What does it mean to gather in a moment like this? To sit in a room—shoulder to shoulder with strangers—and feel, even briefly, that you are not alone.

For faculty from UC Berkeley’s Othering and Belonging Institute (OBI), that question is no longer abstract. It lives in classrooms where faculty weigh every word. It lives in policies that redraw who is protected and who is exposed. And it lives in the quiet calculations people make every day about whether it is safe to speak, to teach, to be fully seen.

And yet, people are still showing up.

Recently, OBI Faculty Cluster Chair Eric Stanley convened more than 80 students, scholars, and community members for a conversation on trans studies—not because the moment is easy, but because it is not. Because something in this moment calls “for the kind of collective space where we can make meaning together, even as the ground shifts beneath us.”

Stanley for decades has produced work at the intersections of trans studies, racial justice, and critical theory.

Recently they were given the Chancellor's Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence and Equity, which has been presented to Berkeley faculty members annually for outstanding contributions in enhancing equity, belonging, and justice through their research, teaching, and public university service.

The award includes research funding that Stanley plans to use to launch a new dialogue series exploring trans studies in today's political climate.

“As attacks on trans communities intensify and universities become an increasingly contested battleground,” said Stanley, “there is a need for spaces where students, faculty, staff, and community members can come together to think historically, collectively, and courageously about the challenges of the present moment.”

For Stanley, this is the work: not just producing knowledge, but creating the conditions where people can come together to hold it—and each other. We spoke with them recently about the current political climate, the importance of trans studies, the pressures facing higher education, and why belonging matters now more than ever.

Read the full article about higher education holding ground by Ivan Natividad at Othering & Belonging Institute.