About Michael Johnston

Michael O. Johnston is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at William Penn University. He received his Ph.D. of Public Administration from Walden University. He uses celebrations, festivals, and neighborhoods as sites for him to use his sociological lens in capturing the ongoing negotiations that occur between place and human identity. He uses a variety of research methods to understand the importance of history and biography in the construction of human identity and of the places they make. His book, Community Media Representations of Place and Identity at Tug Fest (Lexington, 2022), is about media representations of an interstate tug of war festival that occurs annually between Iowa and Illinois. The interstate Tug Festival was founded as a recreational activity that also stirred economic growth in the two cities. Tug Fest was found to be embedded in environment, economy, local politics, and body politics (masculinity and young age in particular). He also recently published The Queen and Her Royal Court: A Content Analysis of Doing Gender at a Tulip Queen Pageant (2020) in Gender Issues. This was a content analysis of responses to interviews that tulip queens and royal attendants over a 10-year-period shared with local news media. The article details the significance of social, cultural, and economic capital in having the proper clout to become a tulip queen or a royal attendant as a member of the royal court. The article, however, does not completely dismiss the tulip pageant as a tragic event that is in need of being cancelled. The findings of this study also show the positive outcomes for the girls who are part of the tulip pageant. The culmination of this article is an argument that celebrations and festivals (like Tulip Time Festival and Tulip Queen Pageant) are critical to the culture of cities and their heritage. The findings of this study recommend that stakeholders and residents of communities that host annual festivals must acknowledge and bring change to the exclusionary practices that have become part of their celebration.

Michael O. Johnston, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at William Penn University.

Michael's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Michael:

Petra Molnar, "The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence" (New Press, 2024)

November 21, 2024

The Walls Have Eyes

Petra Molnar
Hosted by Michael Johnston

In 2022, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced it was training “robot dogs” to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border against migrants. Four-…

Douglas J. Engelman, "A Boy Broken: A Father's Journey Through His Son's Mental Illness, Loss, and a Search for Meaning" (2023)

November 4, 2024

A Boy Broken

Douglas J. Engelman
Hosted by Michael Johnston

In A Boy Broken: A Father’s Journey Through His Son’s Mental Ilness, Loss, and a Search for Meaning (2023), Dr. Douglas J. Engelman takes us through a…

Lisa-Jo K. Van den Scott, "Walled-In: Arctic Housing and a Sociology of Walls" (Lexington Book, 2024)

October 11, 2024

Walled-In

Lisa-Jo K. Van den Scott
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Walls profoundly shape the spaces we live in and the places we move through, impinge on our everyday lives, and entangle power relations, identity, an…

Michael J. Thompson, "Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism" (Routledge, 2024)

October 5, 2024

Descent of the Dialectic

Michael J. Thompson
Hosted by Michael Johnston

In Descent of the Dialectic: Phronetic Criticism in an Age of Nihilism (Routledge, 2024), Michael J. Thompson reconstructs the concept and practice of…

Ellen T. Meiser, "Making It: Success in the Commercial Kitchen" (Rutgers UP, 2024)

September 27, 2024

Making It

Ellen T. Meiser
Hosted by Michael Johnston

The restaurant industry is one of the few places in America where workers from lower-class backgrounds can rise to positions of power and prestige. Ye…

Eli Revelle Yano Wilson, "Handcrafted Careers: Working the Artisan Economy of Craft Beer" (U California Press, 2024)

September 17, 2024

Handcrafted Careers

Eli Revelle Yano Wilson
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Handcrafted Careers: Working the Artisan Economy of Craft Beer (U California Press, 2024) unpacks the problems and privileges of pursuing a career of …

Sharon M. Quinsaat, "Insurgent Communities: How Protests Create a Filipino Diaspora" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

September 9, 2024

Insurgent Communities

Sharon M. Quinsaat
Hosted by Michael Johnston

When people migrate and settle in other countries, do they automatically form a diaspora? In Insurgent Communities: How Protests Create a Filipino Dia…

Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo, "Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism" (Lexington, 2023)

July 12, 2024

Dance Music Spaces

Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo
Hosted by Michael Johnston

In Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism (Lexington Books, 2022), Danielle Antoinette Hida…

Amanda McMillan Lequieu, "Who We Are Is Where We Are: Making Home in the American Rust Belt" (Columbia UP, 2024)

July 5, 2024

Who We Are Is Where We Are

Amanda McMillan Lequieu
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Half a century ago, deindustrialization gutted blue-collar jobs in the American Midwest. But today, these places are not ghost towns. People still cal…

Christopher T. Conner and David R. Dickens, "Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023)

June 23, 2024

Electronic Dance Music

Christopher T. Conner and David R. Dickens
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Electronic Dance Music: From Deviant Subculture to Culture Industry (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023) explores the subculture’s emergence as a deviant subc…

