Jill Lewis

Biography
Jill Lewis, professor of literature and gender studies, teaches courses exploring the connections between culture and politics—with specific focus on questions of gender and sexual identities, militarism, post colonialism, and cultural difference. She has been teaching at Hampshire one semester a year for over 25 years, with a home base in Europe.In IA, she works actively with the arts and social action vision of the school and cross-school connections it can fertilize.

Her interests in cultural representation, theatre performance, innovative educational processes, feminism, the politics of gender and sexuality, and cross-cultural diversities have linked importantly for her with HIV/AIDS prevention education in recent years, and involved work in UK, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Serbia, Azerbaijan, Georgia - and in sub Saharan Africa in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Somalia, Somaliland, Sudan, South Africa, Uganda, DR Congo, Burundi and Senegal. This work informs her classes with students and supports reproductive right/sexual health initiatives here on campus - and her Living for Tomorrow class has twice undertaken work with youth in Holyoke.

Jill teaches at Hampshire every Spring semester. She is based out of England the rest of each year, and works internationally on gender-focused, participative learning capacity building for HIV prevention - working with teacher trainers, teachers, community leaders, NGO local staff, faith leaders and young people.

She is currently working with an award-winning South African film team on a film to strengthen boys' and men's involvment in avoidance of HIV infection. Funded by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, filmed in Kenya, Sierra Leone and South Africa, it will be distributed via Sonke Gender Justice network and MenEngage Africa into HIV prevention initiatives in a range of sub Saharan African countries.

Education
Jill holds a B.A. and a Ph.D. in French literature from Newnham College, Cambridge University, England.

Spring 2010
IA-0161-1 Living For Tomorrow I: cultural contestations, gender politics and the AIDS epidemic

IA-0212-1 Formative narratives in times of a pandemic: human conundrum and HIV realities

Spring 2009
IA/SS-0253-1 Disturbing Desire: Proust, Woolf, Lacan

(Co-taught with Prof. Annie Rogers)

IA-0161-1 Living For Tomorrow I: cultural contestations, gender politics and the AIDS epidemic

January 2009
IA-0151-1 The Heart of the Matter: An introductory exploration of the HIV pandemic

View course description here: The Heart of the Matter

Spring 2007
IA/SS-0253-1 Disturbing Desire: Proust, Woolf and Lucan

(Co-taught with Prof. Annie Rogers)

View course description here: Disturbing Desire: Proust, Woolf and Lucan

IA-0161-1 Living for Tomorrow I: cultural contestations, gender politics and the AIDS epidemic

Office Hours
Jill Lewis's Office Hour Sign-Up

Gender/HIV related work
Jill has worked on gender-focused HIV prevention education and capacity building in a wide range of contexts since 1986. For an overview of this visit the following page

Cultural / gender studies, sexual health & HIV prevention

Additional Information
see fuller overview of HIV.gender work at this Hampshire link