Susan Johnson

Biography

Susan W. Johnson is a Professor of Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.  Her research focuses on decision making in U.S. and comparative courts. Dr. Johnson’s recent article published in the Journal of Politics and described in the Journal of Politics blog examines six high courts globally and challenges the conventional wisdom that gender neutral language in the law will lead to equal outcomes. Dr. Johnson is also the principal investigator on a National Science Foundation research grant, Analyzing Language in Comparative Courts: A Multi-User Database of Judgment Texts in Appellate Courts. The project develops a new theoretical model for discerning judicial preferences by identifying, synthesizing, and testing styles of communication in written opinions through fully searchable decision texts from top appellate courts in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom.  Dr. Johnson’s research has been published in journals such as American Politics Research, the Canadian Journal of Political Science,  the Journal of Politics, Law & Society Review, and  Politics, Groups & Identities among others. She is the co-author of Law, Ideology, and Collegiality: Judicial Behaviour in the Supreme Court of Canada published by McGill University Press with Donald R. Songer, C.L. Ostberg, and Matthew E. Wetstein.