Professor Watchlist

Amber Johnson, Ph.D. is a Professor of Communication and Social Justice at Saint Louis University. According to her university biography, her research focuses on “narratives of identity, protest, and social justice in digital media, popular media, and everyday lived experiences.” Johnson, who uses they/them pronouns, is the co-founder of the Institute for Healing Justice and Equity.

In November 2021, Johnson signed a “Faculty and Staff Statement of Solidarity” in response to an event being held on campus featuring Matt Walsh. The event was titled “Why The Pro-Life Movement is Center Stage in the Culture War.” According to the letter, Walsh publicly expressed that he would change the title of the talk to “What Is A Woman? How The Trans Agenda Erases Women And Denies Reality?”

The letter says Walsh is known “for making degrading statements about LGBTQ+ identities” and claims “child-birth should not determine a person’s gender identity nor should it delegitimize their womanhood.” The statement concludes:

“We want to be clear – Matt Walsh’s viewpoints, rhetoric, and tactics do not represent the perspective of the undersigned SLU faculty and staff … We want to use the power of our position to affirm transgender and nonbinary students, in particular – we see you, you matter to us, we care for you and we hear your concerns.” 

According to the Washington Examiner, the Matt Walsh event did take place but was held off campus after university officials refused to provide a venue.

Johnson is also the creator of The Justice Fleet TM, “a mobile social justice museum that fosters healing through art, dialogue and play.” One of the exhibits in the museum, titled Transfuturism, is described as “an art activism exhibit that projects Black trans and gender nonconforming people as super heroes in an effort to render visible the embodied heroic work of dismantling the gender binary.”

 

Published – December 2, 2022