Javon Johnson

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Associate Professor of African American and African Diaspora Studies

Associate Professor of Gender & Sexuality Studies

Expertise: African American Literature, Black Pop Culture, Poetry, Black Queer Theory, Black Feminist Theory

Biography

Javon Johnson’s research focuses on performance, blackness, African American literature, black pop culture, black feminist theory, black queer theory, masculinity studies, black sexualities, and ethnography.

Johnson -- a renowned spoken word poet -- is a three-time national poetry slam champion and a four-time national finalist. He has appeared on HBO’s "Def Poetry Jam," BET’s "Lyric Café," TV One's "Verses & Flow," "The Steve Harvey Show," "The Arsenio Hall Show," "United Shades of America with Kamau Bell" on CNN. He also co-wrote a documentary titled "Crossover," which aired on Showtime in collaboration with the NBA and Nike.

Johnson has also been published in numerous academic publications and national outlets such as Text & Performance Quarterly, Liminalities, QED: A Journal of Queer Worldmaking, The Root, and Huffington Post.

Education

Ph.D., Performance Studies, Northwestern University
M.A., Communication Studies, California State University
B.A., Communication Studies, California State University

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Javon Johnson In The News

The birthright divide

Our Weekly LA

In South Central Los Angeles, generations of African American families reside alongside expanding immigrant communities. Debates over citizenship in this context extend beyond legal considerations, encompassing history, identity, economic structures, and daily life.

Juneteenth: Evolving freedom or evolving strategy?

Our Weekly Los Angeles

A Black holiday that may suggest more than an end to slavery.

Inside The World of Slam Poetry

Spotlight Poetry made history by being the first slam team to win a regional poetry slam competition for Las Vegas. Team Coach Dr. Javon Johnson, Founder Elle Hope and Team member Demetri Manabat joined Las Vegas Now with the details.

Scholarly Interview with Javon Johnson

Master's In Communications

Javon Johnson is Assistant Professor and Director of African American and African Diaspora Studies with an appointment in Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. An acclaimed slam poet and recognized performance studies scholar, Dr. Johnson is the author of the book Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities. He is also co-editor of The End of Chiraq: A Literary Mixtape, which collects poetry, lyrics, essays, and other media from youth artists in Chicago, and, most recently, published the book of poetry Ain’t Never Not Been Black.