DEANA LEWIS

Deana Lewis’ scholarly and activist work focuses on trans and non-trans Black women and girls who have experienced state violence. Her research interests include Black girlhood studies, the school/prison nexus, and youth incarceration. More specifically, Deana is interested in Black girls’ experiences within the school to prison pipeline and how their experiences have been left out of discourses about youth incarceration in general.

Also, Deana is a member of Love & Protect, a support committee dedicated to supporting of marginalized gender identities who are criminalized or harmed by state and interpersonal violence. She is also a founding member of the Just Practice Collaborative, whose purpose is to build communities’ capacities to effectively and with empathy to respond to intimate partner violence and sexual assault without relying primarily on police or other state-based systems. Additionally, Deana participates in the work of Survived & Punished and the Chicago Community Bond Fund.

Deana is a co-founder of Just Practice Collaborative.