Jessica Johnston
Qualifications
PhD (University of Maryland, College Park)
Room
516, History building
Contact Details
Phone: +64 3 364 2987 ext. 6562
jessica.johnston@canterbury.ac.nz
Postal address
American Studies Programme
School of Humanities
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch 8140
New Zealand
Office hours: Thursdays 2 - 3.
Research Interests
Theories of deviance, critical organisational studies, and science and technology studies.
Current Projects
College of Arts Internship Programme
The College of Arts Teaching and Learning Committee has been awarded $30,000 to develop a CoA Internship Programme. Jessica will spearhead the development of this programme and sees it as vital to the evolution of the Arts at the University of Canterbury in the 21st Century.
Teaching
Undergraduate
- AMST 217 Society of Persecution: US systems of repression and social control
- AMST 221/321 The Leisure Industry
- AMST 233/345 American Science Fictions and Intelligent Technologies
Postgraduate
Supervision areas
Technology and society, Corporate Culture, Deviance, Body Images, Leisure Studies, Science Fiction
Publications
Books
"Technological Turf Wars: A Case Study of the Computer Antivirus Industry" forthcoming November 2008 Temple University Press
Computer security is a technical and social problem. It is just as much about social relationships as it is about computer as tools. Those analysing internet security are concerned with how information is treated by people as much as they are focused on the machines those people use to manipulate that information. The current project is a case study of how the contradictions and contestations, as articulated by computer security industry professionals themselves, effect the technological security we have today. The book examines how the various groups that make up the industry attempt to achieve "stabilization” of their technologies through processes of negotiation, persuasion, and debate aimed at achieving rhetorical closure and industry consensus. The book's theoretical focus is on the constant shifting between objects that appear neutral - networks, code, e-mail programs - and the social or ethical values embedded in these objects by their designers, producers, administrators and vendors. Each continually negotiates with the others, transforming the technology and the concept of security in the process. The concept of computer security thus offers some of the most interesting and intricate insights into the “dark side” of technology and its intersection with matters of scientific expertise, national space and the global economy. The manuscript analyses the tensions and political dilemmas at the heart of science and society relationships.
Jessica R. Johnston, ed. American Bodies in Contexts, Scholarly Resources Inc., Delaware: 2001
Chapters in Books
Johnston, J. (2001). “Introduction,” in American Bodies in Contexts, Scholarly Resources Inc., Delaware: 2001. xiii-xix
Johnston, J. (2001). “Minds and Bodies,” in American Bodies in Contexts, Scholarly Resources Inc,. Delaware: 2001. 1-11.
Johnston, J. (2001). “Social Bodies,” in American Bodies in Contexts, Scholarly Resources Inc., Delaware: 2001. 61-79.
Johnston, J. (2001). “Disciplined Bodies,” in American Bodies in Contexts, Scholarly Resources Inc., Delaware: 2001. 175-189.
Johnston, J. (2001). “Resisting Bodies,” in American Bodies in Contexts, Scholarly Resources Inc., Delaware: 2001. 247-257.
Articles/Papers in refereed journals
Johnston, J. (2003). Normalizing Disciplines: Overweight Subjectivities and Resistances. In H. Tschachler (ed.) The Embodiment of American Culture. New Jersey: Rutgers University Transaction Publishers, pg. 25-42.
Johnston, J. (2001) “Issues of Trust: Exclusion and Inclusion within the Anti-Virus Industry,” Virus Bulletin International, Nov. 33-45.
Johnston, J. (2001). “The battle for local identity: An ethnographic description of local/global tensions in a New Zealand advertisement”. Journal of Popular Culture. Bowling Green: Fall Vol. 35, Iss. 2; p. 193
Johnston, J. and Josef Raab (1994). “The Utopian Community of Northern Exposure,” Popular Culture Review, v5, no2, August, 73-85.
Papers in non-refereed journals
Johnston, J. “Business and the “Real” World: Developing Connections and Educational Priorities,” UC Teaching, Sept 2001, pgs 47-49.
Recent Conferences
“Communication within Global Space: Negotiations of Local/Global tensions within the Computer Antivirus Industry,” Communication at Work, Australian New Zealand Communications Association, Christchurch July 2005.
“Securing Security: Reflections on threat and risk management within the antivirus industry,” Science and Technology Network/NCRE Conference: Technologies, Publics and Power, Akaroa, 1-5 February 2004
Keynote Speaker: “The EmBodyment of American Culture,” Austrian Association for American Studies (AAAS) 28 th Annual Conference, University of Klagenfurt, October 26-28, 2001.