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I specialise in the history of Jewish-gentile relations and antisemitism in the modern period, with emphasis on the Russian empire, France and the UK.
At present, I have two main research projects: antisemitic visual culture in Europe before the First World War; and anti-Jewish violence in Europe from 1871 to 1938.
In the longer term, I plan to work on aspects of the Jewish encounter in Central and Eastern Europe during the First World War, though I first need to learn Yiddish.
I’m Lancastrian, bookish, with a love of theatre, film, music and sport. I live in the glorious city of Bristol.
My Bucket List: to visit every major league ballpark in the US; to get past volume one of Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time; to marry David Bowie; to ensure the happiness of my cat, Betty.
Read, read, read. Not just the work of historians, but newspapers, novels, whatever you can lay your hands on. Try to learn another language and travel, visit museums, galleries and memorials.
Three Ways to Describe my Teaching Style: knowledge, structure, regular jokes.
I am very structured in my approach to lectures and seminars, as I believe it to be the best building block for learning. I also aim for a holistic approach, since every topic carries relevance beyond its own time and place.
Sam Johnson obtained her BA in 1992 (Russian and History) and her PhD in 2001, from Keele University.
Prior to her appointment at MMU, she lectured at the Universities of Dundee (2000-2001), Cardiff (2002-2005) and Sheffield (2005-2006). She has also been a visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York City (2004), and an honorary research fellow in the Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London (2006-2010).
Course Coordinator
She has linguistic proficiency in Russian, French and some Czech, with plans to learn Yiddish when she can find a moment.
Humanities subjects in general are about communication between cultures, societies and communities. As a discipline, history makes it possible to communicate between the past and the present. It gives human beings a place within their own worlds and those of others, no matter how geographically remote, or culturally different.
Level I: Team teaching on Europe in Turmoil, 1900-1939.
Level II: Antisemitism in Europe and the USA, 1870-1939; Revolution, dictatorship and freedom: histories of Central Europe, 1918-2008.
Level III: Holocaust legacies; Jews and the world after genocide, 1945 to the present.
MA
The Jewish (self-) literary image in twentieth-century Europe and the United States.
Dr Johnson's principle interest is in modern Jewish history in Europe and the United States, particularly Jewish-gentile relations and antisemitism in the late and early twentieth century. Her current project focuses on the visualisation of Jews in Europe from 1870 until the end of the First World War.
S. Johnson (2011). Pogroms, Peasants, Jews. Britain and Europe's "Jewish Question", 1867-1925. Palgrave Macmillan.
S. Johnson (2014). C. S. Monaco. The Rise of Modern Jewish Politics: Extraordinary Movement. The American Historical Review. 119(2), pp.603-604.
S. Johnson (2014). Russian Jews Between the Reds and the Whites, 1917–1920, by Oleg Budnitskii, tr. Timothy J. Portice. The English Historical Review. 129(537), pp.487-488.
S. Johnson (2014). A Final Word. East European Jewish Affairs. 44(1), pp.1-1.
S. Johnson (2013). "Jews and Other Foreigners": Manchester and the Rescue of the Victims of European Fascism, 1933-1940. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW. 118(1), pp.261-262.
S. Johnson (2013). British Jewry, Zionism, and the Jewish State, 1936-1956. AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW. 118(1), pp.261-262.
S. Johnson (2013). 'A veritable Janus at the gates of Jewry': British Jews and Mr Arnold White. PATTERNS OF PREJUDICE. 47(1), pp.41-68.
ST. Johnson (2012). Lest we forget. Bernard Wasserstein’s On the Eve. The Jews of Europe before the Second World War. BBC History Magazine. 13(7), pp.64-65.
S. Johnson (2012). Disraeli and the Eastern Question. JOURNAL OF BRITISH STUDIES. 51(1), pp.236-237.
S. Johnson (2010). Breaking or making the silence British Jews and East European Jewish relief, 1914-1917. Modern Judaism. 30(1), pp.95-119.
S. Johnson (2010). Exemplary Bodies: Constructing the Jew in Russian Culture since the 1880s. EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS. 40(2), pp.187-189.
S. Johnson (2010). Moses Montefiore. Jewish Liberator. Imperial Hero. EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS. 40(3), pp.307-310.
S. Johnson (2009). Jews in the Russian Army, 1827-1917. Drafted into Modernity. EAST EUROPEAN JEWISH AFFAIRS. 39(3), pp.408-410.
