I study complexity and sociotechnical systems across language and scale. Drawing on English, Japanese, and Arabic, I research unexpected uses of technology, particularly with regard to parody and play, platform governance, and government use of social media.

Researching complexity and the unexpected demands a mixture of methodologies. Consequently, I combine participant observation, ethnography (including digital ethnography), multi-sited fieldwork, semi-structured interviews, freedom of information (FOI) requests, archival research, and multilingual linguistic analysis. My speculative practice further supports and informs my research.

I am committed to collaboration and public scholarship—I believe expertise requires not only deep knowledge, but the ability to meaningfully communicate that knowledge to various audiences. While my schedule is tight, if you have a project you would like to collaborate on, are a journalist or filmmaker looking for help understanding social media phenomena, or would like to organize a community talk, please contact me.

Most unexpected development of my own research (so far?): suing the CIA.

Publications

Johnson, Amy. 2021. “Language Policy and the Arabic Localization of Twitter.” The Handbook of Arabic Linguistics. Edited by Karin Ryding and David Wilmsen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Johnson, Amy and Graham Jones. 2021. “Language, the Internet, and Digital Communication.” International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology. New York: Wiley.  

Johnson, Amy. 2018. “On Manual Bots and Being Human on Twitter.” The Handbook of Japanese Media. Edited by Fabienne Darling-Wolf. New York: Routledge.

Johnson, Amy. 2017. “The Multiple Harms of Sea Lions.” Perspectives on Harmful Speech Online. Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University. https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/33746096.

Johnson, Amy. 2015. “Decrowning Doubles: Indexicality and Aspect in a Bahraini Twitter Parody Account.” Al-Arabiyya 48(1): 61–83.

J. N. Matias, A. Johnson, W. E. Boesel, B. Keegan, J. Friedman & C. DeTar. 2015. “Reporting, Reviewing, and Responding to Harassment on Twitter.” Women, Action & the Media. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2602018.

Johnson, Amy. 2015. “Twitter and Public Scholarship.” Anthropology Now 7(1): 70–79.

Johnson, Amy. 2014. “Cartographies of Disaster.” re:form. https://medium.com/@shrapnelofme/cartographies-of-disaster-24fe711d04e6  

Johnson, Amy and Michael Raish. 2013. “Making Vocabulary Corporeal: Arabic Learners, Vocabulary Development, & arabiCorpus.” Journal of the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages vol. 13 (Spring): 71–86.