Assistant Professor of Psychology at The College of New Jersey
About
Adaurennaya "Ada" Onyewuenyi is an assistant professor of psychology at The College of New Jersey. Her research is located at the intersection of education, human development, psychology, and sociology. She specializes in adolescent development, immigration, racial and ethnic identity development, peer relations, discrimination, and academic outcomes with an emphasis on Black American and African immigrant adolescents.
More broadly, her research program focuses on social inequity in educational attainment and access via two research strands: (1) racial and ethnic identity, discrimination, and academic performance of Black American and African immigrant youth and (2) cultural and peer influences on ethnically diverse youths’ response to conflict management, reciprocity, and reconciliation.
She received her PhD and MEd in educational psychology from the University of Washington’s College of Education and holds a BS in Human Development with minors in education, psychology, and sociology from the University of California, Davis.
Current Work:
Ada is currently transforming her dissertation into publications. The AERA Minority Dissertation Fellowship awarded project investigated how race, ethnicity, immigration, and discrimination influence the academic trajectories of Black American and African immigrant (specifically 1.5 and 2nd generation Nigerian) high school students. The study utilizes data on ethnicity and immigration status to center the often overlooked educational experiences of African immigrant youth. It exploits within-group variation to inform our understanding of how race, ethnicity, and immigration status influence educational opportunity—variation that is often masked by aggregate racial categorization.
Research Area Keyword(s):
Adolescence, racial & ethnic identity, immigration, African diaspora, peer relations
