Sharon D. Johnson, PhD is a screenwriter, depth psychologist, dream educator, and scholar of television, film, and African American arts; literature; and culture. She has been a published critical and feature story writer for over 30 years, and a member of the Writers Guild of America, West (the labor union of professional writers in television, film, news, documentary, cable, animation, internet, and new media) since 1993.

 

She served as Chair of the Writers Guild Committee of Black Writers from 1999 to 2003. Dr. Johnson has published and presented her precedent original research on Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes, and on the ancient depth psychological practice of dream work, via numerous venues in the field.

 

Dr. Johnson's essay, “Conscious Daughters: Psychological Migration, Individuation, and the Declaration of Black Female Identity in Daughters of the Dust” is included in the recently published anthology, Teaching Daughters of the Dust as a Womanist Film and the Black Arts Aesthetic of Filmmaker Julie Dash (Peter Lang).

 

She is a graduate of Barnard College, holds an MA in Media Studies from the New School, and earned an MA and PhD from Pacifica Graduate Institute.

 

Dr. Johnson has taught screenwriting; Black popular culture; and African American literature at California State University Northridge, and her original senior seminar on race; gender; and screen adaptations at Emerson College Los Angeles.