Josee Johnston

Josée Johnston

Title/Position
Professor & Acting Chair
Sociology

Professor Josée Johnston’s general research goal is to advance knowledge in the sociological study of food and consumer culture. While her research has taken on various empirical topics (ranging from food politics to celebrity chefs to the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty), she is centrally concerned with understanding how cultural and political forces reproduce and legitimate the inequitable and unsustainable features of capitalist economies. Professor Johnston’s  research spans the sub-fields of culture, gender, and political sociology; the subject of food is a natural way to make connections across these various sub-fields.

Education
Ph.D. (Sociology, University of Alberta)
B.A. (Political Science, McGill University)

Publications

Recent Publications

Baumann, Shyon, Josée Johnston, and Merin Oleschuk. 2022. “How Do Producers Imagine Consumers? Connecting Farm and Fork Through a Cultural Repertoire of Consumer Sovereignty.” Sociologia Ruralis. https://doi.org/10.1111/soru.12401 

Johnston, Josée. 2022. “Travelling Noodles and Migrating Pieces of Raw Fish: How Food Moves—and How it Moves Us.” Gastronomica. 22(1):iv-xiii. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2022.22.1.iv

Baumann, Shyon, Emily H. Kennedy, and Josée Johnston. 2022. “Moral and Aesthetic Consecration and Higher Status Consumers’ Tastes: The ‘Good’ Food Revolution.” Poetics 92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poetic.2022.101654 

Johnston, Josée, Anelyse Weiler, and Shyon Baumann. 2022. “The Cultural Imaginary of Ethical Meat: A Study of Producer Perceptions.” Journal of Rural Studies 89(January):186-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2021.11.021 

Otto, Natália, Josée Johnston, and Shyon Baumann. 2021. “Moral Entrepreneurialism for the Hamburger: Strategies for Marketing a Contested Fast Food.” Cultural Sociology 16(2):190-211. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755211039932 

Research

Sociology of Food; Sociology of Consumerism/Consumer Culture; Globalization; Political Ecology and Critical Social Theory

Other

Current Courses
SOC304H5, SOC317H5, SOC349H5