Consistent with our mission and values, as a multi-disciplinary research center that seeks to advance a world of belonging without othering, the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) conducts research, develops narrative strategy, and supports...
At my good friend’s World Cup watch party in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, I noticed Mexican jerseys everywhere. I couldn’t stop thinking about that. Mexico and L.A., sure that part makes sense considering the relationship to the country and the city. On the television in front of us, Mexico was playing South Korea...
The 2025 Supreme Court term ended last week with several landmark decisions that will shape, reshape and continue to affect our politics, our culture, and the health of our society. After his re-election in 2024, the Trump team promised to overwhelm...
What does it mean to gather in a moment like this? To sit in a room—shoulder to shoulder with strangers—and feel, even briefly, that you are not alone. For faculty from UC Berkeley like Eric Stanley, that question is no longer abstract.
Leo Murrieta, Make the Road Nevada’s Outgoing Executive Director, in conversation with Mansi Kathuria and Joshua Clark Make the Road Nevada is a statewide, member-led nonprofit organization that builds the power of Latine, immigrant, and working...
Never before have as many countries simultaneously been in the midst of the systematic undermining of institutions and rights, what scholars call “democratic backsliding.” Last year marked 25 years of democratic decline globally. Wherever anti...
Dylan Cleverly is a writer and artist based in Boston, MA. He will be pursuing a Master's degree in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture at Columbia University in the fall. Our right to imagine is under siege. While the...
Dylan Cleverly is a writer and artist based in Boston, MA. He will be pursuing a Master's degree in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture at Columbia University in the fall. All images published with permission from Adam...
As the world darkens and shadows fall, it is difficult to find a clear path forward to see the light. In my previous reflection, I explored the challenges of this moment, and insisted on three key principles: two limits that should not be...
We currently live in a world that is rapidly changing. And depending on where you stand, many would say it is for the worse. Long before the recent attacks on Iran, the prime minister of Canada, Mark Carney, made the observation at Davos in mid...
At a first glance, the European Union – and the European identity centred on it – might seem like a good example of what belonging without othering might look like. This is certainly how the EU would like to imagine itself. As the European Commission...
I was walking around Barcelona when Melania Trump’s gaze suddenly greeted me on the side of a bus shelter. Disoriented by the sight of the US first lady in the heart of Catalonia, I moved closer and realized it was an ad for her documentary. I had...
Othering and Belonging Institute Director john a. powell reflects on the killings by ICE agents in Minneapolis: “When we accept othering as a justification for violence, we normalize a system where belonging becomes conditional — and no one is truly safe. Humanity struggles to survive in such an environment. Democracy cannot.”
In Minnesota, in the face of fear and violence, we see courage and connection. Where systems and politicians seek to divide, there are networks of support. Where terror attempts to isolate, a powerful multiracial movement of neighbors have responded...
As we welcome back the return of the light and a new year, it is a time to reflect, to celebrate, to mourn, to plan and to take stock. For me, 2025 brought many wonderful gifts and also many challenges. These gifts and challenges were — and are —...
Join an interactive online workshop exploring the political economies and geographies of climate-related (im)mobilities and environmental injustices. Through a series of global maps, we will collectively examine how climate change, extraction, supply chains, migration, displacement, dispossession, environmental harm and global inequality intersect across space.
Consistent with our mission and values, as a multi-disciplinary research center that seeks to advance a world of belonging without othering, the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) conducts research, develops narrative strategy, and supports...
Register for O&B 2026 today!
Join us in LOUISVILLE, KY on October 9-10, 2026 for our next Othering & Belonging Conference. Registration is now open!
Join over 1,000 changemakers for two dynamic days of relationship-building, strategy-strengthening, and highly interactive sessions designed to strengthen our collective work in building a bigger "we." Click here to learn more about O&B26.
