Erica Johnson serves as Teaching Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Curriculum in Global Studies within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she has been appointed since 2010. She holds a BA from Wake Forest University, an MA in Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies (1997) and an MA in Political Science (2005) from the University of Washington, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Washington (2009). Before joining UNC-Chapel Hill, Johnson was a post-doctoral fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies.

Johnson's research specializations encompass comparative politics and political economy, with a particular emphasis on post-Soviet state-society relations. Her work examines government and citizen uses of new information and communication technologies in post-Soviet Central Asia, as well as civil society development in the post-Soviet region. Notable publications include “Non-State Health Care Provision in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan: Is Politicisation a Model?” (2014), “Media Independence and Trust in NGOs: The Case of Post-Communist Countries” (2012), “NGO Research Program: A Collective Action Perspective” (2015), and a chapter titled “The civic realm in Kyrgyzstan: Soviet economic legacies and activists’ expectations” in the edited volume The Transformation of Central Asia: States and Societies from Sovietism to Independence.

In addition to her teaching and research, Johnson has made significant contributions to academic administration. She helped propose, develop, and launch the Global Studies MA program in 2014. Her committee roles include a second term on the Faculty Council, advisory board membership for the Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies since 2015, the Certificate in Social Innovation advisory board, annual service on the Fulbright Fellowship Campus Review Committee since 2017, and two terms on the Graduate School Administrative Board (2016-2022). She was selected for the 2024-25 Institute for the Arts and Humanities Academic Leadership Program fellowship. In 2026, she is running for the Administrative Board of the Library: Social Sciences.

Professional Email: ericaj@unc.edu