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Evan Johnson is a lecturer of history at the University of Dayton. A historian of early modern European history with research and teaching specializations in the Thirty Years’ War, urban history, war and society, 19th-century comparative empires and medieval Islam and the West, Johnson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. His dissertation was entitled "Cities in Crisis: Altstadt and Neustadt Brandenburg During the Thirty Years War, 1618-1648." This project considers the experience of two urban communities as they navigated the upheavals of one of the bloodiest wars in European history.

Dr. Johnson has received numerous grants and fellowships, including research grants from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) and the Central European History Society. Dr. Johnson has taught global and European history courses for the University of Cincinnati and Xavier University before joining the faculty at UD.

As a teacher and scholar, Dr. Johnson firmly believes in the importance of seeking to understand people in their contexts. In the study of the past, this comes through in his attention to individuals and their stories, social interconnections and ways of experiencing life. In the classroom, he seeks to understand the unique contexts of his students, champion their voice through respectful discussion and debate, and connect the study of the past with students’ understanding of their own moment.

Research interests

• Early Modern Germany
• Thirty Years' War
• War & Society
• Urban History

Courses taught

• HST 103, Introduction to Global Historical Studies

Selected publications and presentations

Publications

Evan B. Johnson, “Seeking Peace, Finding War: Supplication and Negotiation in Electoral Brandenburg during the Thirty Years’ War,” in Rethinking Europe: War and Peace in the Early Modern German Lands, ed. Gerhild Scholz Williams, Sigrun Haude and Christian Schneider, Chloe vol. 48 (Brill, 2019): 90-102.

Presentations

“Shared Sorrows, Divergent Decisions: Two Cities and The Thirty Years War,” German Studies Association Conference, Indianapolis, 2021.

“Seeking Peace, Finding War: Supplication and Negotiation in a Brandenburg Town During the Thirty Years War,” Frühe Neuzeit Interdisziplinär. St. Louis, Mo., 2018.