Biography

E. Patrick Johnson is Dean of the School of Communication and Annenberg University Professor of Performance Studies and African American Studies at Northwestern University. He is a 2020 inductee into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

He has additional appointments in the Gender and Sexuality Studies and American Studies programs. A scholar/artist, Johnson performs nationally and internationally and has published widely in the areas of race, gender, sexuality and performance. Johnson is a prolific performer and scholar, and an inspiring teacher, whose research and artistry has greatly impacted African American studies, Performance studies, and Gender and Sexuality studies. He is the author, editor, or co-editor of several award-winning books, including his most recent two: Black. Queer. Southern. Women.—An Oral History (University of North Carolina Press, 2018) and, Honeypot: Black Southern Women Who Love Women (Duke UP, 2019). He has received multiple awards for his scholarship, including the Lilla A. Heston Award, the Errol Hill Book Award, Hurston/Wright Legacy Book Finalist, Stonewall Book Award Honor Book, Lambda Literary LGBTQ Studies Book Award Finalist, the Randy Majors Memorial Award for Outstanding Contributions to LGBT Scholarship in Communication, Publishing Triangle Judy Grahn Award for Lesbian Nonfiction Finalist,  Lambda Literary LGBTQ Anthology Award Finalist.

Johnson’s performance work dovetails with his written work. His staged reading, “Pouring Tea: Black Gay Men of the South Tell Their Tales” is based on his book, Sweet Tea, and has toured to over 100 college campuses from 2006 to the present, and his full-length stage play, Sweet Tea—The Play, premiered in Chicago and toured to Austin, Texas, Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, Providence, Rhode Island, Durham, North Carolina and the National Black Theater Festival.

Johnson has also received awards for his performance work, including the Leslie Irene Coger Award for Outstanding Contributions to Performance from the National Communication Association, the Bert Williams Award for Best Solo Performance, from the Chicago Black Theater Alliance, and the René Castillo Otto Award for Political Theater.

He is the star and co-executive producer (with John L. Jackson, Jr.) of the documentary, Making Sweet Tea, based on the book and play.

In 2010 he was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame.