Faculty Profile

Lynn Johnson

Associate Professor of Africana Studies; Judith Rogers '65 and Maureen Newton Hayes '65 Distinguished Chair (2004)

Contact Information

johnsoly@dickinson.edu

Althouse Hall
717-245-1394

Bio

Lynn R. Johnson specializes in African American literature, African Aesthetics, and Africana literary cultures. Her primary research interests are in African American literary production and theory and Middle Passage studies. Currently, she is completing a manuscript that examines the relationship between food and psychological disease and wellness as portrayed in African American fiction.

Education

  • B.A., Salisbury University, 1996
  • M.A., Temple University, 1998
  • Ph.D., 2007

2026-2027 Academic Year

Fall 2026

AFST 200 Approaches to Africana Studies
This course will investigate the importance of conceptual analysis and the development of concepts in the theoretical and textual research of Africana Studies. Thus, the course will focus on various interpretive frameworks and approaches to organizing and understanding Africana Studies, including but not limited to the African model, Afrocentricity, diaspora model, critical race theory, post-modernism, and post colonialism. Prerequisite: 100.

AFST 330 African American Women Writers
Cross-listed with WGSS 331-01.

WGSS 331 African American Women Writers
Cross-listed with AFST 330-01.

AFST 400 Writing in Africana Studies
This course will build on experiences in the methods course. Students in this course continue research toward and writing of a senior thesis. The emphasis is on writing skills and course material; assignments link those skills to work in Africana Studies. Seniors in the major will work independently with the director of Africana Studies and a second faculty reader (representing a discipline closer to the senior's interest) to produce a lengthy paper or special project which focuses on an issue relevant to the student's concentration. Under the direction of the director of Africana Studies, students will meet collectively two or three times during the semester with the directors (and, if possible, other Africana Studies core and contributing faculty) to share bibliographies, research data, early drafts, and the like. This group will also meet at the end of the semester to discuss and evaluate final papers and projects. Prerequisites: 100 and 200; four 200/300-level AFST approved courses (2 Africa, 2 Diaspora); three 300-level (in area of concentration).

Spring 2027

AFST 220 Afro-Caribb Foodways & Culture
Cross-listed with THDA 125-01. Part of the Grenada Mosaic. Open only to mosaic participants.

AFST 500 Independent Study
Part of the Grenada Mosaic. Open only to mosaic participants.