JOHN LEWIS CENTER FELLOWS

Bolstering Humanities & Social Science Research (in Social Justice)

The John Lewis Center Fellows Program is funded by a generous grant from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. Established in 2022, the program supports social justice fellows working in the areas of policy/activism, arts/culture, and tech/data science. In 2026, the program was converted into a postdoctoral fellowship under the John Lewis Center’s Highest Calling Social Justice Initiative.

Postdoctoral Fellows, 2026-2028

• Dr. Iyanna Hamby, Arts/Culture, Bio Forthcoming

• Dr. Brittany City Jarman, Advanced Tech Innovator, Bio Forthcoming

• Dr. Anna Sophia Flood, Public Sphere/Black Studies

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Dr. Iyanna Hamby

Dr. Iyanna Hamby (she/her) is the Arts/Culture Postdoctoral Fellow at the John Lewis Center of Social Justice at Fisk University. Dr. Hamby’s research investigates Black rendered counter-historical projects and enslaved histories. Her research deals with embodied methods of transposition via nature at plantation sites and performed by historically emancipated subjects and contemporary Black people. Dr. Hamby received her doctorate from UCLA’s Department of Theater and Performance.

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Dr. Brittany City Jarman

Dr. Brittany City Jarman is an Advanced Tech Innovator Postdoctoral Fellow at the John Lewis Center for Social Justice at Fisk University. A Nashville native, Dr. City Jarman brings a rare blend of technical depth and community commitment to the role, applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to advance equity and social justice. Dr. City Jarman earned her Bachelor of Science from Xavier University, a Master of Science in Data Science from Meharry Medical College's School of Applied Computational Sciences (SACS), and a Doctor of Engineering in AI/ML from George Washington University.

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Dr. Anna Sophia Flood

Anna Sophia Flood is the Policy/Black Studies Postdoctoral Fellow at the John Lewis Center for Social Justice at Fisk University specializing in Black literature, visual culture, and the Gothic. Working at the intersection of Afro Gothic, graphic narratives, and speculative fiction, her research examines how Black writers and artists confront histories of racial violence, challenges practices of historical erasure, and imagines possibilities for Black liberation and futurity. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy in English from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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Inaugural Fellows, 2026-2028

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Michelle Eistrup, Arts/Culture Fellow

Michelle Eistrup was the inaugural arts/culture fellow. She is a visual artist, arts producer, and initiator of artistic collaborations who presently resides in Nashville, Tennessee. Ms. Eistrup’s art incorporates themes of identity, corporeality, faith, memory, and post-colonialism, with her transnational background (Danish, Jamaican, American) frequently serving as a point of departure. She traverses varied artistic expressions that include photography, drawing, video, sound, and performance, all integrated in a practice led by the spirit of and a strong belief in the collective’s transformative potential.

Lena Winfree

Lena Winfree was the inaugural tech/data science fellow. She is the co-founder of Rachel + Winfree Consulting, a data analytics firm that provides data strategy and analytics solutions to small and mid- sized businesses. She has served as Vice President and co-organizer of the Nashville chapter of the Blacks in Technology Foundation, has worked at multiple universities, and has launched social justice initiatives that increase digital equity and literacy for historically excluded minorities. During her tenure as a fellow, she created the Social Justice Hackathons for the Fisk-Belmont Social Justice Collaborative.

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Justin Jones

Justin Jones was the inaugural policy/activism fellow. He is the State Representative of House District 52. He has a background in community organizing, nonviolent direct action, environmental justice, and youth organizing. He is the author of The People’s Plaza: Sixty-Two Days of Nonviolent Resistance (Vanderbilt University Press, 2022).