Lewis is a neurodiverse author and academic. He started in community college as a nontraditional student, received his B.A. from the University of New Mexico and his M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology with a concentration in archaeology from the University of Arizona. He is the Horizon Chair in Native American History and Culture in the Department of Native American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, Norman. He has previously held academic positions at the University of Arizona, Universiteit Leiden in the Netherlands, and at the University of Missouri. He has also previously worked in the federal, private, and nonprofit sectors within cultural heritage management and archaeology. Lewis is a founding member of the Black Trowel Collective, a founding committee member for their microgrants initiative, and the founder of The History Underground. He is currently partnered with the Jicarilla Apache Nation’s Tribal Historic Preservation Office to conduct culturally informed field research in northern New Mexico. Methodologically, Lewis uses quantitative spatial and network approaches to analyze data from the material histories of past peoples. He then places these results within, and interprets them through, descendant histories and philosophies. His research examines both how rebellion, revolutions, and social movements are often missed or erased by archaeologists even as they transformed societies and how modern politics and ideologies shape how we write history. In addition to his peer reviewed works, he has written for periodicals like the Huffington Post, Yes! Magazine, Sapiens, Culturico, and The Conversation and regularly appears on public lecture series and podcasts.

More information about him and his research can be found here.

You can contact him through his institutional email.