Awards
Lewis’s books and edited volumes include The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America, a finalist for the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, bestseller The Rise: Creativity, the Gift of Failure, and the Search for Mastery, translated into seven languages, Carrie Mae Weems, and the “Vision & Justice” special issue of Aperture magazine. Her scholarship has been featured in outlets such as The New York Times, Hyperallergic, and Art in America, and has earned awards including the Arthur Danto/ASA Prize from the American Philosophical Association and the Photography Network Book Prize.
Awards and honors
UN General Assembly, Invited Keynote by the Secretary General, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Finalist, Anisfield-Wolf Book Prize, The Unseen Truth (Harvard University Press, 2024)
Winner, Harvard University, Walter Channing Cabot Fellowship
Honorable Mention, James Porter Book Award, The Unseen Truth (Harvard University Press, 2024)
Pratt Institute Commencement Address Speaker
Pratt Institute, Honorary Degree, Doctor of Humane Letters
Winner, Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, Harvard Tenure-track Nominee, Arts & Humanities Division
Winner, 2022 Arthur Danto/American Society for Aesthetics Prize, American Philosophical Association awarded for “the best paper in the field of aesthetics, broadly understood.”
Winner, Photography Network Book Prize Award for Carrie Mae Weems (MIT Press, 2021)
Capella University Commencement Address Speaker
Harvard University 19th Annual Navin Narayan Memorial Lecture Speaker
Winner, Freedom Scholar Award, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), awarded in recognition of work that has a “direct positive impact on the life of African Americans.”
Yale School of Art, Commencement Address Speaker
Southern Utah University, Tanner Lecture in Human Values
Ann Radcliffe Trust Lecture delivered during Harvard College convocation, selected by Harvard student nomination
Phi Beta Kappa address, Harvard University chapter, Induction ceremony
Winner, Infinity Award, International Center of Photography, Critical Writing and Research for the “Vision & Justice” issue of Aperture
Yale Honorary Degrees Committee, Appointed Member
Winner, Faculty Leadership Award, Black Men’s Forum, Harvard College
Winner, Gold Rush Award, Rush Philanthropic Arts Foundation
President Obama’s Arts Policy Committee, Appointed Member
Oprah’s Power List
Winner, New Leadership Award Recipient, ArtTable
Press
"The Reckless Creation of Whiteness," by Erin L. Thompson, The Nation
“Maurice Berger Held a Mirror to a Racist Art World,” by Holly Bass, The New York Times
“How image and the arts help create a just society,” by Keishel A. Williams, The Emancipator
“This Photo Book Sparks a Powerful Conversation About Racial Equality,” by Kilofer Khan, The Phoblographer
“Sarah Lewis on Ways of Seeing Race in America,” interview with Folasade Ologundudu, Hyperallergic
“Maurice Berger Saw Visual Literacy as a Means Toward Racial Literacy,” by Emmanuel Iduma, Art in America
“The Best Black History Books of 2024,” Black Perspectives
“10 Best Books of 2024,” Chicago Tribune
“The 30 Best Art Books of 2024,” Hyperallergic
“Sarah Lewis’s New Book Shows How Photography Taught Americans to “See” Race,” by Emmanuel Iduma, Art in America
“18 Art Books to Read This Fall," Hyperallergic
“The 60 Must-Read Books of Fall 2024,” Town & Country Magazine
“‘We can love all of the United Stated without lying about it,’ says Harvard professor Sarah Lewis,” by Brooke Hauser, The Boston Globe
“Learning not to see,” The Ink
“Sports psychology for everyday life,” NPR's TED Radio Hour Podcast
“Suzanne Nossel Is Heartened by ‘Liberalism as a Way of Life,'” The New York Times
“The Next Big Idea Club’s September 2024 Must-Read Books,” Next Big Idea Club
"Welcoming Underexposed Black Photographers Into the Canon," by Arthur Lubow, The New York Times
“Giving Carrie Mae Weems her due,” by Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite, The Harvard Gazette
“The Stunning Scope of Carrie Mae Weems’s Vision,” by Allison Conner, Hyperallergic
“The Must-Read Books of Summer 2021,” Town & Country
“Carrie Mae Weems and the Long History of Collective Self-Institutionalization Among Black Radicals,” by Thomas J. Lax, Lit Hub
“Celebrating Black Culture with a Careful Eye,” by Sandra Stevenson, The New York Times
“These Images of the Black Experience Offer a Corrective to the Lily-White Photo World,” by Winslow Laroche, VICE Magazine
“How Contemporary Photography Is Changing The Image Of Blackness In America,” by Priscilla Frank, The Huffington Post
“Curating a visual record,” by Jill Radsken, The Harvard Gazette
“Addressing the Representation of Black Culture in Photography,” by Lucia de Stefani, TIME
“How Photography Can Transform Social Justice In America,” by Diana Budds, Fast Company
“Reclaiming the Photographic Narrative of African Americans,” by James Estrin, The New York Times
“Magazine Photos Give a New Sense Of African-American Lives,” by Ralph Gardner, Jr., The Wall Street Journal
“Book Review: 'The Rise' by Sarah Lewis,” by A. Roger Ekirch, The Wall Street Journal
“Epic Fail,” by Scott A. Sandage, The New York Times
“Author Sarah Lewis Interview,” Late Night with Seth Meyers