Professor of Sociology
Office Location:
HSS 318D
ABOUT
Dr. Kirk Johnson was raised for most of his childhood in the mountains of Western
India, where he attended an International Baha’i School with students from over 34
different countries. This experience had a profound and indelible impact on his life,
world view, and the course of his future career. He returned to the United States
for university at the age of 17 and found himself drawn to the social sciences while
an undergraduate at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. After earning his baccalaureate
degree, he moved to Ohio University, where he earned two master’s degrees in sociology
and in international development. Dr. Johnson’s doctoral research while at McGill
University in Montreal Canada took him back to the mountains of his youth where he
explored the influence of television on the lives of villagers in India.
He then moved to the Pacific, where he has worked at the University of Guam as a professor of sociology for the past two decades. Dr. Johnson has served as director of the Bali Field School, a community development project, since 2004, providing students an opportunity to explore, through a cross-cultural lens, the dynamics between tradition and modernity, globalization and the survival of indigenous peoples and cultures, and highlights the complexity and tensions of social change in the 21st century. His work and service has taken him throughout the Pacific to island nations including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati, Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Hawaii, the Northern Mariana Islands, and New Zealand. His work in Asia has been primarily in India and Indonesia.
He has published numerous books and journal articles, given over 30 conference presentations around the world focusing on research in the areas of development and social change, religion and education, human ecology, and sustainability. Dr. Johnson’s ongoing work in the Pacific Asia region has allowed him to learn firsthand about the processes of community development and capacity building at the grassroots in many different settings.
Professional history
EDUCATION/credentials
- B.A., Sociology, Fort Hays State University (Kansas)
- M.A., Sociology and International Development, Ohio University
- Ph.D., Sociology, McGill University (Canada)
Bali Field School
Click on the links below to find out more about the Bali Field School, an annual course that is held each year over spring break.
- "Stairs, Prayers, & a Thousand Temples"- Bali Field School 2017
- View Highlights from the 2015 Bali Field School
- Bali Field School
- More on Bali Field School
- Bali Field School Assessment
- Video Highlights from the 2011 Bali Field School
Student Research and Service
- Student Research and Service
- SO202 Sociology Student Service Learning Initiative 2011 at Hurao Academy
- SO202 Sociology Student Service Learning Initiative 2011 Fundraising to support Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Guam
DOCUMENTARY
The 2007 Bali Field School produced a five-part documentary series titled "Casting Our Net: Rediscovering Community in the 21st Century." It has been screened at three international academic conferences as well as in Bali, Indonesia.
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