Dr. Lisa Johnson

Lisa Johnson, Ph.D. Women's and Gender Studies

Dr. Johnson has directed the Center for Women's and Gender Studies at USC Upstate since July 2006. She has developed programs on campus and in the community to introduce the field of Women’s and Gender Studies as an exciting set of critical thinking skills and fresh perspectives on gender and power in personal relationships, politics, workplaces, educational settings and media culture.  

Dr. Johnson is well published in the field of feminist cultural studies, with specializations in sexuality studies, disability studies and girls’ studies. Her scholarly work has articulated landmark positions on the feminist sex wars (Jane Sexes It Up), sex worker debates (Flesh for Fantasy), the feminist gaze (Third Wave Feminism and Television), disabled feminist intellectual history (On the Literary Nonfiction of Nancy Mairs), feminist psychiatric disability studies (Girl in Need of a Tourniquet) and crip (disability studies) feminist epistemology (Cripistemologies). Many of these works are collaborative projects that reflect Dr. Johnson’s commitment to convening and contributing to dynamic conversations among feminist, queer and crip scholars.