Dr. Janene Lewis
Professor
College of Humanities and Sciences
jlewis@umhb.edu
Heard 117
UMHB Box 8008
(254) 295-4939
Curriculum Vitae (Résumé)
Janene Lewis received her Ph.D. from Texas Christian University in 1999 and has been teaching in the English Department at UMHB since the fall of 2001. She teaches Contemporary World Literature, Literature and Social Consciousness, and Scientific Writing. She has presented several papers at professional conferences, such as the National Association of Developmental Educators, the Conference of College Composition and Communication, the National Council of Teachers of English, the South Central Modern Language Association, and the Graphic Medicine Conference.
In the summer of 2014, Dr. Lewis received a professional development grant to study best practices in developmental writing. She presented those findings at the National Association of Developmental Educators meeting in February 2015. In the summer of 2019, she received a second professional development grant to write a handbook for scientific writing, which she published as an open educational resource. Also in 2019, Dr. Lewis began sponsoring a creative writing contest in honor of Black History Month, with the winners reading their work at the Windhover Writers' Festival.
Most recently, Dr. Lewis has demonstrated her commitment to increasing college accessibility through technological innovation by developing four online courses: two for the English department and two for the MyWay program. In the summer of 2023, she began studying generative AI by attending webinars, reading the most recent research, and making connections with colleagues at other universities so that she could integrate AI tools into her courses. She has learned to program her own course-specific chatbots and is assembling a collection of information for a library research guide.
Personal Interests
Dr. Lewis's personal interests include researching family history and genealogy. She also belongs to several community groups that provide education and support to families with a child on the autism spectrum. In June 2019, she traveled with a group of UMHB students to Lithuania and Poland and hopes to return in the next few years.
Dr. Lewis has been married to her husband Paul for 29 years. They have three daughters: Gabrielle, Olivia, and Alexandra.
Subjects Taught
Contemporary World Literature, Scientific Writing, sophomore-level general surveysDegrees Earned
B.S., M.A., Tarleton State University; Ph.D., Texas Christian UniversityResearch Interests
Dr. Lewis's current interests include scientifc writing, AI-assisted writing, monsters and science in literature, and literature and medicine.