Cheira Lewis is Professor of Global French Studies at DePauw University and Managing Editor of The French Review. She received her Ph.D. in French and Francophone Studies from Florida State University, where her doctoral work focused on contemporary Algerian cinema produced during Algeria's Black Decade of the 1990s.
Cinema has been central to Lewis's teaching throughout her career. Her courses draw on films from France, the Francophone world, and global cinema to teach students how to read the moving image critically, paying particular attention to point of view, visual style, narrative, and the ways filmmakers shape our understanding of people, places, and societies. She is especially interested in bringing films from different cultural traditions into conversation with one another and in situating cinema within the social and historical contexts in which it is made. Her teaching also encompasses contemporary French society and culture, Francophone literature, and French language. Over the years, she has developed interdisciplinary courses both on campus and through international and experiential education.
Lewis has been a regular contributor to The French Review, primarily as a reviewer of contemporary French and Francophone film. She served as the journal's Film Review Editor from 2016 to 2020 and returned as Managing Editor in 2024. The French Review is the scholarly journal of the American Association of Teachers of French and one of the leading publications in French and Francophone studies.