Florence Bird Lecture 2024: Black “LGBTQIA+” Psychology

On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, Carleton University's Feminist Institute of Social Transformation hosted its annual Florence Bird Lecture:
Black “LGBTQIA+” Psychology: Understanding Collective Self-determination, Afrocentrism, and Optimal Identity with Dr. Michele K. Lewis.
Dr. Michele K. Lewis is a 2023-24 Fulbright Distinguished Chair at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Carleton University. Through her lecture, Lewis frames her Fulbright work as intersecting Black Psychology, Culture Neuroscience, and what has been theorized as a Kemetic model of the cosmological interactive self (Maat, 2014). The objective of the project is greater understanding of spirit identities and interpersonal experiences of Black Same-Gender Loving (SGL), “LGBTQIA+” and/or non-binary gendered Black-identifying persons residing in Canada and the United States. Lewis’ use of Africentric methodology and reflexive thematic analysis (Braun and Clark­) renders the project a decolonized form of doing international research. Her research questions address participants’ belief systems, mystic experiences, identity, motivations, and attitudes as revealed through Africentric methodology. Preliminary observations and analysis were presented on this work in progress.