• Blog
  • December 20, 2023

Daring to Dream

The year 2023 has been full of violence. The ongoing killing and injury of tens of thousands of non-combatants and especially of children in Gaza, at the hands of the Israeli military, defies imagination. Russia's war on Ukraine continues unabated...
  • Curriculum

OBI University

Take free classes with us on our new learning platform to learn about structural marginalization and the processes of othering, and the building blocks of belonging. OBI University is also home to the 2023 O&B Conference Archive.
  • Publication
  • December 7, 2023

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...
  • Video
  • November 29, 2023

Video: Disability & Blackness

One of the hidden aspects of the Black Panther Party in the California Bay Area was its contributions to the nascent disability rights movement in the 1970s. In 1977, the Party famously supported a 26-day occupation of a federal building in San...
  • Video
  • November 16, 2023

Video: Across Lines: Grief. with Bayo Akomolafe, Professor Sa’ed Atshan, and Cecilie Surasky

How do we catch people where they fall? How do we respond to this crisis in a way that doesn’t reinforce its architecture? What kind of politics is being summoned at this time? In this November 16 conversation that was part of our Democracy &...
  • Video
  • November 15, 2023

Video: Climate Displacement and the Right to Stay: Tools and Tactics for Climate Justice

On Nov. 15 OBI's Global Justice team hosted this hour-long livestream to mark the launch of the Climate Displacement and Resilience Database. The team provided background on the database, demonstrated how other researchers and organizations can use...
  • Presentations
  • November 7, 2023

How foundations can apply Targeted Universalism

On November 7, 2023, Director john. a. powell addressed five hundred foundations from all over Michigan about how targeted universalism can and should play out in education and philanthropy. powell also used this opportunity to explain his framework...
  • Blog
  • November 1, 2023

We Belong to Each Other: A Call To End the Violence

With the death toll in Gaza climbing past 8,500 people, including more than 3,500 children, and hundreds more being killed each day in Israel's relentless bombardment of homes and other civilian infrastructure, we at OBI join a growing global chorus...
  • Video
  • October 26, 2023

Introducing Othering & Belonging Berlin

Othering & Belonging Institute Director john a. powell opens up OBI's first O&B Conference in Berlin with an introduction to the Institute's framework. Transcript Christiana Bukalo: Hello. Hi everyone. Good morning and welcome. As you might be able...
  • Press Release
  • October 24, 2023

Poll: Californians Want Curriculum on Native Peoples in Schools, Tuition Waivers for Native American Students

BERKELEY, CA – Even as the teaching of race and history has become an increasingly divisive issue nationally, there is near consensus among California voters that schools in the state should be required to adopt and teach curriculum on the history...
  • Presentations
  • October 19, 2023

john a. powell's presentation at the ChangeMakers Conference

During this year's ChangeMakers Conference, on October 19, 2023, Director john a. powell presented to more than 600 corporate and nonprofit leaders on Belonging Without Othering. Download the slidedeck here. And watch a recording of the talk here.
  • Press Release
  • October 18, 2023

Hawaii, New Zealand retain top spots in OBI's inclusiveness rankings

BERKELEY: Hawaii kept its streak going by placing 1st for the sixth consecutive year as most inclusive state in the country, according to the latest Inclusiveness Index produced annually by the Othering & Belonging Institute. Maryland and Vermont...
  • Publication
  • October 11, 2023

The Need for Transformative Federal Action

This is a research brief to accompany the 2022 survey report we published entitled Aligning Federal Policy to Local Needs. Download PDF. As we emerge from the peak of the global pandemic, there is a great need to ensure that any opportunity...
  • Blog
  • October 6, 2023

Justices Take On Race, Politics In SC Gerrymander Case

What happens when race and political preference are so strongly correlated that state legislatures can cloak racial gerrymanders in the guise of partisanship? That's the issue before the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Alexander v. South Carolina...
  • Presentations
  • September 27, 2023

The Power of Belonging in Supporting Move from Loss and Grief to Healing, Resilience and Recovery

On September 27, 2023, OBI Director john a. powell was a featured panelist in a monthly forum hosted by the Boston COVID Recovery Cohort (BCRC) to support those affected by long COVID and highlight systemic issues that impact health equity.

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  • Newsletters

E-Newsletter Archive

An Archive of past issues of our bi-weekly newsletter.
Sep
24
  • September 24, 2025, 3:30 - 5 p.m.

Geography Colloquium with Anand Pandian

Anand Pandian is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Anthropology at Johns Hopkins University, with a joint appointment in Earth & Planetary Sciences. His books include A Possible Anthropology: Methods for Uneasy Times, and Something Between Us: The Everyday Walls of American Life...
  • Blog
  • September 25, 2025

Housing for Belonging

Join us in learning from UC Berkeley’s graduate students in two new policy memos on housing policy for belonging, adapted from their much longer student projects! These memos offer lessons for advocates, funders, legislators, and other change-makers...