Robert Mejia

Robert Mejia is a Lecturer of Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His research focuses on identity articulation across communicative channels, with emphasis on social movements and marginalized communities in the US and Latin America. He holds a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, following M.A. and B.A. degrees in Communication Studies from California State University, Long Beach.

His research areas include political communication, media and identity, health communication, and critical studies of video games. He has published extensively in journals like Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Quarterly Journal of Speech, and Rhetoric of Health & Medicine. His work bridges cultural studies with contemporary social issues, analyzing intersections of race, media, and power dynamics.

Mejia's recent scholarship explores abolitionist rhetoric, digital media's role in social movements, and the visualization of Christian nationalism. His 2018 award-winning work on 'White Lies: A Racial History of the (Post) Truth' critiques racialized discourses in media. He has been active in academic leadership, serving as past chair of the National Communication Association’s Critical and Cultural Studies Division.