Samira Thomas

Dr. Samira Thomas is a storyteller and equity scholar. She believes that it is through the sharing and telling of our stories that we will best learn perhaps the most fundamental lessons of our lives: how we might live and work together on our shared planet. Specifically, she helps organizations, particularly schools, create space for people of color, women, and other minorities to thrive through curriculum and pedagogy. She is currently a Visiting Scholar George Washington University where she is conducting research with the aim of creating space through curriculum and pedagogy for people who have been marginalized by society. She also currently serves as the Academic Director of the Sparks Academies in Afghanistan, a group of six Early Childhood and Community Development schools in Afghanistan.

Samira attended Lester B. Pearson United World College of the Pacific where she completed the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program. She graduated Pi Sigma Alpha from Brown University with honors, and she holds a Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2012 - 2013 she was an Action Canada Fellow. She holds a doctorate in Curriculum and Pedagogy from the University of British Columbia. Much of her research has been in the context of violence: war, race, and gendered violence. Her philosophy of education emerges from this experience and is fundamentally about engaging with 'otherness.' The implications for the research are far-reaching, becoming relevant in virtually every situation in which people interact: from the workplace to bullying in schools, from post-conflict communities to conflict even within oneself. You can read more about Samira's research here.

Course

Thesis II: Information Architecture & Resolution