Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society

 The Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley brings together researchers, organizers, stakeholders, 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 nation.

As part of the UC Berkeley Initiative for Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity funded by the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund in 2010, the Haas Institute draws upon Berkeley’s considerable multidisciplinary research excellence and history of engaged scholarship. Organized into seven research clusters, the institute will involve more than 100 researchers across the University of California system. At its core are eight endowed chairs focused on equity and inclusion — a force that is unprecedented at Berkeley, and, as far as we know, unparalleled in the nation.

The Haas Institute represents a tremendous opportunity — perhaps unique in the world — to bring leading researchers and substantial resources across disciplines to bear on society’s pressing and pivotal issues related to equity, inclusion, and diversity. The institute will serve as a national hub for a vibrant network of researchers and community partners and will take a leadership role in translating, communicating, and facilitating research, policy, and strategic engagement to produce change and make a meaningful impact. While the Haas Institute clusters engage in high-impact, interdisciplinary research, the institute itself will respond to issues that require immediate action and will engage in innovative communications that re-frame public discourse.

Central to the Haas Institute’s vision is the concept of “targeted universalism,” the idea that we share a universal goal — such as a healthy, well-educated family — but have different means of achieving that goal due to our economic, cultural, social, and physical situations. This idea enables us to recognize differences while exploring commonality, to seek to eliminate roadblocks to full and equitable participation, and to leave no one behind in pursuing universal goals.