Jessica Fei

Jessica Fei is a lecturer on education whose work explores how youth and communities seek to address issues of injustice and promote collective well-being. Her research interests include youth-adult partnerships, critical youth work, place and identity, social justice art, and liberatory models of education. As a scholar-practitioner, Fei's projects have included curriculum development for international online learning communities, youth participatory action research with Boston-based artists of color, program leadership with girls and gender-expansive youth in New York City and Newark, and the design of toolkits to support the mental health of middle and high school students. A former high school English teacher and teaching artist, Fei coaches educators in schools and out-of-school time settings, and facilitates professional development workshops on culturally-responsive pedagogy, youth voice and participation, and transformative leadership. Fei is passionate about collaborating with practitioners to build knowledge related to equity in education, and to design inclusive learning environments that nurture critical consciousness and joy.

Fei is a co-editor of the book volume At our Best: Building Youth-Adult Partnerships in Out-of-School Time Settings (Information Age Publishing), and her research has appeared in Palgrave Encyclopedia of Critical Perspectives on Mental Health, Youth Today, Toward a Positive Psychology of Relationships: New Directions in Theory and Research, and Educational Researcher. She holds a B.A. in Literature and Ethnicity, Race, and Migration from Yale University; an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology; and an Ed.D. in Culture, Communities, and Education from Harvard University.