Marguerite Johnson was Lecturer in the School of Humanities (University of Newcastle) and later Associate Professor of Ancient History and Classical Languages in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences (also the University of Newcastle). A Classicist specialising in ancient literature, mythology and fairytales, she holds both a BA (Hons) and a PhD from the University of Newcastle.

Johnson's major publications include Sexuality in Greek and Roman Society and Literature: A Sourcebook, with Terry Ryan (Routledge, 2005); Sappho (Duckworth, 2007); Boudicca (Duckworth, 2012); Alcibiades and the Socratic Lover-Educator, edited with Harold Tarrant (Duckworth, 2012), and Ovid on Cosmetics (Bloomsbury, 2016).

She was children's book reviewer for the Newcastle Herald from 1989 to 1993.

In 2017, Johnson was awarded the ABR Gender Fellowship for a project entitled 'Mapping Gender, Sexuality and the Environment: Picnic at Hanging Rock Fifty Years On'.