Profile

Dan A. Lewis Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research Professor, Human Development and Social Policy Annenberg Hall Room 206 2120 Campus Drive Evanston, IL 60208-0001 Phone: (847) 491-3715 Fax: (847) 491-3395

Biography

Dan A. Lewis’ research agenda provides an approach to studying social policy that meets the challenge of a profound transformation in social policy over the last 40 years. Gone are the days of new federal programs to solve national problems. The New Deal and the Great Society are seen by many as the source of our problems rather than solutions. Lewis’ work responds to these changes in the political climate.

In addition to numerous articles, Lewis has written or edited six books in these areas, including The State Mental Patient and Urban Life (1994), and Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis (1995). At the Institute for Policy Research he has directed major program projects on community reactions to crime, deinstitutionalization of state mental health patients and Chicago school decentralization. More recently, he conducted evaluations of the homelessness problem in the Chicago suburbs. Lewis also recently headed a large-scale university consortium that studied welfare reform efforts in Illinois for the state legislature and interested citizens.

Lewis serves on many nonprofit boards and civic committees. At Northwestern, he served as director of undergraduate education at the School of Education and Social Policy, and he currently directs the San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. Field Study Programs.

Awards/Honors

2008 - ASG Faculty Honor Roll

2007 - Outstanding Professor Award June 07

Research/Scholarship
Education

Year		Degree		Institution
1980		PhD, History of Consciousness		University of California at Santa Cruz
1968		BA, Political Science		Stanford University

Selected Publications

Lewis, Dan (2007). Moving Up and Moving Our? Economic and Residential Mobility in Low Income Chicago Families. Urban Affairs Review.

Lewis, D.A., Lee, B.J., Altenbernd, L. (2006). Depression and Welfare Reform: From Barriers to Inclusion . Journal of Community Psychology.

Lewis, D. A. (2005). New Deal to no deal: The movement toward less government is shifting social responsibility to the states.. Illinois Issues.

Lewis, D. A., with K. S. Slack and B. J. Lee. (2004). Are welfare sanctions working as intended?. Social Science Review. 78(3): 370-403.

Lewis, D. A., with B. Nelson. (2004). Suburban homelessness.. In Encyclopedia of Homeless, Sage Publications/Berkshire, ed. D. Levinson. Great Barrington, Mass.: Reference Works.

Lewis, D. A., with I. Carvalho (2003). Beyond community: Reactions to crime among inner-city residents. Criminology 41(3): 779-812.

Lewis, Dan A., & Nakagawa, K. (1995). Race and Educational Reform in the American Metropolis: A Study of School Decentralization. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Lewis, Dan A., Lurigio, Arthur J., et. al. (1994). The State Mental Patient and Urban Life: Moving In and Out of the Institution. Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.

Lewis, Dan A. (1991). The Worlds of the Mentally Ill. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press.

Selected Presentations

Pareja, A. S., & Lewis, D. A. (2006). The effect of parental employment on children‚s academic achievement in the context of welfare reform. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. Montreal, Canada.

Projects

Civic Education Project
Illinois Families Study

Other Research/Scholarship

Book reviews: Civil Commitment: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence Model, by Bruce J. Winick, The Law and Politics Book Review, Vol. 16, No. 1, January 2006.

Research Interests

Lewis currently heads a large-scale university consortium to study welfare reform efforts in Illinois. In another current project he is developing a new Suburban Action Research Project that will deliver technical assistance to suburbs struggling with social problems. It will concentrate on issues of homelessness and crime prevention in its initial phase.

Teaching/Advising
Courses

Soc Pol 351		Civic Engagement Civic engagement course description This is a class designed for seniors who have been engaged in civic activities in their time at Northwestern and want to reflect on and analyze that experience. the questions of how positive social change comes about has no simple answer. changes in our political and economic institutions leaves us in uncharted waters in prescribing how to improve the lives of people in this globalized world. Building on the case studies students develop in the class we will create frameworks for assessing civic engagement in both domestic and international settings. students will write research papers combining their experiences with scholarly analysis in those fields.
HDSP 440		The Politics of Public Policy Framework for understanding the structure and process of development. How existing social policies can be analyzed and new policies developed.
Soc Pol 304		Social Policy & Human Services Development of social policy for human services in the United States.  Human service policies for education, mental health, physical health, income, and aging.
HDSP 433		Modern Theories of the State and Social Policy Recent theories of social policy in the context of the welfare state. Analysis of alternative theories and their implications for contemporary problems in social policy.

Committees (PhD)

Start		End		Name		Position		Description
2007		2009		Altenbern		Member
2007		2007		Monte		Member

Service/Recognition
Editorial Boards

Year		Journal Name		Position
2008		Urban Affairs Quarterly		Reviewer
2008		Journal of Crime and Delinquency		Reviewer
2006		Urban Affairs Quarterly		Manuscript Reviewer
2006		Social Science Quarterly		Manuscript Reviewer
2006		Criminology		Manuscript Reviewer