Jenell Johnson

My research interests include the rhetoric of science and medicine, disability studies, and science and technology studies. My work focuses on the social, political, and epistemological dimensions of nonexpert engagement with science and medicine, including issues involved in transdisciplinary research.

My book American Lobotomy, part of the University of Michigan’s Corporealities series, explores how representations of lobotomy in U.S. popular culture contributed to the development, decline, and resurgence of psychosurgery in U.S. medicine. Currently, I am working on two new book projects: a monograph on the rhetoric of bioethics, and an edited collection on biocitizenship.

In addition to my position in Communication Arts, I am affiliated faculty in the Departments of Life Sciences Communication and Gender and Women’s Studies, and serve on the steering committees of the Holtz Center for Science & Technology Studies and the Disability Studies Initiative.