Dr. Johnson is an Assistant Professor of Literacy/Biliteracy Education in the Department of Teacher Education and serves as an Associate Editor for Anthropology and Education Quarterly. Her research draws from linguistic anthropology's frameworks and methods to study the social and cognitive processes of children’s literacy development with an emphasis on the affective and ethical features of learning interactions. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, her current research examines children's embodied ways of knowing, aesthetics and ethics, and cultural contexts for learning in community arts programs at the US southern border with Mexico.

• NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Semifinalist - NAEd/Spencer Foundation (01/01/2022-12/31/2022)
• NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, Semifinalist - NAEd/Spencer Foundation (01/01/2021-12/31/2021)
• Concha Delgado Gaitán Presidential Fellow - Council of Anthropology and Education (01/01/2018-12/31/2018)
• Frederick Erickson Dissertation Award, Honorable Mention - Council of Anthropology of Education (01/01/2017-12/31/2017)
• Outstanding Dissertation Award - UCLA College of Education (01/01/2015-12/31/2015)
• New York City Teaching Fellow - Fordham University (01/01/2004-12/31/2004)
• New York City Teaching Fellow - Fordham University (01/01/2003-12/31/2003)

• Ph D in Education, University of California, Los Angeles (2015)
• MS in Childhood Education, Fordham University (2004)
• BFA in Modern Dance Pedagogy, University of Oklahoma (1999)

• Learning music en la frontera: Translanguaging and multimodal assemblages in a community-based violin education program Language and Education (2025), Maria T. De La Piedra, Sarah J. Johnson.
• “La pasión y el enojo brujo”: Engendering of ethical perception in children’s learning of ballet folklórico. Research on Children and Social Interaction (2025), Sarah J. Johnson.
• La mariposita ¿La recuerda?: The affective and moral dimensions of professional vision in learning to play the violin Mind, Culture, and Activity 30 3-4 (2023), Sarah J. Johnson.
• Storytelling Practices in Home and Educational Contexts: Perspectives from Conversation Analysis Research on Children and Social Interaction 7 2 (2023), Sarah J. Johnson.
• The regarded listener: Transcribing the multiparty social ecology of children's collaborative storytelling Social Interaction: Video-based studies of human sociality 5 3 (2022), Sarah J. Johnson, Frederick Erickson.

• Dignity-ing: Magnifying the social construction and consequences of dignity-affirming or dignity-denying micro-interactional moments (2025), Volume Denver, CO, Sarah J. Johnson, Faythe Beauchemin.
• “Showing up”: The social accomplishment of skilled action and persistence in a community violin education program (2025), Volume Denver, CO, Sarah J. Johnson.
• Discovering (to construct) the educational possibilities of culturally sustaining pedagogy: Video-based linguistic anthropological approaches (2024), Volume Philedelphia, Sarah J. Johnson, Amy Kyratzis.
• The engendering of ethos and professional perception in folkloric dance (2024), Volume Philedelphia, PA, Sarah J. Johnson.
• Metaphoric storytelling and the affective and moral dimensions of professional vision (2023), Volume Chicago, IL, Sarah J. Johnson, Maria T. De La Piedra, Alejandra Sanmiguel López, Claudia Saldaña.

• National Endowment for the Arts Research Grant
• University Research Institute Grant, UTEP