Dr. Royel M. Johnson appointed Editor of The Review of Higher Education
Following an open search process, the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Board of Directors is excited to announce the appointment of Royel M. Johnson, PhD, as the incoming Editor of The Review of Higher Education for a five-year term. Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of Higher Education and Social Work at the University of Southern California. His research focuses on access, equity, and belonging in higher education, with a particular focus on how youth-serving systems — including child welfare and the criminal legal system — shape students' pathways into and through college, and how institutions can change to better serve them. His more than sixty scholarly works consistently appear in the field's top journals, and he has written and edited four books. He brings substantial editorial experience to the role, recently serving as Co-Editor of Educational Researcher (2023-2026).
Dr. Johnson has served the Association in numerous roles, including as founding co-host and producer of the ASHE Presidential Podcast for four seasons, a member of The Review's editorial board, a member of the Dissertation of the Year Award Committee, and a frequent presenter and discussant. He has also been actively engaged in the Council for Racial Equity, Praxis, and Presence (CEP) as a member, as a mentor in the CEP Mentor-Protégé Program, and as a member of the pre-conference planning committee.
As editor, Dr. Johnson will be responsible for maintaining and enhancing the intellectual quality and integrity of the journal. He will be responsible for editorial operations, including supervising and managing the submission; reviewing and copyediting processes from receipt of manuscripts to final publication; identifying, building, and supervising a strong editorial team and staff; identifying and recruiting highly qualified and committed editorial board members and manuscript reviewers; ensuring timely and constructive reviews of manuscripts; monitoring the publication pipeline to ensure editorial decisions align with the journal’s publication capacity; and monitoring and disseminating as appropriate information regarding the status and rankings of The Review within relevant indexes.
About The Review of Higher Education
One of the leading journals in higher education, The Review of Higher Education is published four times per year, providing a scholarly forum for the discussion of issues affecting higher education. Since 1977, the journal has been advancing the study of higher education through peer-reviewed research studies, scholarly essays, and theoretically driven reviews that address issues and questions of importance to students, faculty, administrators, and policymakers. It emphasizes systematic and critical inquiry and practical implications. Indexed in the Social Science Citation Index and other abstracting and indexing services, the Review is published by the Johns Hopkins University Press. A highly selective, top-tier higher education journal; the Review ranks in the top 10% of US-based education journals and the top 5% of education journals internationally.
We want to thank Penny A. Pasque, PhD and Thomas Nelson Laird, PhD for their seven-year term as editors of The Review. During their tenure, The Review has undergone tremendous operational improvements and they have elevated the transparency of the Review’s processes through their annual reports (available on the ASHE website). They also launched the Liberatory Possibilities and Praxis section of The Review to amplify scholarship that advances liberatory possibilities evidenced by frameworks, methodologies, analytic approaches, and discussions that center epistemic (in)justice within higher education. We are also grateful to the Associate Editors, Managing Editors, and Editorial Board members who have advanced The Review during Drs. Pasque and Nelson Laird's term.
Drs. Pasque and Nelson Laird will be responsible for submissions through October 31 and will be the editors of the journal’s 50th Anniversary volume through 2027. Dr. Johnson will lead the peer review process and operational functions beginning November 1, 2026 and the first issue under Dr. Johnson’s editorship will be in Fall 2027.
Search Committee
Finally, we want to extend our thanks to Search Committee for their tremendous work in leading this process:
- Ann E. Austin, PhD, Michigan State University
- Kimberly A. Griffin, PhD, University of Maryland
- Lisa R. Lattuca, PhD, University of Michigan
- Natasha N Croom, PhD, Clemson University
- Radomir Ray Mitic, PhD, William & Mary
- Shouping Hu, PhD, Florida State University
- Timothy Reese Cain, PhD, University of Georgia
We are grateful to these ASHE members for leading a thoughtful and engaged process to identify the next leader of our scholarly journal.