Education
Biography
Nghana Lewis is an associate professor of English and Africana Studies; a faculty affiliate of the School of Law; and an adjunct professor with the Department of Psychology. She also serves as District Judge with Louisiana’s 40th Judicial District Court. Dr. Lewis is the author of Entitled to the Pedestal: Place, Race, and Progress in White Southern Women’s Writing, 1920-1945 (2009) and Black Women’s Health in the Age of Hip Hop & HIV/AIDS: A Narrative Remix (forthcoming 2024). Her cross-sectional research and teaching interests include black literary & cultural studies, HIV/AIDS, criminal legal transformation, juvenile justice transformation, and black women's health. Dr. Lewis is a co-organizer of the Black Women’s Health Conference Task Force at Tulane University, which biennially convenes the Black Women’s Health Conference (www.bwhconference.com). In 2021, she launched The Literacy Clinic (theliteracyclinic.org) a court-based prevention-intervention program that supports literacy education for adults and youth involved in Louisiana’s criminal and juvenile legal systems, and families with children enrolled in Louisiana’s resource-challenged elementary public schools.