Nathan R. Johnson, Associate Professor at the University of South Florida, examines the history of information, focusing on how infrastructure and labor shape technological systems. His PhD was awarded by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Information School, and his research integrates methodologies from science and technology studies (STS), critical information studies, and media studies. His work demonstrates how technological advancements simultaneously influence the organization, circulation, and governance of information.
Johnson’s first book, Architects of Memory, identifies key turning points during the 20th century when mnemonic concepts were built into new information technologies and modern memory infrastructures took hold. It makes a case for the significance of rhetoric’s art of memory for developing long-term information infrastructures. The National Communication Association has recognized it with the Philosophy of Communication Division’s Distinguished Book Award. The Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine recognized Architects of Memory as an honorable mention for their 2021 Book Award.
In addition, Johnson is the recipient of the Rhetoric Society of America’s Fellows’ Early Career Award, the 2018 Alice G. Smith Lecturer, and a winner of the National Communication Association’s Distinguished Book Chapter Award for Philosophy of Communication. I have been honored as one of USF’s Outstanding Undergraduate Teachers and recognized by the American Society for Engineering Education for my co-authored scholarship on diversity and inclusion. His work has appeared in Rhetoric Society Quarterly, enculturation: a Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture, Poroi, and the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, among numerous other venues.