Dr Wayne Johnson
Head of Programme: History and American
Studies
Dr. Wayne Johnson is currently Head of Programme for History and
American Studies at York St. John University. He has a BA in
History and American Studies and a Masters degree in American
Studies. He received his PhD in History from the University of
Keele in 1990. He has previously taught at Manchester Metropolitan
University and at the University of Wales, Lampeter. At York St.
John, his research and teaching interests have been in the areas of
American social and cultural history, although he has taught a wide
range of modules over the years, but presently focuses on the
topics close to his head and heart, such as the American Civil War,
the myths of America, slavery in the United States and Hollywood
cinema’s portrayal of urban America, race and ethnicity. He has
also taught on the subject of American popular culture in Japan and
Poland, by contributing to York St John’s very successful distance
learning MA in International Studies.
Wayne has published articles on the social history of religious
belief and nonconformity in Britain and America in the nineteenth
century, and more recently on proslavery ideology in the United
States in the antebellum era. He is currently working on an article
on proslavery ideology in early nineteenth-century American
academia, as well as examining the myths of America and how they
relate to popular culture (he is working on projects looking at the
neo-Western, and freedom and social movement, for
example).