Dr. Heidi R. Lewis (She/her) is David & Lucile Packard Professor of Feminist & Gender Studies at Colorado College. Her areas of specialization are Feminist Theory and Politics (emphasis on Black Feminism), Hip Hop Discourse (emphasis on Rap), and Critical Media Studies.
After earning a Ph.D. in American Studies and a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Purdue University, Dr. Lewis became a dissertation fellow in Feminist & Gender Studies. After serving as Visiting Assistant Professor the following year, she entered the tenure-track during the 2012-13 AY and earned tenure during the 2017-18 AY. She also served as department chair from 2016-22 AY, including terms as interim and associate chair. She regularly teaches Introduction to Feminist & Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Critical Media Studies, Black Feminist Theory, Hidden Spaces, Hidden Narratives: Intersectionality Studies in Berlin (study abroad), Hip Hop and Feminism, Critical Race Feminism, and Critical Whiteness Studies.
Currently, she is working on a single-authored manuscript, “Make Rappers Rap Again!: Interrogating the Mumble Rap ‘Crisis’” (under contract with Oxford University Press) and a documentary on her experiences coming of age in northeast Ohio during the crack cocaine epidemic. Previously, she co-authored In Audre's Footsteps: Transnational Kitchen Table Talk; published in The Cultural Impact of Kanye West, the Journal of Popular Culture, the Journal of Black Sexuality and Relationships, and Unteilbar: Bündnisse gegen Rassismus; and authored forthcoming essays on VH1’s Love & Hip Hop and “expertise” in Women’s and Gender Studies. She has also contributed to NewBlackMan, NPR, Ms., Bitch, and Act Out and given talks at Vanderbilt, the Motherhood Initiative for Research and Community Involvement, the University of Georgia, the Kampagne für Opfer Rassistischer Polizeigewalt, and other organizations in the U.S., Canada, and Berlin.
Dr. Lewis has been an active member of the National Women’s Studies Association for the past 15 years, starting with her participation in the Women of Color Leadership Project in 2008. In addition to being selected to attend the Curriculum Institute in 2014 and regularly attending the Chairs and Directors Meeting since 2018, she also served as Secretary position from 2021-2022. She is honored and excited to serve as President from 2023-2025. As she noted during the 2023 membership assembly meeting, “As your President, I will remain committed to centering the most vulnerable, ensuring they are engaged and supported, not merely seen rather than heard and felt. I do not, never have, and never will claim to have all the experiences and expertise required to do so, which is why I remain committed to collaboration, solidarity, accountability, and reciprocity. I know I am because we are. I also know my leadership will be guided by the ancestral wisdom of Audre Lorde, Grace Lee Boggs, Marsha P. Johnson, Fatema Mernissi, Ika Hügel-Marshall, Sylvia Rivera, bell hooks, Lorelei DeCora Means, and so many others. At the same time, my work will necessarily be done in the spirit of patience, as well as thoughtful and intentional urgency, for as the late great Toni Cade Bambara reminds us, ‘Not all speed is movement.’”
For more information about President Lewis and her teaching, scholarship, and service, including her work with NWSA, visit her website by clicking here.