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...

OBI Director john a. powell and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian contributed a chapter to a new edition to the book, Social Stratification, that looks at the causes inequality, why it is increasing, and how to reduce it. john and Stephen's...

OBI Director john a. powell and Assistant Director Stephen Menendian have co-authored a chapter for a new book, titled, Fostering Belonging and Equity in the Classroom and on Campus. Their contribution is the concluding chapter which looks...

Annamaria Olsson founded Give Something Back to Berlin over a decade ago, working on migration, integration, and countering xenophobia. Her current project, Stories from the Beauty Parlor, grew out of a single conversation in a Berlin salon and has...

This October, participants in the Othering & Belonging Institute’s conference in Louisville will have the opportunity to visit La Minga Cooperative Farm in Prospect, Kentucky. The off-site experience offers a concrete place from which to explore what...

What does belonging in governing actually entail? This paper aims to identify concrete strategies for furthering belonging through collaborative governance, particularly for individuals in government roles who are actively seeking new ways to engage constituents more deeply than conventional, transactional forms of public engagement allow.

Around the world, communities and organizations are developing strategies to confront the weaponization of gender and build a future rooted in belonging and pluralistic democracy. In this special subseries of Who Belongs? from the (En)Gendering...

Around the world, communities and organizations are developing strategies to confront the weaponization of gender and build a future rooted in belonging and pluralistic democracy. In this special subseries of Who Belongs? from the (En)Gendering...

There is no agreed upon 'start date.’ For what seems like an eternity, we have fallen witness to a constant and unprecedented attack on our democracy. It is not enough to decry the recklessness and lawlessness of the trump presidency, a spineless and sycophantic congress, and the carte blanche immunity that the nation’s highest court has granted the executive. Our nation is in the midst of a Constitutional crisis, and law schools need to adopt an attitude of 'No Business as Usual’ to offset the creeping normalization of daily democratic dismantlement and instill courage into efforts seeking to reverse the damage.

New " Participatory Infrastructure " initiative aims to operationalize Structural Belonging in order to realize safe, equitable, responsible, socially beneficial AI. BERKELEY: The Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) at UC Berkeley and the Global...

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...

For more than 15 years, Adrienne Evans has organized in some of the most politically conservative, rural communities in the United States. Through her work with United Vision for Idaho and the United Vision Project, she's helped facilitate over 100...

What if the most radical idea in the world is simply that everyone belongs? In this episode of the If You Were in Charge podcast, host Sanam Naraghi Anderlini sits down with john a. powell for a wide-ranging discussion touching on his family upbringing, fears driving people to the right, popular defense of immigrants in Minnesota, public spaces as infrastructure for belonging, mental health, and more.

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...