Donna Mejia, MFA

CU Boulder's Associate Professor Donna Mejia is a member of the Libraries, and a Faculty Fellow with the Crown Wellness Institute. She was honored to serve as the Inaugural Chancellor's Scholar of Health and Wellness 2021—2024. She is also affiliated faculty for Women & Gender Studies, Ethnic Studies, and the Center for Teaching & Learning. She was the first tenured faculty globally for Transcultural Fusion Dance (TcFD), a hybrid tradition that dialogs dances of the African and Arab Diasporas with American Hip Hop and Contemporary Dance. Her 40 years of study in yoga, meditation and somatic studies continue to be central in all that she does. Her scholarship, performances, and advocacy work in TcFD created a cascade of decolonization actions and language in the genre, resulting in a 2021 Legends of Dance Award by the Carson Dance Library, and the 2022 CU President's DEI Award for Faculty. Donna's scholarship merging the study of cultural retention, colonial imperialism, gender representation, and digital globalization received the 2011 Selma Jean Cohen Fulbright Honor for International Dance Scholarship. This interdisciplinary work , approached through the vantage point of her multi-heritage identity, have inspired connections to many astonishing people and fields of study, taken her around the world, instigated a life-long devotion to learning, inspired her efforts towards upliftment of others through education, and led to publications in four fields of study. 

Donna’s interdisciplinary research and service projects include: 

• Aiding CU Libraries' efforts to decolonize educational pedagogy, remove barriers to information access, and enrich learning from culturally robust and accessible framework
• Partnering with the Crown Institute to support the well-being of youth and the adults and systems who support them. This includes:
  
  • Collaborative programming with her research partner Dr. Valerie Joseph on Grounded Knowledge Panels to aid communities in addressing impactful, charged, and complex topics
  • Ongoing development of the Fumble Forward Framework she originated for communication and learning. View her 2024 TEDx talk here.
  • Partnering with the Also Our Campus Research Lab under Dr. Chelsea Kilimnik to reduce and address both identity and sexual/intimacy harm
  • Serving and sharing as teaching faculty in the Mindful Campus Program
  • Serving and sharing as contributing faculty for the Dalai Lama Fellows Program
  • Developing research and programs centering the arts, wellness, and healing
• Analyzing our cultural expressions of global citizenship and our collective learning from, and healing of, legacies of colonialism
• Curating accessibility and reintegration of embodiment, interoception and wellbeing back into academic and intellectual life through qualitative and quantitative research, somatic practices, mindfulness, meditation, and the arts 

Her passions include designing electronic music, sewing, curating art-infused works and environments, gardening, yoga, cooking, meditation, and writing. She delights in connecting with the public through community performances and talks, and frequently donates her time for meaningful causes and efforts. For more information about her publications, performances, awards, and endeavors, please visit: donnainthedance.com.

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