After studying violin at Boston Conservatory, Joia Lewis  continued college in Massachusetts, and at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow, Russia, graduating with degrees in Russian Language and Literature, and Soviet and East European studies. In 1979, she returned to the US from travels throughout Europe, Africa, India, and the middle East for graduate work in the History and Philosophy of Science. In  2018, she came full circle, back to Portugal, where she was born.