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Josée Johnston is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto and serves as Chair of the Tri-Campus Graduate Department. Her work spans multiple campuses within the University of Toronto system, with offices located at UTM (DV3230) and UTSG (17125-37, 700 University Ave, 17th floor). As an active faculty member available for supervising graduate students, she contributes significantly to sociology education and research across the university's three campuses.
Dr. Johnston's research program centers on the intersections of culture, consumption, and environmental issues with politics and inequality. Her work explores ethical consumption and food politics through the lens of food, examining how class, gender, and power shape our relationship with what we eat. She has made significant contributions to understanding 'foodies'—their values, eating habits, and how food remains central to identity and belonging in contemporary society. Her research extends to appearance politics, examining how young people navigate beauty standards through an intersectional lens of privilege and inequality.
Analysis of Dr. Johnston's recent publications reveals a consistent focus on food sociology, with particular attention to meat consumption, ethical food systems, and the cultural contradictions inherent in modern eating practices. Her work spans multiple disciplines including environmental sociology, gender studies, and political sociology, often employing intersectional frameworks to examine how power dynamics shape consumption practices. A notable trend in her scholarship is the examination of how everyday food practices reflect broader social inequalities and political divisions.
Dr. Johnston is actively engaged in research funding, serving as a co-investigator on an SSHRC-funded project led by Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy (UBC) that explores affective polarization and climate action. This research investigates how emotions, relationships, and political divisions shape possibilities for decarbonization in Canada. She is also working on an updated edition of Introducing Sociology Using the Stuff of Everyday Life (Routledge), co-authored with Kate Cairns and Shyon Baumann, which introduces core sociological concepts through everyday material culture.
