Nghana Lewis

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 40^th 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.