Hossein Ayazi

Hossein Ayazi, Ph.D. is Senior Policy Analyst with the Global Justice Program at the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a researcher, educator, and policy strategist whose work sits at the intersection of U.S. and global socio-environmental systems, political economy, and governance. Since joining OBI in 2015, Hossein has helped build the Institute’s research and policy portfolio on climate impacts and resilience, agri-food systems, political economy and governance, and global social movements—translating interdisciplinary scholarship and community-driven learning into public-facing analysis, coalition-ready tools, and policy strategies that support transnational and translocal movements for belonging.

In his role at OBI, Hossein collaborates with organizers, advocates, researchers, and institutional partners within and beyond the United States to design and carry out applied research addressing the structural drivers of vulnerability and dispossession—including extractive and uneven development, and state and corporate power. His work includes qualitative and historical research, policy and legal analysis, survey and other social scientific methods, and synthesis of emerging evidence across academic, governmental, and multilateral contexts. These methods are used to strengthen justice-centered frameworks for belonging, inform narrative and communications strategies, and advance policy pathways that align with the needs of frontline communities.

Across OBI reports and collaborations, he has led or co-led research on these and other topics. He currently serves as Coordinating Lead Author for California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment topical report on Climate-Induced Human Displacement & Migration, and has advised the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on recommendations to prevent loss of nationality and statelessness in the context of climate change. He also convenes interdisciplinary, cross-sector collaborations—organizing institutes, conferences, and public forums including the International School on Climate Mobilities and multiple Othering & Belonging Institute Conference tracks.

Hossein brings to his work at OBI a deeply interdisciplinary outlook and training. He received his Ph.D. in Society & Environment from UC Berkeley’s Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, with emphases in critical geography, American studies, and ethnic studies. He has held academic appointments at Tufts University, Williams College, and Santa Clara University. He was editor of Social Movements, Institutions & Governance in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, and his scholarship has appeared in Society and Space, Comparative American Studies, and Qui Parle, with forthcoming chapters in Introduction to Comparative Ethnic Studies: Decolonial Love, Knowledge, and Revolution and The Gospel of Work and Money.