Demar F. Lewis IV

Yale University, Departments of Sociology & African American Studies

Demar F. Lewis IV is a PhD Candidate in Sociology & African American Studies at Yale University and received his MPP from the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan. His scholarship uses quantitative, qualitative, and archival methods to examine how historical and contemporary notions of safety influence the ways that Black people organize their lives. Using semi-structured interviews and surveys, Demar’s current work pushes sociological understandings of Blackness and sociolegal interpretations of public safety by examining how class-diverse Black adults prioritize their safety concerns and reimagine the future of community safety in the United States. His research has been published in Sociology Compass, received awards from the American Sociological Association’s Theory Section, and has been generously funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Ford Foundation. Starting in Fall 2023, Demar will be an Assistant Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at the University of Maryland-College Park.

 

Research Interests: Historical and contemporary notions of safety; Policing; Lynching; Racism; Inequality; and Urban sociology