Dr. Ferdinand Lewis

Name: Ferdinand Lewis

Nationality: USA          

Qualifications:

I have a Master’s of Fine Arts degree in Theater from the California Institute of the Arts, and after graduation I was co-founder and co-artistic director of the professional theater company Ghost Road, which is based in Los Angeles. I also joined the full-time faculty at my alma mater, teaching theater and interdisciplinary arts, directing projects, and producing the Interdisciplinary Music Festival. 

I earned an interdisciplinary doctorate in urban policy and planning from the University of Southern California, where I majored in urban design and minored in program evaluation. While I was there I served on the Public Art Studies faculty at USC’s College of the Arts, and also taught in the interdisciplinary Neighborhood Studies program. 

Prior to coming to UCG, I served on the faculty of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Florida, where I taught research design, planning ethics, and led interdisciplinary community service-learning projects. While at UF I directed the Center for Building Better Communities, advocating for community-engaged planning. 

My background in the arts helps to explain how, years later, I was invited to train in arts in health, and become an artist in residence with the Arts in Medicine program at the University of Florida’s hospital. There, I worked at the bedside with patients, in projects supporting the wellbeing of hospital staff,  and developed arts-based community health projects such as a citywide participatory arts festival.

As a researcher I have focused on how design and the arts contribute to quality of life in communities. For example, with colleagues from Arts in Medicine and the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Florida, I developed a set of indicators for measuring the arts’ effects on community health. I also studied and wrote about how artists and arts programs contribute to community capacity-building in impoverished rural communities. My publications focus on city planning theory, community-based design and planning, arts-based community engagement, collaboration, and community-based artmaking.

What you’ll do at University College Groningen:

As a member of the Humanities faculty, I teach courses that help our students understand how our communities and society can support the well-being of each of us. When I’m not at UCG, I serve as Director of Science and Education for Arts in Health Netherlands, which promotes the field of arts. Each year I co-lead a project on arts in health. 

Because my work has always been interdisciplinary, I have always felt at home at UCG. I have the pleasure of collaborating with people from physics, medicine, philosophy, the arts, economics, and other fields. Our students are some of the most unique, interesting (and smartest) people I’ve ever met, and I’m thrilled to be able to teach and lead UCG projects.

It still feels a bit odd to me when someone refers to UCG as my ‘job.’ We work very, very hard here, it’s true, but for someone who loves learning and creative problem-solving, this is more like a playground, or a mad scientist’s laboratory.

Personal Information:

My favorite food is whatever is being prepared with friends and loved ones. Drop by and pull up a chair, ya’ll.

As someone who spent much of his adult life on Los Angeles freeways, I LOVE being able to bicycle everywhere in Groningen and the Netherlands. And also, traveling by train in Europe is a dream come true for me.  

My favorite place in the world is…(see “favorite food,” above).

My biggest achievement was becoming a father to a brilliant young man who builds rockets. A related achievement of my son’s was making me a grandfather (2x). Any other so-called achievements can get in line behind those.

When I’m not working, I love writing/publishing poems, and I also like to make a mess in my art studio. 

I get inspiration from a couple of sources. First, a commitment to social justice gives my life and work its meaning. Second, I’m inspired by art and artists of any place or time: Professional or amateur artists, contemporary or classical, prehistoric, whatever––If someone is loving the world with their imagination, I’m there. Third, I passionately believe in collaborative problem-solving, artistic collaboration, and working together to address social issues. Collaborative problem-solving is my soul food. If I had a motto, it would be “Better Together”.

Contact information

Email: f.lewis@rug.nl

Phone: +31 50 363 3512

website: http://www.rug.nl/staff/f.lewis/