Nghana Lewis, Ph.D., was an Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies; a faculty affiliate of the School of Law; and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology. She also served as District Judge with Louisiana’s 40th Judicial District Court. Dr. Lewis was the author of Entitled to the Pedestal: Place, Race, and Progress in White Southern Women’s Writing, 1920–1945 and several articles highlighting her cross-sectional research and teaching interests in Black literary and cultural studies, HIV/AIDS, hip hop, Black women’s health, and criminal justice transformation.
Her project, Black Women’s Health in the Age of Hip Hop & HIV/AIDS: A Retrospective Remix, examined how the praxis of hip hop feminism in works created by Black women artists between 1996 and 2006 fostered a continuum of knowledge in response to the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on Black women and girls—at a time when they were largely left out of sponsored HIV/AIDS-related clinical trials and empirical studies. Dr. Lewis also developed The Literacy Clinic, a pilot prevention-intervention program designed to support literacy education for adults involved in the criminal justice system and families with children enrolled in resource-challenged elementary public schools.
Lewis held a Social Entrepreneurship Professorship from 2011–2014.