Director, McGill Institute for the Public Life of Arts and Ideas (IPLAI); Professor, Department of Philosophy, McGill University

Eric Lewis' research focuses on the philosophy of improvised arts, particularly those emerging out of African diaspora traditions. He has just completed a book manuscript entitled Intents and Purposes: An Ontology of Afrological Improvisation.

Prof. Lewis leads numerous community-facing research projects, and runs the annual improvising new media art residency program Koumaria. He is presently writing a book on the singer Jeanne Lee, focusing on her contributions to African-American feminist theory and critical race theory.

While he has no particular history of engagement with blackface in Canadian culture, his work on racial identity, anti-essentialism and black arts-based resistance movements is in keeping with the impetus behind Arts Against PostRacialism, and its themes. Prof. Lewis is also an active improviser, curator and new media artist.