The Work

Each year, several thousand people hear Allan Johnson’s presentations on privilege, power, and difference. He has been invited to speak and conduct workshops at more than two hundred colleges, universities, schools, and other organizations in thirty-seven states and in Europe.

Topics of his presentations include:

• A guilt-free way of thinking about systems of privilege and oppression based on gender, race, and sexual orientation
• The social construction of difference
• Racism and white privilege
• Patriarchy and male privilege
• The connection between male privilege and sexual assault and harassment, domestic violence, pornography, terrorism, and war
• Dynamics of gender inequality in families, schools, and workplaces
• Sexuality and relationships between women and men
• Dilemmas of manhood and fatherhood
• Patriarchy, capitalism, and the natural environment
• What we must do in order to work together across divides of privilege, power, and difference in the struggle for a more just society
• Exploring issues of social justice through fiction, based on his work as a novelist

Workshops include:

• Exploring how to respond to various forms of defensiveness and denial
• Identifying and managing personal risks associated with working for change
• Identifying how privilege appears in organizations and strategizing change

Click here to see a list of places where he’s been invited to speak.

To watch videos of interviews and presentations, click here.