Alyssa Johnson
Assistant Professor of English
Department(s)
EnglishCredentials
PhD, English, Texas Christian University
MA, English, Abilene Christian University
BA, English, Abilene Christian University
About Alyssa Johnson
Dr. Alyssa Q. Johnson is an Assistant Professor of English at Charleston Southern University. She completed her Ph.D. in English at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas. Her dissertation discussed Gothicized depictions of Protestant fanatics in nineteenth-century British fiction. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Christianity and the Gothic in long-nineteenth-century British fiction, often coalescing around the vampire figure or representations of failed religion.
"I believe relationships are at the heart of pedagogical excellence. Faith-based higher education gives faculty the chance to mentor students through some of the trickier issues in their own disciplines. As we study literature together, we can develop thoughtful methodologies to answer important questions and determine the way to live and treat others."
Awards
University STARS Fellowship, TCU, 2018-2021
Green Fellowship, TCU, 2018-2019
Outstanding Thesis Award, ACU, May 2018
University Scholar, ACU, 2016
Signature Experiences
North American Victorian Studies Association
Recent Scholarly Work & Publications
"Addictive Religion: Midnight Mass, Dracula, and the Prosperity Gospel"
Journal of Dracula Studies, no. 26, 2024, pp. 53-75.
“Prophecies and Parables in Elizabeth Gaskell’s ‘Lois the Witch’”
Victorians: A Journal of Culture and Literature, no. 145, Summer 2024, pp. 71-86.
“Nineteenth-Century Jewish British Literature”
“The Nineteenth-Century Religious Other,” Undisciplining the Victorian Classroom. First Published 15 March 2023.
“Performing and Decorating the Body in Tender Is the Night”
Beyond the Margins, vol. 1, no. 1, May 2020.
“Communion and Colonialism in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic”
Forthcoming, Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies
Encyclopedia Articles
“Charlotte Dacre”
The Victorian Jewish Writers Project. Ed. Lindsay Katzir. First published 20 July 2023.
“The Women of Israel”
The Literary Encyclopedia, Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901. Ed. Grace Moore. First published 15 June 2021.
“The Nineteenth-Century Merchant of Venice”
The Victorian Jewish Writers Project. Ed. Lindsay Katzir. First published 28 April 2025.
Book Reviews
“Victorian Romance and Religion Collide” (Review of Timothy L. Caren’s Strange Gods: Love and Idolatry in the Victorian Novel)
Journal of Victorian Culture, vol. 28, no. 1, January 2023. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/jvcult/vcac073.
Review of Alison Milbank’s God and the Gothic: Religion, Romance, and Reality in the English Literary Tradition
Christianity and Literature, vol. 70, no. 1, March 2021, pp. 89-93.
Editorials
“Peter, Paul, and PhDs: Reframing Educational Diversity as an Asset”
Wineskins, Sept. 16, 2022. Co-written with Dr. Shawn D. Johnson.
“Keeping Ourselves–And Young People–Near the Cross”
Mosaic, July 11, 2018.
“No Room for Snobbery”
Mosaic, May 26, 2017.