Events
Throughout the year, we hold regular events and gatherings with Forum members and leading scholars, advocates, culture-makers, and others on issues related to democracy and belonging in Europe and the US. This page is regularly updated with our upcoming events and past activities.
Please note that some of our events are open only for Forum members, such as our monthly community space, while others are accessible to the wider public.
Series
(Un)Common Threads: Co-creating Societies of Belonging is a series of virtual conversations exploring issues related to belonging, polarization, marginalization, and democracy in Europe, the US and around the world curated by the Democracy & Belonging Forum. These intimate, in-depth conversations will feature diverse advocates, leading scholars, artists & culturemakers, business leaders, and others who share a commitment to strengthening democratic norms and systems while centering the needs of marginalized groups—even if they may not agree on how to get there. These thinkers will help us explore ways to grapple with the tensions inherent in our collective work to build democratic societies rooted in belonging. They will also share knowledge and practices to reduce polarization, advance belonging for marginalized groups, and counter the rise of authoritarian populism. These conversations will be solutions- and future-oriented and are not meant to reach consensus; rather, they are meant to show that disagreeing well is not only possible, but also a necessary part of real belonging.
In The Edges in the Middle: Rethinking Justice, Hope, and Belonging, OBI’s Global Senior Fellow, Dr. Báyò Akómoláfé, pushes away from the safety of secure shores and travels with his friends to the edges in the middle, where strange frequencies, alien signals, posthuman invitations, and black noises might be heard. In a time when the highroads of justice no longer seem to lead to interesting places; in a time when our boldest solutions tend to reinforce the very paradigms we struggle to upend; in a time when speaking truth to power seems like our only recourse for living well with the planet, we must travel to the edges of what we know: to the precipice of hope, to the interstices of belonging, and to the shadows of justice.
At the Bridgers’ Roundtable, Forum members with bridging experience—including those who research depolarization and dialogue, mediate partisan conflict, or who have themselves crossed long bridges—are invited to share their learnings and experiences with the larger community. Each roundtable will be hosted by a selected member who will present their bridging insights with the larger group, which will then have the opportunity to ask questions, reflect on the host’s insights, and engage with each other around strategies and practices for bridging in both professional and personal contexts. This gathering is only open to Democracy & Belonging Forum members
