Research Discipline/Bio
Shari Wejsa-Stewart is a doctoral student in the Teaching of Social Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, and a member of the Latinidad Curriculum Initiative, which develops curricula centered on Latinidad, migration, and equity in New York City schools. Her research engages ecological social studies and affect, examining how relationships among students, environments, and communities can shape immigrant youth’s belonging and connections with non-immigrant peers. Her scholarship has addressed immigrant experiences, pedagogical care and equity, immigration and national identity in Brazil, and undocumented students’ access to higher education. She has also researched Angolan refugees in Brazil and culturally sustaining curriculum for Afro-Brazilian girls in Salvador da Bahia, supported by a Fulbright Research Grant. A former social studies and Spanish teacher, she seeks to reimagine social studies education through relationships to communities and the more-than-human world.
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 (2024-2027)
Associate Alumnae of Douglass College Sue Estler ‘66 Fellowship
NJEA Hipp Foundation for Excellence in Education Grant (2024-2025)
Keats Grant, Julius & Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust/Genocide Resource Center (2023)
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
Schmidt, S., and Wejsa-Stewart, S. (2026). Navigating the “In-between” to cultivate belonging among African immigrant youth. In Y. Kim (Ed.), Social studies for immigrant children and youth: Centering students’ knowledge and experiences for the classroom (pp. 74–86). Teachers College Press.
Wejsa, S., & Lesser, J. (2018, March 29). Immigration, immigrants, and the creation of a multicultural Brazil. Migration Policy Institute.
Last Updated: Oct 6, 2026