I am an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of San Diego. If you are student in one of my classes you can access the course content here.
I am on sabbatical leave from USD for the Fall 2025 & Spring 2026 terms. I am a Visiting Professor at the top Paris Fashion School, Institut Français de la Mode for the fall semester. For information about the fashion and meaning conference we are co-organizing in Paris in November see here.
I am interested in meaning, intentions, archaeology, and adornment. I recently published my book entitled Adorning Bodies: Meaning, Evolution, and Beauty in Humans and Animals with Bloomsbury. You can read sizable portions of the text on google books. If you are a USD student you can read the entirety of my book free through our library here. A post I wrote for Aesthetics for Birds on the book material is here. A related article on bodies and shame written for The Philosophers’ Magazine is h
ere. Videos of me discussing the book at the San Diego Union-Tribune Festival of books and at the Institut Français de la Mode are below. You can read reviews of my book by Julia Minarik in the British Journal of Aesthetics here and by Michael Spicher in the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics here.
Links to my other published works are here. You can see my conference presentations and other events here. You can follow me and find my work on twitter, academia.edu, and philpapers.
I received my PhD from the Graduate Center, City University of New York in August 2017. My dissertation was supervised by Noël Carroll. Prior to beginning my doctorate, I received my BA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and taught English at a lycée in the Académie de Versailles, France.
Working with faculty members in psychology and computer science we created a new interdisciplinary and cross-college minor at USD in Cognitive Science that began in 2023. More information about the Cognitive Science minor can be found here.
In addition to my scholarly activities, I paint and draw. You can see my work here.
Presenting at the San Diego Festival of Books, August 20, 2022.
Marilynn H. Johnson, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
Email: marilynnjohnson@sandiego.edu
Website: johnson.commons.gc.cuny.edu
Twitter @marilynnjohnsn
Office Hours: calendly.com/marilynnjohnson
University of San Diego Philosophy Department Website
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