Faculty

Dr. Sam Mejias is Associate Professor of Social Justice and Community Engagement in the School of Design Strategies, where he has taught since 2020. He is a transdisciplinary teacher and scholar, researcher, and creative multi-instrumentalist and sound designer. Sam's research focuses on young people, the arts, and learning, and on social justice and civic engagement in design, discourse, and communication practices. He has collaborated on projects exploring how arts and science and technology-led transdisciplinary practices can build equity in youth learning outcomes, and how community-based arts programs influence young people’s life and career trajectories. Work from these studies has been published in Leonardo, Educational Researcher, Science Education, and the Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Sam holds an MA in International Educational Development from Columbia University Teachers College, and a PhD in Human Rights Education from University College London. Prior to joining Parsons, he was a Research Fellow at London School of Economics and Political Science.

PhD, Human Rights Education, University College London

MA, International Educational Development, Columbia University Teachers College

BA, College of William and Mary

Peppler, K., Corrigan, S., Dahn, M., Sefton-Green, J., Nelligan, P., DiGiacomo, D., & Mejias, S. (2025). Creative Expression, Caring Relationships, and Career Pathways: A Guide to Youth Outcomes in Community Arts Programs. The Wallace Foundation.

Baldridge, B., Kirschner, B., DiGiacomo, D., Mejias, S., & Vasudevan, D. (2024). Out-of-School Time Programs in the United States in an Era of Racial Reckoning: Insights on Equity from Practitioners, Scholars, Policy Influencers, and Young People. Educational Researcher, 53(4), 201-212.

Halverson, E. R., Saplan, K., Mejias, S., & Martin, C. (2023). What We Learn About Learning From Out-of-School Time Arts Education. Review of Research in Education, 47(1), 360-404.

Bevan, B., Rosin, M., Mejias, S., Wong, J., & Choi, M. (2022). Food for thought: Immersive storyworlds as a way into scientific meaning-making. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 59(9), 1607-1650.

Mejias, S.,Thompson, N., Sedas, R. M., Rosin, M., Soep, E., Peppler, K., Roche, J., Wong, J., Hurley, M., Bell, P., & Bevan, B. (2021). The trouble with STEAM and why we use it anyway. Science Education, 105(2), 209-231.

Banaji, S. & Mejias, S. (2020). Youth Active Citizenship in Europe – Ethnographies of Participation. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bevan, B., Mejias, S., Rosin, R. & Wong, J. (2020). The Main Course Was Mealworms: The epistemics of art and science in public engagement. Leonardo, 54(4), 456-461.