About Dr. Onyewuenyi
About Dr. Onyewuenyi
Dr. Adaurennaya “Ada” C. Onyewuenyi is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Affiliate Faculty in African American Studies at The College of New Jersey (TCNJ). An applied developmental and educational psychologist, her scholarship examines how race, ethnicity, immigration, and structural inequities shape identity development, educational experiences, and well-being among Black adolescents and emerging adults.
Her interdisciplinary scholarship draws from developmental and educational psychology, education, Black Studies, human development, and sociology. Dr. Onyewuenyi’s research explicitly centers the problem of homogenizing Black immigrants and the ways anti-Black racism intersects with ethnicity, nativity, immigration, and other social and institutional contexts. Her work examines both shared and distinct experiences among Black American and Black immigrant populations across the Black diaspora, with particular attention to identity development, educational opportunity and attainment, mental health and well-being, and the cultural and peer processes that shape young people’s lives.
Dr. Onyewuenyi’s methodological work centers Quantitative Ethnography (QE), an interdisciplinary field that integrates qualitative, quantitative, and computational approaches to study culture, meaning-making, discourse, collaboration, and other social processes. QE combines the richness and contextual sensitivity of qualitative inquiry with computational, statistical, and network-based methods to identify patterns and generate new insights from complex data. Her work applies and extends these approaches to examine how social identities, relationships, and structural contexts shape educational and developmental experiences.
Beyond TCNJ, Dr. Onyewuenyi is a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Research on Complex Thinking (CRCT) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she collaborates with an interdisciplinary community of researchers developing and applying innovative methods for studying learning, complex thinking, and human activity.
At TCNJ, she directs the Identity Development Across the African Diaspora (IDAD) Lab, where she mentors undergraduate researchers investigating identity, education, immigration, and social inequality across Black diasporic communities. She also serves as the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) Faculty Fellow for Emerging Technologies for Teaching and Learning, supporting faculty in critically and creatively navigating emerging technologies, including generative AI, in higher education. She is also a Faculty Fellow with the NJ AI Hub Faculty Futures AI Studio, contributing to broader conversations about AI-aware pedagogy, faculty development, and the changing landscape of teaching and learning.
Dr. Onyewuenyi is co-author, with Dr. Chrystal A. George Mwangi, of Hidden in Blackness: Being Black and Being an Immigrant in U.S. Schools and Colleges, published by Teachers College Press. The book examines how Blackness, anti-Black racism, ethnicity, nationality, and immigration intersect across the P–20 educational landscape and challenges approaches that treat Black students as a homogeneous population.
Across her research, teaching, methodological scholarship, and mentorship, Dr. Onyewuenyi is committed to illuminating the heterogeneity of Black experiences, developing more contextually grounded approaches to studying complex social phenomena, and creating educational environments in which students can critically examine the systems shaping their lives and communities.
To connect or learn more about her work, view her curriculum vitae (CV), visit her LinkedIn profile or contact her here.