About

Dr Miriam J. Johnson

I'm an academic, researcher, and co-founder working at the intersection of publishing, branding, new technologies, and digital culture

Dr Miriam J. Johnson

Currently a senior lecturer across media, journalism and publishing at Oxford Brookes University. I research digital cultures, social media, marketing, power dynamics, gender, performance, authenticity, AI, new technology and ethics in online spaces. I also do consulting work, and have founded an AI-based audiobook company: Dudley Editions.

Originally from Alabama, I moved to the United Kingdom in 2006 and have been in higher education almost continually since. I received my undergraduate degree in English from Auburn University in Alabama, then moved to Loughborough to study for my MA in creative writing. From there, I did an MA in Publishing at Oxford Brookes.

I worked for Edinburgh Books in my spare time. I helped out at Scottish Book Trust for their yearly, national celebration of reading: Book Week Scotland. Since that first part-time role, I filled several positions in the organisation, from book distribution to handling their excellent Live Literature Funding programme, and online content co-coordinating for the Writer Development team.

In 2013 I took on a part-time role for Scottish PEN and helped to organise a series of events linked to the Commonwealth Games 2014. In this project, we brought in commonwealth authors from around the world and paired them in unique locations with Scottish authors who had similar themes, ideas, and works, and held free events.

In 2012, Hande Zapsu Watt and I set up The Istanbul Review, a literary journal based both in Istanbul and Edinburgh. It is a collection of poetry, short stories, extracts, interviews, artworks and more that celebrates reading and writing on the international stage.

Dudley Editions

What I'm hoping to do with this website is for it to be a digital footprint of my research, and hopefully it will help others to get a better understanding of the slippery place where social media, publishing, immersive technology (and gender and power dynamics) converge.

Before moving to the UK and focusing on writing, academia, and publishing, I spent most of my life showing American Quarter Horses throughout the States.

I am no longer on Twitter (X). I also fully believe in using the Oxford Comma and am sceptical of those who don't.

Qualifications

  • Doctorate of Philosophy in Publishing Studies, Oxford Brookes University
  • Doctorate of Philosophy in Creative Writing, University of Edinburgh
  • Master of Arts in Publishing, Oxford Brookes University
  • Master of Arts in Creative Writing, Loughborough University
  • Bachelor of Arts in English, Cum Laude, Auburn University, Alabama