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Hajar Yazdiha is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Southern California and faculty affiliate of the USC Equity Research Institute. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Hajar researches the racialized politics of inclusion and exclusion, examining the forces that bring us together and keep us apart as we work to forge collective futures. Her mixed-method research shows how powerful institutions like law and media categorize groups into an “us” and a “them” and make the boundaries between us feel real and natural. She also shows how these categories matter for everyday people, the communities where we feel like we belong, and how this “groupness” shapes our identity, our politics, and even our imaginations of what type of society may be possible. In addition to award-winning articles, Hajar is author of the book, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement (Princeton University Press, 2023). This research agenda has been supported by numerous foundations including the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Russell Sage Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Haynes Foundation. She is also a prolific public scholar who co-leads the Scholars Strategy Network’s Los Angeles chapter and whose writing and research has been featured in dozens of outlets including The LA Times, Time Magazine, BBC News, The Hill, The Grio, and USA Today.