Anna Johnson

Anna Johnson (peace studies and sociology) received her B.A. in international affairs from George Washington University, where she was awarded the Norman H. Friend Prize for scholastic achievement and leadership potential from the Elliott School of International Affairs. She was also awarded a Mullen Family Fellowship for the 2019-2020 academic year and is an affiliate of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies. 

Anna’s research agenda analyzes power asymmetries in knowledge production in both transnational social movements and academia. Her dissertation, “Contested Solidarities: Negotiating Transnational Solidarity through Tourism in Palestine,” examines the role of tourism as a mechanism of narration and solidarity-building for Palestinians, despite the colonial and racialized logics of the tourism field. “Solidarity tourism” has been an important tool for Palestinian and international activists for decades. Activists hope that tour participants will become motivated to work for Palestinian liberation, but local communities sometimes experience the presence of tourists as surveilling and intrusive. Anna’s research critically examines the tensions Palestinians experience in a field largely reliant on Western visitor’s validation of Palestinian lived experience and the Orientalist frames that inform these interactions.

Her research is informed by six years of work as a practitioner with international non-governmental organizations in Palestine/Israel. She continues to be a scholar-practitioner, serving on the steering committee of Mennonite Action and as a resource on Palestine activism in the local community.