Royel M. Johnson, USC Rossier associate professor and co-director of the Pullias Center of Higher Education, has been selected to receive the 2026 Mid-Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE).
The Mid-Career Award is presented to ASHE members who earned their doctoral degree between seven and 12 years ago, in recognition of a significant body of scholarship. Johnson and fellow recipients will be honored at the ASHE annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on November 4.
“I’m deeply honored to receive this recognition from ASHE, a community that has been an important intellectual home for 15 years,” Johnson said. “This award is especially meaningful because it reflects the questions and commitments that continue to animate my work: producing scholarship that takes seriously the experiences of students and communities too often pushed to the margins, and that helps institutions become more responsive to those they serve.”
Johnson is a nationally recognized authority on college student success. His research, leadership and public scholarship examine how institutional policies, practices, cultures and political contexts shape access, belonging and postsecondary pathways. Johnson is author and editor of four books and more than 60 scholarly articles and chapters, and his research has attracted more than $6.9 million in external funding. His recent books includeThe Big Lie About Race in America’s Schools, winner of the Society of Professors of Education’s 2026 Book Award, and From Foster Care to College, winner of NASPA’s 2026 Outstanding Publication Award. Johnson is also the incoming editor-in-chief of The Review of Higher Education, ASHE’s official flagship research journal.
“Royel’s scholarship exemplifies what we value most at USC Rossier,” said USC Rossier Dean Pedro Noguera. “This recognition is well deserved. His work is helping the field imagine and build a more just system of higher education.”
