Dear friends,

The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society is now the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. We have a new name and a new look, but remain the same hub of engaged scholars, researchers, communicators, culturemakers, community partners, and other stakeholders committed to advancing a more fair and inclusive society.

Since 2012, our affiliated faculty and core Institute staff have been involved in path-breaking research and innovative programming that has given life to our vision to challenge the barriers to a just and sustainable society.

Over the past several years we have also become well known for our focus on "othering and belonging," a framework that has allowed us to partner with a diverse range of stakeholders engaged in social change work. Not merely analytic, Othering and Belonging is designed to be operationalized and applied in a way that can inform policy, shift discourse, strengthen movements, influence pedagogy, and deliver a set of best practices for expanding our circle of concern for all people and our living planet.

Our new name allows us to leverage the strength of this framework while giving our research organization a unique identity to UC Berkeley as well as to our growing audiences beyond our university home.

This move comes at a time when two competing stories are prevalent in the world today. One story is about a shrinking “we” that’s hierarchical and based in fear, control, and exploitation. The other is about an expanding “we,” where we share the earth, our aspirations, and learn to care and love each other. We insist on the latter story.

As we enter this new era as the Othering & Belonging Institute, we will continue to discredit false stories of "us vs. them," and do our work in a way that cultivates bridging. Bridging affirms our inherent connection to each other and our planet, welcomes our differences, does not deny but instead incorporates our shared history, and calls on us to co-create a responsive government and civic life that advances our common good.

We look forward to continuing this work together with all of you who, like us, are unwavering in a shared belief in the foundational belonging of all people.

Warm regards,


john a. powell, Director
Othering & Belonging Institute
Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies
UC Berkeley

PS. Our new online home is belonging.berkeley.edu, where all you will continue to find all our resources and research.