Emily Ronay Johnston

Emily Rónay Johnston (she/her) is an assistant teaching professor at the University of California, Merced, where she studies how writing cultivates agency. Supported by a Mellon Foundation fellowship (2024–2026), she is integrating psychology and neuroscience with writing studies to understand how writing supports learning and growth. Her book-in-progress, Writing is Resilience, explores how the writing process can help students navigate the transition into adulthood. Her work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals including College Composition and Communication, Writers: Craft & Context, and Rhetoric of Health & Medicine, as well as several edited collections, and is forthcoming in Pedagogy.