Opening Thoughts Facing the fierce winds of climate chaos, of growing geopolitical instabilities around the world, of declining trust in democratic institutions, and of pandemic futures replete with bacterial agents and viral thresholds, it is...
OBI Director john a. powell gave the keynote address at the National Community Action Partner Annual Conference on February 14, 2024. This year's conference marked the 60th Anniversary of the Economic Opportunity Act that launched the Community...
The colonization of Indigenous lands and peoples in what is now called California included the state-funded genocide of 90 percent of Indigenous populations and the accumulation of land and wealth among white settlers. According to Dr. Cutcha Risling...
On January 30th, Professor powell sat down with Bishop Marc and Paloma Pavel to discuss his work with belonging, his background, targeted universalism, the future of OBI's work, and how he sustains himself throughout his work. Download a recording of...
This brief summarizes findings from our survey research with Orange County residents on their experiences of housing insecurity, and housing policy views.
BERKELEY: The California Tax Credit Allocation Committee (CTCAC) has reapproved the use of an opportunity map developed by the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) and its partners, California Housing Partnership and the Terner Center for Housing...
On January, 23, 2024, Director john. a. powell sat down with Rabbi Miriam Terlinchamp and Reverend Ben McBride to discuss the future of spirituality, belonging, memory, and the relationship between structure and story. Listen to the two-part...
In this episode Director john. a. powell talked to Tracy K. Smith about her new book, To Free the Captives. powell and Smith discussed Smith's term as a Poet Laureate for the United States and how she has used poetry to create feelings of belonging...
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...
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.
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...
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...
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 &...
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...
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...
Want a chance to hear from experts studying the root of what’s driving us apart and how we come back together? Eager to build the skills to listen empathetically, elicit narratives of connection, and interview professionally? Looking for a chance...
Creating structures for belonging or a belongingness policy agenda, while necessary, is also insufficient. As important as many of these structural interventions may be, in some respects they remain too shallow. Such structures are necessary ballast...