Timothy J. Johnson

About Timothy J.

Instructor of English Timothy J. Johnson has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the Community College of Allegheny County, and the Jianghan Petroleum Institute in Jiangling, The People's Republic of China. He has also worked as a professional journalist and as a technical writer, editor, and proofreader for corporate publications, including U.S. Steel, BP America, and Pennzoil. Mr. Johnson has had short stories published in The Yale Review, Redbook, The Snake Nation Review, and other magazines.

Literature exists at the nexus between arts and academics, and for any aspiring artist, the study of this art form is invaluable. Literature teaches us how to be human. All literature is story, and as humans, we are hard-wired for story—we lean in reflexively: Go on. Tell me more. Don’t stop now! My first priority is to help students understand the value of great literature. The study of Literature also provides perhaps the most effective means of acquiring well-sharpened analytical and interpretive skills, and these skills are transferable not only to other disciplines, but to the business of living itself. My second priority is to teach students how to pay attention to the way great literature is made, to understand how an effect is achieved.