the Lab intends to bring together a wide range of perspectives and visions from the Global South’s social movements, civic institutions, and public intellectuals to engage with global citizens in the South and the North on contemporary challenges and envision a future of belonging for all.
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The Structural Racism Remedies Repository

This a repository of policy-based recommendations for addressing structural and systemic racism or advancing racial equity drawn from a vast array of published material.
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In the Media

  • August 14, 2025

Berkeley News: Watch a Berkeley scholar explain structural racism

Structural racism — or the way systems like housing, education, employment and justice create racial disparities without overtly racist actors — is a concept that is often “deeply misunderstood,” according to Stephen Menendian.
  • July 28, 2025

Berkeley News: This Berkeley scholar wants everyone to understand what ‘structural racism’ really means

In this Berkeley News feature, OBI Research Director Stephen Menendian discusses his newly released book "Structural Racism: The Dynamics of Opportunity and Race in America," which examines how American systems and structures perpetuate racial inequality beyond individual prejudice.
  • June 30, 2025

EL PAÍS USA Edition: ‘When fear wins, democracy crumbles’

OBI Director john a. powell was profiled in this comprehensive article with the US edition of the Spanish newspaper El Pais, titled, " john a. powell: ‘When fear wins, democracy crumbles’." The article reads: "[powell's] books contain an arsenal of...
  • May 12, 2025

KALW: Fair Housing in Bay Area, feat. Stephen Menendian

In KQED's State of the Bay episode: " Butterflies Back in Presidio, Fair Housing in Bay Area, Travel Tips with Matt Kepnes", OBI Assistant Director Stephen Menendian shares his expertise on fair housing challenges in the Bay Area, providing key...
  • January 21, 2025

Berkeley News: 'There’s a term for Trump’s political style: authoritarian populism'

Research by Mi­riam Juan-Torres Gonzalez from our Democracy & Belonging Forum was covered in this Berkeley News feature, titled, " There's a term for Trump's political style: authoritarian populism." It reads: "Reading global political headlines over...
  • November 12, 2024

NYT: Why ‘Affordable Housing’ in New York City Can Still Cost $3,500 a Month

The New York Times cites our national segregation research in a November 19 article, titled, " Why ‘Affordable Housing’ in New York City Can Still Cost $3,500 a Month." The article reads: "Some of the most popular neighborhoods are affordable to only...
  • December 9, 2024

john a. powell talks to Star Tribune, KQED about new book on bridging

The Minnesota Star Tribune earlier this month published an interview with OBI Director john a. powell about his new book, The Power of Bridging: How to Build a World Where We All Belong. “What bridging says is, ‘Let’s take the time to be curious...
  • September 23, 2024

Berkeley News: Bridging divides: from anger and mistrust to belonging — and hope

In this Berkeley News story, Othering and Belonging Institute director john a. powell and OBI Campus Bridging Project leader Julia Mckeown share expertise and perspective around ways to bridge at UC Berkeley during a polarizing time.

Nonprofit Quarterly: A conversation with john a. powell on how to achieve belonging without othering

OBI Director john a. powell speaks with Nonprofit Quarterly about his new book, co-authored with OBI Assistant Director Stephen Menendian, Belonging Without Othering: How We Save Ourselves and the World. This is the first of a two-part interview.

Washington Post: What to know about Juneteenth and its historical significance

June 19 became a kind of July 4 celebration for African Americans, john a. powell, the director of the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California at Berkeley, told The Post. “It’s particularly important for African Americans...

The Chronicle of Philanthropy: A Hopeful New Way to Pursue Racial Equity

When john a. powell arrived at the University of California at Berkeley about a decade ago, he found a competition that spoke to a struggle outside academia. The nationally renowned civil-liberties scholar (who spells his name all lowercase) had been picked to lead...