Research Discipline/Bio
Shari Wejsa-Stewart is a PhD student in the Teaching of Social Studies program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research explores the intersections of citizenship, belonging, and racial and ethnic identity for Spanish and Portuguese-speaking immigrant-origin youth. She is a Re-Imagination Ambassador, supervises student teachers in TC’s Social Studies program, and writes social studies curriculum for the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia. She is a former public high school Spanish and social studies teacher and taught Latin American migration history and digital scholarship at Emory University. With the support of grant funding to Brazil, she conducted research on the experiences of refugees from Angola who sought refuge in the country during the decolonization of Portuguese Africa. She also received a Fulbright research grant to examine how culturally-relevant curriculum impacts educational attainment for Afro-Brazilian girls in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil.
Educational Background
Master of Arts, Latin American History, Emory University, 2020
Master of Arts, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, 2013
Master of Education, Social Studies, Rutgers University, 2010
Bachelor of Arts, History and Spanish Literature and Culture, Douglass College at Rutgers University, 2009
Honors/Awards
Doctoral Fellowship at Teachers College (2024-2025)
NJEA Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education Grant (2024-2025)
Keats Grant, Julius & Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center (2023)
Re-Imagining Migration Teacher Ambassador & Educator Fellowship (2022-current)
We Are America Project Fellowship (2022-2023)
Emory Community-Engaged Learning Grant (2019)
Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry Research Grant (2019)
Fulbright-Hays Research Grant to Brazil & Portugal (declined) (2018)
Publications/Exhibitions
Wejsa, S., & Lesser, J. (2018, March 29). Immigration, immigrants, and the creation of a multicultural Brazil. Migration Policy Institute.
Last Updated: Nov 4, 2024