Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis is a nationally recognized scholar and pedagogue, lecturing, leading workshops for students, faculty, and staff, designing curriculum, and keynoting on a variety of topics. For information regarding availability, please email: melmichellelewis[at]gmail.com
Areas of Specialization
Intersectional Approaches to Feminist Theory
Intersectionality Theory and Praxis, Black Feminist Thought, Queer Feminisms, and Transfeminist Perspectives
Queer Theory
Black Queer Studies, Performance Studies, LGBTQIA Advocacy, Queer Activism, Intersex Advocacy, Public Policy
Feminist and Critical Pedagogies
Teaching as Performative Text, Decolonizing Curriculums, Pedagogical Embodiment, Queering Curriculums
National Portrait Gallery Art AfterWords: A Book Discussion with Kerrie Cotten Williams and Mel Michelle Lewis
Join staff from the National Portrait Gallery and the DC Public Library for a monthly discussion of portraits and prose. Kerrie Cotten Williams and Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis will co-facilitate the National Portrait Gallery/DC Public Library ArtAfterWords book discussion. Join us as we celebrate the life and work of Gwendolyn Brooks and discuss Angela Jackson’s book A Surprised Queenhood in the New Black Sun .
Grand Valley State University WGS Anniversary Celebration
Faculty Workshop – “Integrative Intersectionality: Political Project Pedagogy”
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20 at 12:00 – 1:30PM
GVSU ALLENDALE CAMPUS
2270 Kirkhof Center
This innovative workshop facilitated by Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis will frame feminist teaching and learning as a political project that centers intersectionality, articulates “the personal as political,” and asserts a politics of liberation in the classroom, in the larger campus community, and beyond. We will name and examine our pedagogical commitments and discuss how those commitments can be operationalized and implemented. This workshop will include a demonstration of integrative intersectionality using several “lesson plan” modules as well as departmental/division statements.
Student Workshop – “Solutionary Acts: Mobilizing Intersectional [Afro]Futures”
THURSDAY, MARCH 21 at 10:00 – 11:15AM
GVSU ALLENDALE CAMPUS
163 Lake Ontario Hall
This interactive workshop, facilitated by Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis, will explore how we mobilize social justice inquiry and intersectional analysis into action. Using an Afrofuturist lens and restorative justice framework, we will call upon the wisdom of Black queer feminist activists, theorists, artists, and luminaries as we create our own solutionary platform for collective liberation.
5:30 – 7:00PM ANNIVERSARY KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Join WGS as we commemorate anniversary milestones and welcome keynote speaker, Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis: “Liberatory Praxis in Action.” Dr. Lewis is Director of the Center for Geographies of Justice and Associate Professor and Program Coordinator of Women, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and Africana Studies at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland.
BlacKkKlansman Screening and Panel Discussion,” Long, Long Way Film Weekend at Washington National Cathedral
Perhaps Spike Lee’s most artful film, the Golden Globe-nominated BlacKkKlansman examines a historical narrative of race, violence, and law enforcement, while showing how it ties into our present. The movie self-consciously explores the importance of American film and culture, which makes it only appropriate that we consciously discuss its messages. NPR’s Korva Coleman will moderate a panel discussion on themes related to race, film, policing, and our current culture. Panelists: The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas, the Rev. Dr. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Dr. Mel Lewis, Mr. Vann Newkirk
How Does It Feel to be a Problem? A Conversation between Two Feminist Black Queer Femme Chairs, LGBTQ+ IFO Statewide LGBTQ+ Conference
In Dialogue, Drs. Mel Michelle Lewis and Shannon Miller shared from their recent article, “How Does It Feel to be a Problem? A Conversation between Two Feminist Black Queer Femme Chairs” published in the 2018 Feminist Formations Special Issue: Feminist Teaching for Social Justice. They demonstrated through their stories and in real time the power and effectiveness of partnership for support, leadership and social justice.
“Future Visions for LGBTQ Scholars of Color,” LGBTQ Scholars of Color National Conference
Dr. Mel Michelle Lewis 