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PLU College of Liberal Studies welcomes Dean Stephanie Johnson
PLU College of Liberal Studies welcomes Dean Stephanie Johnson
Image: Stephanie Johnson is the new dean of PLU’s College of Liberal Studies. (Photo by Jeffrey Roberts/PLU)
By Zach Powers
PLU Marketing & Communications
The Pacific Lutheran University community recently welcomed Stephanie Johnson, the new dean of the College of Liberal Studies, to campus. Johnson comes to PLU from The College of St. Scholastica, where she most recently served as the chair of the Department of English and Communication.
Although she’s only been on campus for a few short weeks, Johnson says PLU is already beginning to feel like home.
“The people on this campus are incredibly welcoming, so my first few weeks here have felt like a homecoming,” Johnson says. “The thoughtfulness that underlies all of the work being done is rare and encourages me for the future.”
The College of Liberal Studies houses the humanities and social sciences, including 19 academic departments and programs. The college engages students in the critical study of human existence and social systems across diverse cultures, time periods, and environments using a range of academic tools and methods.
“Within the humanities and social sciences, we have tremendous opportunities to nurture and inspire students for lives of purpose,” says Johnson. “I’m excited to embrace those opportunities with this stellar faculty and see what we can accomplish together.”
Prior to chairing the English and communication department at The College of St. Scholastica, Johnson served in a variety of faculty roles, including director of the honors program. She previously taught at Valparaiso University and University of Puget Sound.
Johnson plans to spend her first year on campus focusing on building relationships and diving into the university’s strategic plans and strategies.
“I’ll be doing a lot of listening as well as collaborative strategizing to serve the college’s vision and mission,” Jonson says. “Liberal studies is at the heart of this university, so I look forward to being an advocate for our shared work both on campus and beyond.”
Literary Scholarship
Johnson earned a Ph.D. in English at the University of Washington. Her scholarship focuses on Victorian women’s poetry, most recently an essay on the Victorian “double poem” in the collection Love Among the Poets: The Victorian Poetics of Intimacy published by Ohio University Press. Johnson is also the co-editor of Cultivating Vocation in Literary Studies, published by Edinburgh University Press. Much of her other published works appear in academic journals including Victorian Literature and Culture, Victorian Poetry, and Theology and Literature.