Dr. Kirk Johnson grew up in the Western mountains of Maharashtra, India, where he attended an International Bahá’í School with students from more than thirty-five countries. This experience deeply shaped his worldview and future career. After high school he moved to the United States, earning a BA in Sociology from Fort Hays State University, followed by two Master’s degrees in Sociology and International Development from Ohio University. His doctoral research at McGill University in Montreal returned him to the mountains of his youth, where he studied the influence of television on village life in India under the mentorship of the late Dr. B.S. Baviskar.

Since 1998, Dr. Johnson has served as Professor of Sociology at the University of Guam. For the past twenty years he has directed an international Field School in Bali Indonesia, a community development initiative offering students cross-cultural learning on tradition and modernity, globalization, and the survival of indigenous cultures. His research and service continue to take him throughout the Pacific and Asia. Dr. Johnson has published widely, delivered more than fifty conference presentations worldwide, and focused his scholarship on community development, media and social change, religion and education, human ecology, and sustainability.