Joshua Clark

Dr. Joshua Clark is the Othering and Belonging Institute's (OBI) Senior Social Scientist, and a researcher and strategist for the Institute's Network for Transformative Change program. Clark joined OBI in spring 2017. In his role, he works collaboratively with civic and community-based partner organizations to design and carry out research on public opinion, identity, and narratives among constituencies that are underrepresented in civic life. This includes both qualitative and quantitative research, as well as experimental studies. These various methods are used to refine existing local knowledge and to develop new insights to support programs to expand civic participation, cultivate more inclusive identities, build structures of belonging, and create narrative-change strategies. 

Clark has led collaborative research initiatives with civic organizations and tables   across several states and spanning a number of subject matter areas such as housing insecurity, voting, public spaces and taxes.  He brings to his work a deeply interdisciplinary outlook and training, including a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology, a master's degree in Latin American studies, and a bachelor’s degree in political science. His experience as a social scientist includes long-term ethnographic, archival, and policy research on issues of racial discrimination and indigenous rights in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and at the United Nations in Geneva. He held prior professional roles at the intersection of research and social change, at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice at the University of Texas, School of Law; and at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity, and Diversity at UC Berkeley, School of Law.