Alex V. Barnard, "Conservatorship: Inside California's System of Coercion and Care for Mental Illness" (Columbia UP, 2023)

June 18, 2024

Conservatorship

Alex V. Barnard
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Is involuntary psychiatric treatment the solution to the intertwined crises of untreated mental illness, homelessness, and addiction? In recent years,…

Gordon C. Chang, "Revolution and Witchcraft: The Code of Ideology in Unsettled Times" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023)

June 14, 2024

Revolution and Witchcraft

Gordon C. Chang
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Ideas influence people. In particular, extremely well-developed sets of ideas shape individuals, groups, and societies in far-reaching ways. In Revolu…

Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans, "The Unclaimed: Abandonment and Hope in the City of Angels" (Crown, 2024)

May 26, 2024

The Unclaimed

Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans
Hosted by Michael Johnston

For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters’ fields—a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to av…

Justin O’Connor, "Culture is Not an Industry: Reclaiming Art and Culture for the Common" (Manchester UP, 2024)

May 1, 2024

Culture is Not an Industry

Justin O’Connor
Hosted by Michael Johnston

According to Dr. Justin O’Connor, culture is at the heart of what it means to be human. But twenty-five years ago, the British government rebranded ar…

Neil Gong, "Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics: Mental Illness and Homelessness in Los Angeles" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

March 27, 2024

Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics

Neil Gong
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Sociologist Neil M. Gong explains why mental health treatment in Los Angeles rarely succeeds, for the rich, the poor, and everyone in between. In…

Rana AlMutawa, "Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: Making Home in Dubai" (U California Press, 2024)

March 26, 2024

Everyday Life in the Spectacular City

Rana AlMutawa
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Everyday Life in the Spectacular City: Making Home in Dubai (U California Press, 2024) is a groundbreaking urban ethnography that reveals how middle-c…

Daniel Skinner et al., "The City and the Hospital: The Paradox of Medically Overserved Communities" (U Chicago Press, 2023)

February 21, 2024

The City and the Hospital

Daniel Skinner, Jonathan R. Wynn and Berkeley Franz
Hosted by Michael Johnston

An enduring paradox of urban public health is that many communities around hospitals are economically distressed and, counterintuitively, medically un…

Matthew Wolf-Meyer and Denielle A. Elliott, "Naked Fieldnotes: A Rough Guide to Ethnographic Writing (U Minnesota Press, 2024)

February 17, 2024

Naked Fieldnotes

Matthew Wolf-Meyer and Denielle A. Elliott
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Ethnographic research has long been cloaked in mystery around what fieldwork is really like for researchers, how they collect data, and how it is anal…

Dustin Kiskaddon, "Blood and Lightening: On Becoming a Tattooer" (Stanford UP, 2023)

February 4, 2024

Blood and Lightening

Dustin Kiskaddon
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Any tattoo is the outcome of an intimate, often hidden process. The people, bodies, and money that make tattooing what it is blend together and form a…

Brian Brown and Virginia Kuulei Berndt, "Body Art" (Emerald Publishing, 2023)

December 19, 2023

Body Art

Brian Brown and Virginia Kuulei Berndt
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Body art, especially tattoos and piercings, has enjoyed an explosion of interest in recent years. However, the response of many health professionals…

Leontina Hormel, "Trailer Park America: Reimagining Working-Class Communities" (Rutgers UP, 2023)

November 24, 2023

Trailer Park America

Leontina Hormel
Hosted by Michael Johnston

In rural northern Idaho in the winter of 2013-2014, Syringa Mobile Home Park’s water system was contaminated by sewage, resulting in residents’ water …

Colin McFarlane, "Waste and the City: The Crisis of Sanitation and the Right to Citylife" (Verso, 2023)

November 7, 2023

Waste and the City

Colin McFarlane
Hosted by Michael Johnston
Listen:

In an age of pandemics the relationship between the health of the city and good sanitation has never been more important. Colin McFarlane, through Was…

Michael Serazio, "The Authenticity Industries: Keeping It Real in Media, Culture, and Politics" (Stanford UP, 2023)

October 31, 2023

The Authenticity Industries

Michael Serazio
Hosted by Michael Johnston
Listen:

In recent decades, authenticity has become an American obsession. It animates thirty years' worth of reality TV programming and fuels the explosive vi…

Maitrayee Deka, "Traders and Tinkers: Bazaars in the Global Economy" (Stanford UP, 2023)

October 20, 2023

Traders and Tinkers

Maitrayee Deka
Hosted by Michael Johnston

Michael O. Johnston sits down with Maitrayee Deka, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex to discuss her new book Traders and Tinkers…