E-Newsletter Archive

An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.

Our policy on publishing blog & opinion pieces

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...

It's the people who keep the American Dream alive

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...

Impact Story: In Houston, leaders are learning to bridge — not in theory, but in practice

Through the Bridging and Belonging Fellowship, community leaders are using bridging to reshape systems, relationships, and what becomes possible in their city.

(En)Gendering Democracy: Counter Strategies

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 series of conversations, we speak with individuals and groups at the forefront of this work. Each interview offers an inside look at how they navigate the political and cultural terrain — what approaches they use, what they've learned, and what gives them optimism for continued action.

2025: Building bridges to a shared future

Some of the most important work happening today rarely makes headlines. This annual report captures how, in 2025, we pursued our vision to ensure that every person and community has the power to help shape the structures that shape their lives.

Holding Ground: Teaching, fear, and the fight for belonging

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.

Impact Story: A Belonging Table takes shape in Washington for communities hungry for connection

In Washington, an emerging “network of networks” is working across sectors to rebuild trust, civic connection, and create systems where more people feel they truly belong

Lessons from Leo

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...

Why Build Long Bridges?

Read the fourth piece in the Blueprint for Belonging paper series, "New Organizing Strategies for California’s Future," featuring Miguel Hernandez of the OCCCO, a faith-rooted, community-led organization in Orange County focused on developing everyday leaders to organize for systemic change.

Impact Story: Building Belonging

The Denver Foundation leaders talk about their effort to connect Colorado residents through Belonging Colorado, a long-term initiative that aims to bring residents together to strengthen communities and work across differences.

Beware the Illusion of the Linear Authoritarian Timeline

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...

Impact Story: Belonging in Action

OBI’s Places of Belonging program supports community efforts to rebuild trust, share power, and create systems where everyone belongs.

Blog: What Museums Can Teach Us About Our Critical Need for Radical Imagination

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...

Impact story: Creating belonging through arts and culture

Othering and Belonging Institute’s Resident Cultural Strategist, and UC Berkeley lecturer, Chelsea Gregory has devoted her life to weaving art, culture, and justice together to create spaces of belonging

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E-Newsletter Archive

An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.
May
20

Worldmaking in Motion

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.

Our policy on publishing blog & opinion pieces

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...