Amber Johnson, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Communication
Associate Provost
Courses Taught
Intercultural Communication; Human Communication & Culture; Intergroup Dialogue; First Year Dialogue; Stereotyping & Bias in the Mass Media; Global Media; Photojournalism; Qualitative Inquiry for Communication and Social Justice; Autoethnography
Education
Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, 2006
M.A., Saint Louis University, 2002
Research Interests
- Humanizing Equity
- Social justice and arts activism
- Identity negotiation
- Mediated sexualities
- Popular culture
- Autoethnography
- Rhetorical ethnography
- Intercultural communication
Professional Experience
Executive Director
Institute for Healing Justice and Equity
Publications and Media Placements
Johnson, A. (2020). Radical Imagination via Play: The Future of Critical Cultural
Studies Research. Communication and Critical Cultural Studies 17 (1), p. 81-87. DOI:
10.1080/14791420.2020.1723798
Johnson, A. (2019). Exploring the Dark Matter(s) of Wakanda: A Case for Radical Queer
Inclusion beyond Capitalism. Journal of Future Studies, Special Issue titled When
is Wakanda?, 24 (2), pp 5-14.
Johnson, A. (2019). Quare/kuaer/queer/(e)ntersectionality: An invitational rhetoric
of possibility. Cross Currents. https://doi.org/10.1111/cros.12338.
Johnson, A. (2019). Practicing Radical Forgiveness in the Political now: A Justice
Fleet Exhibit Fostering Healing through Art, Dialogue and Play. Journal of Art for
Life 10, (Special Issue: Social Justice).
Johnson, A. & Lewis, M. M. (2018). Transcending the acronym, traversing gender: A
Conversation in the margins of the margins. Women & Language 41(1), p. 128-145.
Johnson, A. (2018). Gender on the box: Self-reflexivity as a starting point. Communication
Teacher, DOI: 10.1080/17404622.2018.1467565
Johnson, A. (2018). Straight outta erasure: Black girl magic claps back to the hyperinvisibility
of Black women in Straight Outta Compton. National Political Science Review. Alexander,
B., Huffman, T., & Johnson, A. (2017). Breath, breathe, breathing: Communication in/as
acts of social justice (a metaphorical performative assemblage). Cultural Studies
Critical Methodologies. doi.org/10.1177/1532708617727755
Johnson, A. (2017). Pulse: From Death to Resurrection and back Again. Qualitative
Inquiry 23(7), p. 515-518.
Books
Johnson, A., & LeMaster, B. (June, 2020) Gender Futurity, Intersectional Autoethnography: Embodied Theorizing from the Margins. New York: Routledge.
Jackson, R. Johnson, A., Hecht, M, & Ribeau, S. (2020). African American Communication 3e. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Honors and Awards
- The Dr. Terry Leet Researcher Award, Generate Health, 2020. This award honors a researcher and community practitioner who is dedicated to advancing racial equity in maternal and infant health. Honorees are nominated and selected by a jury.
- The Dr. Norm White Award for Engaged Scholarship and Service, Saint Louis University, 2020. This award honors the late Norm White and his socially engaged scholarship around education, criminal justice reform, and liberation. Honorees are nominated by their peers and selected by Faculty Council.
- Stolle Award, College of Arts and Sciences, Saint Louis University, 2020. $1,250 to mentor and chaperone 6 students who presented their research at the Doing Autoethnography Conference in Tampa, Florida following our graduate seminar in Autoethnographic Research Methods.
- Carolyn Ellis and Art Bochner, Ellis-Bochner Autoethnography and Narrative Research
Award, 2018.
Awarded for Johnson, A. From the Academy, to the Theatre, to the Streets: My Autocritography of Canonical Exception and Aesthetic Cleansing in the wake of Ferguson. Qualitative Inquiry, 2017. - Nick Trujillo & Bud Goodall “It’s a Way of Life” Award for narrative research, 2018.
Awarded for Johnson, A. From the Academy, to the Theatre, to the Streets: My Autocritography of Canonical Exception and Aesthetic Cleansing in the wake of Ferguson. Qualitative Inquiry, 2017. - Outstanding Article, African American Communication & Culture Division, National Communication
Association, 2018.
Awarded for Johnson, A. From the Academy, to the Theatre, to the Streets: My Autocritography of Canonical Exception and Aesthetic Cleansing in the wake of Ferguson. Qualitative Inquiry, 2017. - Presidential Citation for Outstanding Commitment to Social Justice, National Communication Association, 2018.
- Scholar/Activist Award, Critical Cultural Studies Division, National Communication Association, 2018.
- Top Paper Panel, African American Communication & Culture Division, National Communication
Association, 2018.
Awarded for Johnson, A Straight outta erasure: Black girl magic claps back to the hyperinvisibility of Black women in Straight Outta Compton. - Lilla A. Heston Award for Outstanding Scholarship in Interpretation and Performance Studies, National Communication Association, 2016
- Top Paper Award, Ethnography Division, National Communication Association, 2016
- Faculty Excellence Award for Diversity and Social Justice, Student Government Association, Saint Louis University, 2016.
- Article of the Year, Ethnography Division, National Communication Association, 2015
- Golden Anniversary Monograph Award, National Communication Association, 2014
- Outstanding Book Chapter, African American Communication & Culture Division, National Communication Association, 2014
Professional Organizations and Associations
- National Communication Association
- Western States Communication Association
- Alpha Delta Sigma National Honorary Society
- The Collegium for African American Research
- Organization for the Study of Language and Gender
- American Studies Association
Community Work and Service
- Founder and Creator of The Justice Fleet (www.thejusticefleet.com)
- Founding Member of The Social Justice Communication Collaborative, Saint Louis University, 2015-present