Michael O. Johnston

Join the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction Media and Publications Committee as a graduate intern!

a red alarm clock with the words last chance on it ALT: a red alarm clock with the words last chance on it

Final call!

I need ONE (1) paper for a thematic session:

What: All the #Feels: #Emotions as #ActsofResistance
@sssp1org.bsky.social 2026
When: Aug 6–9, 2026
Where: Westin New York Times Square, NYC

All I need right now is a short abstract.

DM or 📨 (johnstonmo@wmpenn.edu) if interested!

Are you a scholar of sport, leisure, emotions, deviance, or social movements?

I'm still seeking a 📄 to complete a session for the 2026 Society for the Study of Social Problems Annual Conference:

Interested? If so, email me at johnstonmo@wmpenn.edu.

You still have time tonight to submit your abstract to the 2026 Annual Meeting for @SSSP1org. Please consider submitting to #Rural #Spaces and #Services. There are plenty of appropriate topics for this session.

You still have time tonight to submit your abstract to the 2026 Annual Meeting for @SSSP1org. Please consider submitting your work to All the #Feels: #Emotions as Acts of #Resistance (e.g., emotions, collective emotions, social movements, protest, festivals, and so on).

The Society for the Study of Social Problems | Home Page - SSSP SSSP Home Page

Please share this post and/or submit your abstract to the 2026 Annual Conference for the Society for the Study of Social Problems: www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/... 2/2

Rural Spaces & Services 🌾
Rural communities face inequality and limited access to health, education, housing, and social services. It also generates resilience, care, and solidarity. We invite work on how rural residents navigate, resist, and reimagine systems of support. 1/2

Please share this post and/or submit your abstract to the 2026 Annual Conference for the Society for the Study of Social Problems: www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/...

All the Feels: Emotions as Acts of Resistance 🏟️
Emotions in sport, leisure, and performance aren’t just entertainment—they resist domination, reclaim joy, and disrupt power. From memes to parody leagues, we invite work on feeling as embodied, collective resistance.

New 📄 in SOCI 311 Sociology of Marriage and Family. Pick a 📺 series, movie, or commercials for a product and analyze scenes all semester using a sociology lens. Weekly 📄 build toward a 10 page final titled On the Big Screen. Media is data. Families are social institutions. Family members are agents.

Not just belief, but space, power, memory, and identity. Sometimes religion is loud and visible. Sometimes it is woven quietly into daily life. Sociology starts by paying attention. 3/3

Students examine how religion and nonreligion shape cities through buildings, public rituals, laws, symbols, and everyday interactions. 2/3

In Religion and Society, one of my core assignments is Religion in the City. 1/3

Here is an update of my 2025. Please feel free to read and share your updates with me.

I look forward to all of the new exciting things that are on the horizon for 2026. Happy New Year!

This spring my students in SOCI 123 will be using memes & political cartoons as modern cultural artifacts that define social problems, moral boundaries, & common sense.

Sociology has always taken art seriously. Visual culture is where meaning is made and where power often hides in humor. 2/2

New assignment in SOCI 123 Sociology of Contemporary Issues - What do you meme?

🎶 What do you mean? 🎶

No, I do not mean the Bieber song. 1/2

My class schedule is no joke next semester… well, except that one class.

In SOCI 219 Sex and Gender in Society, we’re analyzing stand-up comedy sociologically.
The punch lines are data.
The laughs are data.

I think that the spring semester is going to be pointless for me. Pointless how? PowerPoint-less.

More audio/video, handouts, writing/drawing on the whiteboard, images, & videos

Fewer words on a projector for students to copy down. More looking up. More thinking together.

In terms of Stanley Milgram, I am thinking of his concept "Urban Overload" and his article that is titled "The Experience of Living in Cities".

I'm also thinking of Harold M. Proshansky's "The City and Self-Identity" and "Environmental Psychology and the Real World".

Some pieces of work that I am particularly thinking of are Roger G. Barker's "Behavioral Settings" and the Midwest Psychological Field Station that he and his wife developed in Oskaloosa, Kansas.

Any other sociologists discover the work of environmental psychologists (e.g., Roger Barker, Harold M. Proshansky, and Stanley Milgram) and think their research has something to offer sociology?

a young man wearing headphones and a hoodie is saying `` i wanna live in the dorms '' . ALT: a young man wearing headphones and a hoodie is saying `` i wanna live in the dorms '' .

I’m excited to share that my manuscript on student sense of home in college received a revise and resubmit from a top journal. I have never been more energized by reviewer feedback. The planned revisions will significantly strengthen the paper and deepen its impact on the field.

Club Rules: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of a Regular at Mulligan’s - Michael O. Johnston, 2025 This ethnographic study examines how the identity of “regular” is constructed, maintained, and sometimes denied at Mulligan’s, a small-town, golf-themed bar in ...

My most recent article #Club #Rules: #Symbolic #Boundaries and the Making of a #Regular at Mulligan’s is now available to read via Online First at Social Currents (the official journal for Southern Sociological Society).

Check it out here: journals.sagepub.com/eprint/ENGAY...

Any of my followers read Donald A. Schön?

Some of his work was an extension of John Dewey's work on experiential education (with a particular focus on reflection - making a distinction between reflection "in action" and what he called reflection "on action").

a man in a pink shirt holds a red cup in his hand ALT: a man in a pink shirt holds a red cup in his hand

Excited that Becoming a Regular is conditionally accepted at Social Currents! This ethnography explores how barroom patrons earn & negotiate the informal status of “regular” and what that means for identity, ritual, & belonging.

But then again, maybe I'm approaching this task wrong. There is plenty of research that is adjacent to this topic that I can use.

I'm currently stuck on finding research that has been conducted on student experience with college (or high school) hangouts (whether it be dorms OR someone's house). I'm interested in the experiences that students have in these social spaces and the value they place on them.

Who Cares? The Building Blocks for Communities of Care 4/4

Incubators of Care: Games, Gatherings, and Guided Encounters 3/4