Josée Johnston

Dr. Josée Johnston is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto. Her research explores how culture, consumption, and environmental issues intersect with politics and inequality. She is co-author of Happy Meat: The Sadness and Joy of a Paradoxical Idea (Stanford University Press, 2025), with Shyon Baumann, Emily Huddart, and Merin Oleschuk. The book examines the cultural contradictions and ethical tensions shaping how we eat animals today. Much of Dr. Johnston’s work investigates ethical consumption and food politics, using food as a lens into broader sociological questions about class, gender, and power. She is also recognized for her scholarship on foodies—what they value, how they eat, and why food remains central to identity and belonging in late modernity.

She is currently working on an updated edition of Introducing Sociology Using the Stuff of Everyday Life (Routledge), co-authored with Kate Cairns and Shyon Baumann. This book introduces core sociological concepts through everyday material culture like cars, phones, and toys.

Dr. Johnston is also a co-investigator on an SSHRC-funded project led by Dr. Emily Huddart Kennedy (UBC), which explores affective polarization and climate action. The research investigates how emotions, relationships, and political divisions shape the possibilities for decarbonization in Canada.

Recent Publications

Johnston, Josée, Shyon Baumann, Emily Huddart, and Merin Oleschuk. 2025. Happy Meat: The Sadness and Joy of a Paradoxical Idea. Stanford University Press.

Johnston, Josée and Jordan Foster. 2025. “Navigating the Beauty Bind: Young People’s Intersectional Perspectives on Appearance, Privilege and Inequality,” Cultural Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177/17499755241307054

Kennedy, Emily, Baumann, Shyon, and Josée Johnston. 2024. “Meat politics at the dinner table: Understanding differences and similarities in Canadians’ meat-related attitudes, preferences and practices.” Canadian Food Studies La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 11(1), 9–29. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v11i1.529