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As election day approaches, you can expect to hear more and more political speech that pushes boundaries and fuels longstanding divisions. The losers? All of us. But especially those who are members of groups routinely scapegoated by majorities because of things like where we were born, the color of our skin, or who we love. The Othering & Belonging Institute has long been a home for people like you who are looking to make sense of these processes of marginalization—what we call othering. More important, we’re here to align efforts to build a world based on inclusion, fairness, justice, and care for the earth—what we call belonging. The need for our collective courage, contributions, and commitment to bridging, has never been more pressing. |
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Last month, OBI staff and faculty spent a few days at Asilomar to relax, renew, and prepare for the upcoming year. Surprisingly, beach volleyball was the most popular activity. |
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Allow us to reintroduce the Belonging Resident Company (BRC), a groundbreaking performance ensemble spotlighting BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ artists, facilitators, and musicians to make the revolution of belonging irresistible. Using radical imagination, contemporary and hip-hop dance, movement theater, and playback theater, we create embodied experiences of belonging and actively work to dismantle oppressive systems.
The Belonging Resident Company is offering in-person fall dance workshops in Berkeley to anyone who loves dance, theater, belonging and co-creation. They will offer two workshop series: -
BRC Director Sarah Crowell will lead Dance and Theater workshops. These free, two-hour workshops are on Mondays from October 21 to December 9.
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Sangita Kumar will instruct Playback Theater workshops on Sundays, November 3 and 10. Each session costs $25 and participants are encouraged to register for both sessions!
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“Movement is our superpower,” said BRC Director Sarah Crowell. “Connecting with each other across movements through our movement.” |
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Senior researcher Basima Sisemore was quoted in the Seattle Times story “8 in 10 Muslims experienced discrimination in the past year.” Sisemore said: “It’s surprising and also not surprising at the same time. … A lot of it is unfortunate and reaffirms the reality of discrimination and Islamophobia that Muslim-Americans face, specifically within Washington state.”
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OBI scholar Professor David Harding, shared his expertise in a Courthouse News Service story, “Real — or imagined — crime spike spurring California voter interest in November ballot.” Harding gave his perspective on California propositions 36 and 6, both linked to potential crime policies around the state.
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| Professor David Harding photographed in his office |
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Last month, as part of her Revolutionary Love Tour, award-winning writer and activist Valarie Kaur invited our john a. powell and immigration rights activist and journalist Jose Antonio Vargas to a joyful discussion at Berkeley’s La Peña Cultural Center. Our OBI staff showed out, too.
Watch a recap of their discussion here! |
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Dr. Hossein Ayazi presents “Towards Climate Justice: Transformative Approaches to Climate Migration Research and Learning” at the 2024 Bay Area Youth Climate Summit on September 28, 2024. |
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“Understanding our multiple identities allows us to push past the prejudices and assumptions we’re conditioned to have about each other. ... This fluidity is key—it’s about recognizing that our identities are not static; they can evolve and adapt as we navigate different contexts and stages of life.” |
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As part of OBI’s scholarship, professor Sunaura Taylor will host a discussion on her new book, Disabled Ecologies: Lessons from a Wounded Desert — a powerful analysis and call to action that reveals disability as one of the defining features of environmental devastation and resistance.
The event will be held at the Toll Room in Alumni House on Tuesday, October 15 at 4pm. It is free and open to the public.
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Join us to celebrate the launch of Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects with co-author and artist Chris E. Vargas alongside two artist-activists and contributors to the book, Ralowe Ampu, and Craig Calderwood. OBI Scholar Eric Stanley will moderate this fantastic panel.
The event is free and open to the public and will be held at the Multicultural Community Center in the MLK Jr. Student Union building tomorrow, October 10, at 4 pm.
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Our transportation analyst Jose Richard Aviles has a message for all who have attended their monthly Reimagining Urban Planning series:
“THANK YOU! Whether you've only had the chance to make it to one webinar or if you've made it to the entire series, we wanna say thank you for participating! But the series is not over yet! We have two more sessions planned. On October 11, we have ‘Belonging and Urban Planning’ where I will be conversing with
john a. powell and Aimée
Okotie-Oyekanand. We culminate the series in December with ‘Planning for (dystopic) Futures’.”
Please register here for the two conversations.
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Together, we can make belonging the norm, not the exception.
– The Othering & Belonging Institute |
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Othering & Belonging Institute University of California, Berkeley 460 Stephens Hall Tel: 510-642-3326 Berkeley, CA 94720 United States If you no longer want to receive our emails click (Unsubscribing is not supported in previews). |
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