Pratt Institute

Education

1998- 2006 New York University Steinhardt School of Education
Dissertation: “Protest, Place and Pedagogy: New York City’s Community Control Movement and Its Aftermath, 1966-1996.”

1997 Teachers College, Columbia University Revson Fellowship, Education Policy

1988 Friends World College Bachelor of Arts in Sociology
Public History Project: Documentary film; “Guatemala: My Country Occupied”

Biography

Heather Lewis 

I develop courses and conduct research integrating the history of education,  art and design, and urban development , through the prism of New York City’s urban communities and their changes over time.    My book, The “Bad Old Days”: The Community Control Movement and its Legacy in New York City’s Schools, will be published by Teachers College Press in 2013.    I have also submitted a chapter for publication in Dreamland Pavilion: Brooklyn and Development, an edited collection. My chapter explores the historical context for campus/community partnerships.   To support and sustain my broad historical interests, I have presented at a range of professional conferences involving urban policy and geography, community arts, and interdisciplinary teaching.

My research and teaching intersect most closely through a course I designed and have taught since I started at Pratt.   The graduate course, currently entitled Roots of Urban Education, integrates the history of schools and libraries, community arts, and urban development and architecture through a study of key sites of progressive and cultural reform in New York City during the first half of the 20th century.     To improve my teaching I maintained a course portfolio, based on the principles of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL).   I used the portfolio, as well as student evaluations and surveys, to revise the course and introduce new elements.   One of the most recent revisions is a gallery exhibit helping students “do” history by examining and interpreting visual and textual sources as well as material culture. 

In addition to the course in Urban Education, I have also taught a graduate research course which spans two semesters and supports students’ research, writing, and exhibition of their findings. I designed and produced a Thesis Exhibition Booklet highlighting student work at the end of process and have recently launched a student exhibit in the Nancy Ross Project Space.   I originally taught the course on my own, but over the last few years have co-taught the course with artists and art educators, and also redesigned the syllabus based on our collaboration.  Drawing on different research methodologies—historical, ethnographic, and arts-based—the thesis courses culminate in two capstone projects, a written thesis and an art and design-based exhibit.   As part of an interdisciplinary team, I designed assessment rubrics for the capstone projects and assessed their reliability and validity.

A critical component of my professional growth, in addition to my own historical research and teaching, has been the opportunity Pratt offers for co-teaching and co-collaborations with artists, designers, and art educators.  Over the last six years, I worked on interdisciplinary teams to design and implement course syllabi, develop competitive student design projects, and create initiatives to support community development through the arts.