Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenneth Johnson II
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I am originally from Gainesville, Florida. I began my collegiate career at the University of Florida, which wasn’t my first choice. I wanted to attend Florida A&M University (FAMU) in Tallahassee. I was set to transfer after one year but got diagnosed with severe polyarticular juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, which halted my transfer. After a few more years, including two total hip replacements, I moved to Tallahassee to attend FAMU in 2011. While there, I earned a bachelor of arts degree in English with a minor in Education, and then earned a master of arts and Ph.D. in African American Literature from Florida State University in 2016 and 2021.
While I finished my dissertation, I worked as a Visiting Instructor in the Department of English and Modern Languages at FAMU for 3 years. In 2021, I applied for a position at College of Charleston, and in August 2022, I moved to Charleston and started as an Assistant Professor of African American Literature in the Department of English at CofC. Charleston’s history is the perfect backdrop for a scholar of Black life, literature, and culture, and the perfect playground for a bachelor navigating life and exploring his creativity.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all! At so many moments I’ve felt behind. I felt behind when I began my master’s program and then while working through my doctoral program. Ultimately, it stemmed from how long it took me to finish my bachelor’s degree. I graduated high school in June 2006, began college in July 2006, but because of health issues, I didn’t finish my BA until December 2013. Seeing younger high schoolmates earn their college degrees before me was hard. Seeing my classmates finish Law school, head to med school, and start new careers was even more difficult. The idea of being behind plagued me for a long time, and I had to learn to enjoy my journey. Slowing down and realizing how hard I’ve worked, how much I’ve accomplished, and how I’ve persevered has made all the difference in this newest chapter of life.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an Assistant Professor of African American Literature. My appointment is primarily to add courses dealing with African American literature to the student body. Along with those courses, I teach an American Literature survey and First-Year Writing courses.
My areas of specialization are 20th and 21st-century African American narratives, Black Southern fiction, Black men’s public letter writing, and the works of Mississippi-born author Kiese Laymon. As an interdisciplinary scholar, I also teach and write about Black masculinity, Black language and literacy, Hip-hop, and other areas of Black popular culture and entertainment. My most current research is on Black men’s public letter writing as a means to reconstruct the public image of Black masculinity in the public sphere.
As engaging as my research is, I believe my teaching is perhaps my favorite part of the job. I am able to create dynamic and engaging classes that cater to the totality of student experience while emphasizing the need for analytical, innovative, and inclusive spaces for student input, various ideas, and community engagement. At the College, I’ve taught courses on contemporary Black men’s memoirs, Toni Morrison, New Orleans Black Masking Indians, and Black men’s public letters.
I am not only a scholar, I am a trained educator, and I think it’s one of the things that sets me apart as a teacher. I am very interested in pedagogy and universal design for learning, as well as multimodality as a means to amplify student engagement. My research is inherently interdisciplinary, so I rely on that to fuel how I structure course content across various forms of media. I am also student-centered educator, so I ensure students of their positions as co-collaborators with me in the classroom space. In this way, students have a stake in their educational experiences.
As a scholar, I love to take things that seemingly are worlds apart and find commonalities. I believe this stems from my creative side–I love to play with patterns, textures, and colors–and this comes out in my work. As an example, in my master’s thesis, I read Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales through the lens of the movie Barbershop (featuring Ice Cube) and analyzed how Chaucer’s Tales functioned as a barbershop regarding gender and expression. How’s that for disparate ideas?
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
I would say to know that you can have it all if you want it. I have conversations with friends all the time about growing up with a particular idea of stability. It’s what I learned from my parents: that stability is finding a job and sticking with it, dedicating nearly your entire life to ensure your stability. In so many ways, this discourages risk-taking and forces you to choose one path in life. I felt forced to choose a major, a career path, a stream of steady income. Now, though, I take the “both/and” approach. I love being a scholar and professor, but I am also equally a creative, so I’m now beginning to expand my freelance graphic design business, as well as dabbling more with interests in brand management, content creation, and event curation.
I’ve had Instagram for years, but 2024 was a turning point in my consistent content curation on TikTok, and I’ve seen some good growth. I also plan to resurrect my YouTube career. I started a channel in the middle of the COVID lockdown. Primarily, I was creating YouTube-style videos to engage my students since we weren’t face-to-face. I would give them class updates, explain assignments, and give general announcements through these videos. Then, I started stepping into skincare and doing product hauls. I have a good friend, Joy, who started a skincare brand called SMOUVE Skincare, so I was one of her ambassadors early on. The pandemic got hectic, though, so I didn’t keep up with it. I’m starting a new channel as of December where I’ll be focused more on lifestyle (interior design, vlogs, food/cooking), coffee, style (I’m building a capsule wardrobe), and fragrances. Long-term, I’d love to create my own fragrance. We’ll see!
I’d say to figure out if there are any moments of overlap between your interests and start there. Make a plan, work towards your goals, and remember you can live more than one life while you’re full of life. Allow yourself to be the person you want to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.kennethljohnsonii.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kennys6cents/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWDjCs8LdWPfurgBNH2ptTA
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kennys6cents?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
