Gail Lewis (academic) facts for kids

Gail Lewis (born in 1951) is a British writer, psychotherapist, researcher, and activist. She is a visiting senior fellow at the London School of Economics. She is also a Reader Emerita of Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College in London. She trained to be a psychotherapist at the Tavistock Clinic.

Gail Lewis's work is based on ideas from black feminism and anti-racism. She also supports socialist and anti-imperialist politics. She helped start the Organisation for Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD). She was also a member of the Brixton Black Women's Group. Gail Lewis was a founding editor for the Feminist Review magazine. She was interviewed for a project called "Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation". This project collected stories from important feminists of the 1970s and 80s. Her interview is kept at the British Library.

About Gail Lewis

Gail Lewis was born and grew up in London. Her mother was white, and her father was from British Guiana. In 2009, she wrote an article called "Birthing Racial Difference". In this article, she used her own life experiences. She also used ideas from psychology and sociology. She explored how "race" has shaped society in Britain since World War II. She also looked at relationships between mothers and children from different backgrounds.

Her Education

Gail Lewis studied Social Anthropology at the London School of Economics (LSE). After that, she earned a master's degree in Development Studies at the University of Sussex. She completed her PhD in Social Policy with the Open University. She taught at the Open University in the Social Sciences Faculty. She taught there from 1995 to 2004 and again from 2007 to 2013.

A fun fact about Gail Lewis is that she is a big fan of the Arsenal football club!

Her Career

Gail Lewis was a Reader in Psychosocial Studies at Birkbeck College. She worked there until 2019. She joined the department in 2013. She also served as an Assistant Dean from 2015 to 2017. Before that, she was the Head of Department for the Institute of Women's Studies at Lancaster University.

She has also been a visiting scholar at Clark University in Massachusetts, USA.

Gail Lewis often takes part in feminist discussions and events. For example, she interviewed Hortense Spillers at the ICA in 2018.

Working in Publishing

Gail Lewis has held many important roles in academic publishing. These roles include:

• Co-Editor for the European Journal of Women's Studies (2008–2017)
• Editorial Board member for Social Politics (2007–2010)
• Editorial Board member for Free Associations (2012–2018)
• Advisory Board member for Studies in the Maternal (2010–2017)
• Co-Editor for Feminist Theory (2005–2007)
• Editorial Collective member for Feminist Review (1990–1999)

Her Activism and Public Work

In 1998, Gail Lewis helped a legal team. This team represented Duwaynne Brooks. He was a friend of Stephen Lawrence. The team was part of the MacPherson Inquiry. This inquiry looked into racial stereotyping. Gail Lewis, along with Professor S. Hall and Dr. E. McLaughlin, wrote a report on this topic.

In 2000, Gail Lewis gave evidence to the "Commission on the Future of Multi-Ethnic Britain." This report was later published as The Parekh Report. Gail Lewis highlighted how important gender is for Britain's diverse future. She also spoke about how social policies can help everyone feel included.

In 2014, Gail Lewis wrote an article for Guardian for International Women's Day. In this article, she talked about "intersectionality" in feminism. Intersectionality means understanding how different parts of a person's identity, like race, gender, and class, connect. She explained that early feminists had debates about this. These discussions helped feminism become stronger today.

Awards and Recognition

• In 2019, Gail Lewis was invited to give the Feminist Review Annual Lecture.
• Also in 2019, she received an honorary doctorate from the Tavistock Clinic and Essex University.
• Gail Lewis was recognized as one of the important feminists from the 1970s and 80s. She was interviewed for the "Sisterhood and After: The Women's Liberation" project. This project is kept at the British Library. Other women interviewed for this project include Anna Davin, Zoe Fairbairns, and Barbara Taylor.

Her Books

• She was an editor and co-author of Citizenship: personal lives and social policy (2004).
• She wrote Race, Gender, Social Welfare: Encounters in a postcolonial society (2000).

See also

• Birkbeck College
• Organisation for Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD)