john a. powell

john a. powell is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights and civil liberties and a wide range of issues including race, structural racism, ethnicity, housing, poverty, and democracy.

john a. powell is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy. john is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute that brings together scholars, community advocates, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society and to create transformative change toward a more equitable world.

john holds the Robert D. Haas Chancellor’s Chair in Equity and Inclusion and is a Professor of Law, African American Studies, and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity at the Ohio State University where he also held the Gregory H. Williams Chair in Civil Rights & Civil Liberties at the Moritz College of Law. john also founded and directed the Institute on Race and Poverty at the University of Minnesota.

john also served as Director of Legal Services in Miami, Florida and was the National Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), where he was instrumental in developing educational adequacy theory.

john led the development of an “opportunity-based” model that connects affordable housing to education, health, health care, and employment and is well-known for his work developing the frameworks of “targeted universalism” and “othering and belonging” to effect equity-based interventions.

john has written extensively on a number of issues including structural racism, racial justice, concentrated poverty, opportunity-based housing, voting rights, affirmative action in the United States, South Africa and Brazil, racial and ethnic identity, spirituality and social justice, and the needs of citizens in a democratic society. He is the author of several books, including his most recent work, Racing to Justice: Transforming our Concepts of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society.

john has lived and worked in Africa, where he was a consultant to the governments of Mozambique and South Africa, and has also worked in India and Brazil. He is one of the co-founders of the Poverty & Race Research Action Council and serves on the board of several national and international organizations, including More in Common, the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and Open Society Foundations. john has taught at numerous law schools including Harvard and Columbia University.

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By this expert

We're in a Moment of Collective Trauma. But There Are Glimmers of Hope

Article | Jun 2, 2020

A special note from INET board member john a. powell

Obama’s People and The African Americans: The Language of Othering

Article | Nov 4, 2016

Language has always been a way to divide, conquer, classify, and control, but it also helps to constitute who we are and what we think. 

A Bridge From Brexit

Article | Jun 30, 2016

Several days ago, we woke up to a new world. Britain had voted to leave the European Union. Some were pleased, many were deeply concerned. What is likely is that many will be affected. Some wonder if the EU will survive. It will take months if not years to fully understand the ramifications.

New Report on Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Deal Raises Serious Concerns about Corporate Misalignment

Article | Mar 9, 2016

The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society’s report analyzes the Trans-Pacific Partnership and examines the widespread global implications in the event of its passage.

Featuring this expert

INET Live | Just Transition and the Transition to Justice

Event Conference | Sep 28, 2021

Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades about the severe global impact that rising temperatures will have on the environment, economies, and health outcomes, and ultimately humanity’s long-term survival. With disaster after disaster stacking up, the time for action is now.

On Developing a Vision for a Better Society

Video | Sep 3, 2021

Gisele Huff, education policy specialist and president of the Gerald Huff Fund for Humanity, along with john a. powell, director of UC Berkeley’s Othering & Belonging Institute, talk about the motivations and process behind the soon-to-be-released report, “Convening on Automation, Opportunity, and Belonging: Vision and Foundations for a Better Society.”

Why Economic Analysis Can’t Ignore Racial Categories

Video | Dec 20, 2016

What Donald Trump does well, Professor john a. powell explains, is link economic concerns with ontological and racial concerns among his voters. Many economists and social justice activists, by contrast, try to reduce racial concerns to economic and class concerns. His presentation demonstrates the centrality, conscious or unconscious, of belonging and ‘otherness’ in comprehending the structures of society.

Tomorrow’s Detroits & Detroit’s Tomorrows

Event Conference Race & Economics | Nov 11–12, 2016

Economics has a race problem.