S. Johnson (2008). Introduction. East European Jewish Affairs. 38(3), pp.245-246.
SAM. JOHNSON (2007). “Within the Pale.” British Intellectual Society and the Image of the Russian Jew, 1890–1907. Journal of Historical Sociology. 20(3), pp.341-361.
SAM. JOHNSON (2007). ‘Communism in Russia Only Exists on Paper’: Czechoslovakia and the Russian Refugee Crisis, 1919–1924. Contemporary European History. 16(03), pp.371-371.
S. Johnson (2006). CONFRONTING THE EAST. East European Jewish Affairs. 36(2), pp.199-211.
ST. Johnson (2004). Playing the Pharisee? Charles Saroléa, Czechoslovakia and the Road to Munich, 1915-1939”,. Slavonic and East European Review. 82(2), pp.292-314.
S. Johnson (2003). Russia and the Origins of Twentieth-century Antisemitism. History Compass. 1(1), pp.**-**.
ST. Johnson (2000). One of the wonders of the world, not to say the monstrosities of the world. The Saroléa Collection at Keele University Library, 1954-1999. Stafforshire Studies. 12, pp.109-119.
S. Johnson (2014). "Trouble is yet coming!": The British brothers league, immigration, and anti-jewish sentiment in London’s East end, 1901-1903. R. Nemes, D. Unowsky. In: Sites of European Antisemitism in the Age of Mass Politics, 1880-1918. Brandeis University Press, pp.137-156.
ST. Johnson (2012). "Uses and Abuses. Pogrom in the Anglo-American Imagination, 1881-1919". In: Jews in the East European Borderlands. Essays in Honor of John D. Klier.. Boston, Massachussetts.: Academic Studies Press,
ST. Johnson (2009). Hep! Hep!, Dreyfus and other Jewish Questions. A View from London, 1881-1914. S. Marten-Finnis. In: City and Press. pp.151-160.
ST. Johnson (2008). In Search of a City of Refuge. The London Jewish Chronicle and Russian Emigration, 1881-1905. ИРЦФРЕЕЙ. Студиес. In: Evreĭskai︠a︡ ėmigrat︠s︡ii︠a︡ iz Rossii, 1881-2005. pp.47-70.
ST. Johnson (2008). The Daily Lives of Civilians in the Russian Civil War. N. Atkin. In: Daily Lives of Civilians in Wartime Twentieth-century Europe. ABC-CLIO, pp.49-72.
ST. Johnson (2004). Pushkin at Keele. Grand Duke Michael and Countess Torby at Keele, 1901-1910. J. Andrew, R. Reid. In: Two Hundred Years of Pushkin. Rodopi, pp.209-217.
S. Johnson (2004). Holy War in Europe. Charles Saroléa, Everyman and the Great War, 1912-1917. M. Connelly, D. Welch. In: War and the Media. Reportage and Propaganda 1900-2003. London: I.B. Tauris,
She has presented conference papers on two continents and forged intellectual links with leading scholars in the field of Jewish studies throughout the world, especially the United States, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Israel.
‘“Trouble is Yet Coming”: The British Brothers League, Immigration, and Anti-Jewish Sentiment in London’s East End, 1901-1903.’ Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, Washington DC, USA, December 2011.
“Pogrom in the Anglo-American Imagination, 1881-1925”, Jews in the East European Borderlands. Daily Life, Violence and Memory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA, April 2009.
“Breaking or Making the Silence. Anglo-Jews and Eastern Europe’s Jewish Crisis, 1914-1922”: Jewish Relief in the Twentieth-Century, New York University, USA, April 2008.
“The Eastern Ghetto”: East Central Europe Seminar, Oriel College, Oxford University, May 2006.
“From Dreyfus to Dmowski”: Modern Jewish History Seminar, St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University, February 2006.
She organised an international conference entitled "Jews and modern visual culture", held in Manchester in September 2013.
Manuscript reviewer for Routledge.
Various British Academy grants (including small grant), and Rothschild Foundation grant, for project on contemporary antisemitism and xenophobia in Europe.
Interviewed by BBC Radio Manchester in March 2014 on the situation in Ukraine and its impact on Jews.
Visiting scholar, Columbia University (2003).
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
From January 2006 until January 2014, Dr Johnson was the managing editor of East European Jewish Affairs, the leading scholarly journal in the field of East European Jewish Studies.
Royal Historical Society of England.
Association of Jewish Studies (USA).