What are the Stories We Need for the Future We Want to Inhabit?
In a new essay published this week in Nonprofit Quarterly, our director john a. powell digs deep into the work and stories we need for true belonging to take place, and discusses the potential responses and formations of bridging or breaking. Either we can move towards fear or we can cultivate openness and compassion, underpinned by a belief in our shared humanity. "The frames we use can either facilitate understanding of what unites us or activate fears that divide us." Read the full essay.
|
|
SAVE THE DATE!
Our next Othering & Belonging Conference will be held in London on June 15–17, 2020. Together with Queen Mary University, SciencesPo Paris, and More in Common, we are organizing our first conference to be held outside of the US. Registration will go live on our conference website in February—stay tuned!
|
|
|
"Entre todo lo que determina la política y el poder en todo el mundo, tal vez nada es más importante que ver quiénes somos, y en quiénes nos estamos convirtiendo." Two of our animated videos are now available in Spanish. Watch and share our videos on the Circle of Human Concern and Bridging & Belonging en español.
|
|
News & Media
The 2019 Inclusiveness Index was covered by The Local Norway in an article entitled, "Why Norway is one of the World's Most Inclusive Nations." The Inclusiveness Index ranks 132 countries according to the degree to which they achieve inclusivity across group identities, including race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and sexual orientation.
Institute scholar Jesse Rothstein was quoted in a Marketplace article about why the job market may not be as tight as a 3.5 percent unemployment rate suggests. “There are people who are not actively looking for work but are on the margins and are available to be pulled back in,” Rothstein says. “People who are not in a way fully employed...They might still be available to take a real job if one becomes available.”
Rothstein was also quoted in an LAist article about LAUSD's new academic growth scores. While the model that produces the scores takes into account students' socioeconomic or disability status, it doesn't know whether the student was sick on test day or whether they have involved parents and access to after-school tutoring. "Without knowing these things, Rothstein wonders how the model can isolate the impact the school is having on its students' growth."
Remarks from a round table discussion featuring john a. powell are featured in a recently-published working paper on Public Agenda's website. "A concept I’ve been working on is 'co-creation,' the idea that we, a diverse people, co-create the future together. Because, in fact, it’s not your future or my future; it is our future and country, and out of that can come something quite remarkable." Download a copy of the paper here.
A 2019 working paper co-authored by Institute scholar Michael Reich was featured in a Vox article "A new study finds increasing the minimum wage reduces suicides." The paper found that a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage decreased adult suicides by 3.6 percent, while a 10 percent increase in the Earned Income Tax Credit reduced suicides by 5.5 percent.
|
|
Upcoming Events
Jan. 24: The Black Census and Redistricting Hub. A luncheon and conversation with a group of California-based thought leaders talking about the role of the 2020 Census and redistricting process in determining the future of Black voices and community power in California.
Feb. 21: Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynecology. This talk by Deirdre Cooper Owens, an award-winning historian and popular public speaker, and Associate Professor of History at Queens College, CUNY, will focus on her upcoming books that examines mental illness during the slavery era.
Feb. 24: Imagining an Ethnography of Pregnant Class-Privileged Women of Color. In this talk, Khiara M. Bridges, a professor of law at UC Berkeley, will draw from her previous work with poor, pregnant women of color to discuss how class and race interact with, and alter, one another in the lives of wealthier, pregnant women of color in the United States.
Mar. 6: Struggling for the Soul of Public Education: Although decades of research have found significant educational and social benefits of integration, public schools continue to be segregated due to the limitations of federal law and white resistance. Rutgers' Law Professor Elise Boddie will discuss the challenges of northern integration and the need for solutions that move beyond court-centered remedies.
Mar. 13: Jenifer Barclay: Barclay, associate editor for the Review of Disability Studies, will discuss her research on the lived experiences of enslaved people with disabilities as well as the metaphorical, ontological links that antebellum Americans forged between race, gender, and disability as a way to shore up tenuous racial categories and shifting gender relations in the decades prior to the Civil War.
Click to see all our upcoming events.
|
|
Staff Positions
Communications Director
The Communications Director is a senior leadership position responsible for all aspects of Institute communications. The Communications Director will oversee a comprehensive strategic communications program to infuse the Institute’s body of research into ongoing public debate while advancing the strategic narratives developed by the Institute and partners. Learn more about this position.
|
|
Summer fellowship and student positions
Summer Fellowship
Applications remain open for the Institute's 2020 Summer Fellowship program, which will run from May 18 to August 14, 2020. The program is a three month-long, part-time paid research experience designed to prepare the next generation of researchers and future community leaders who are committed to social and racial justice. Deadline to apply: January 31, 2020. Learn more.
Grad Student Researchers
We're seeking several graduate student researchers. For details, check the links below.
|
|
|
|
