This is an in-person event. Refreshments will be provided. Please register using the form below. The Flo Bird lecture is co-sponsored by ODFASS and the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation.
Black“LGBTQIA+” Psychology: Understanding collective self-determination, Afrocentrism, and optimal identity will be an overview of Dr. Michele K. Lewis’ Fulbright research project. Lewis will frame her work as intersecting Black Psychology, Culture Neuroscience, and what has been theorized as a Kemetic model of the cosmological interactive self (Maat, 2014). The objective of the project is greater understanding of spirit identities and interpersonal experiences of Black Same-Gender Loving (SGL), “LGBTQIA+” and/or non-binary gendered Black-identifying persons residing in Canada and the United States. Lewis’ use of Africentric methodology and reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clark) renders the project a decolonized form of doing international research. Her research questions address participants’ belief systems, mystic experiences, identity, motivations, and attitudes as revealed through Africentric methodology. Preliminary observations and analysis will be presented on this work in progress.
Dr. Michele K. Lewis is Professor of Psychological Sciences in the U.S.A. at Winston-Salem State University, a historically Black university in the state of North Carolina, founded in 1892 by Simon G. Atkins. Dr. Lewis earned her Ph.D. with a concentration in biopsychology at Howard University in Washington D.C. She is a Fulbright Distinguished Chair, Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Carleton University. She is hosted by Carleton’s Feminist Institute of Social Transformation for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Dr. Lewis combines her interests in cultural neuroscience, African-Centered/Black Psychology (ACBP), human connection, interdisciplinary research, and spirit identity among Black-identified persons commonly referenced as LGBTQIA+ and non-binary. She was trained in Emotional Emancipation Circle (EEC) facilitation in Charlotte, NC USA. She has previously conducted EEC research with poverty challenged Black women in Winston-Salem; the research was funded through the Winston-Salem State University Center for the Study of Economic Mobility (CSEM), where Dr. Lewis is one of its inaugural research fellows.
She is the lead author of the historic text, LGBT Psychology: Research Perspectives and People of African Descent (Lewis & Marshall, 2012). This work was recognized earlier this year as a 1st in the field on this topic, and a significant contribution to psychology in the American Psychological Association’s flagship journal, American Psychologist; the article that references this work is entitled “Black sexual and gender diverse scholars' contributions to psychology”. She has two other books, including her latest work published in 2020, Our Biosocial Brains: The Cultural Neuroscience of Bias, Injustice, and Power. Our Biosocial Brains is the basis for her popular monthly blog, The Social Life of Our Brains, featured in Psychology Today, the online magazine.
Finally, Dr. Lewis has years of experience as a study abroad program faculty leader of students in Bahia, Brazil. In this capacity and as an ambassador for cross-cultural and international engagement, she has represented her university abroad for an NEA International Programs UNC Grant Partnership with Brazilian Universities in Paraná, Minas Gerais, and Rio de Janeiro.