Dr. David Jones, Ph.D.

I am a Professor of English and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire. In the past, I have had leadership roles for the UWEC Honors Program, the Liberal Studies Program, and in the Chancellor's Office as Campus Fellow for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusivity. 
 

As a professor, my primary fields are African American literature and American Cultural Studies. My faculty peers in English would probably describe my approach to teaching as “New Historicism” or “Cultural Studies.” For me, historical and cultural contexts are just as important as literary expression, and in a typical class of mine, nonfiction readings supplement works of poetry, fiction, and drama. Some of the courses I teach have conventional titles such as “Making Sense of the Movies,” “Survey of American Literature,” etc., but you can get a stronger sense of my teaching interests from more specialized courses I have taught:

• Black Feminism in the Humanities
• Sexism in the 60s
• McDonaldization and Cultural Identity
• Fordism and the Great Depression
• The Invention of Cool Japan
• Rock and Roll and the American Experience (1950s/1960s/1970s)

One of my strong interests is in current events and providing lenses for students to understand how past developments inform everyday life and culture in the 21st century.  To that end, I have recently done research, professional presentations, and faculty workshops on teaching sensitive and controversial issues in classrooms.

Whenever I get the chance to write for publication, I greatly enjoy the opportunity. My publications tend to examine U.S. cultural history in relation to social movements, group identities, and popular trends in literature, film, and public politics. Subjects in my publications include film criticism (on 12 Years a Slave and Boys Don't Cry), popular music criticism (on hip hop, blues, and individual artists), and several projects on equity, diversity, and inclusion in institutions. Going further back, there are two book projects that I am proud to have completed: a book on the Black Arts Movement (A New Breed of Black Consciousness) and a collection of essays that I co-edited with Dr. JoAnne Juett (Coming Out to the Mainstream: New Queer Cinema in the 21st Century).  

I am also a professional musician (a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter) who performs under the names Davey J & Friends and Davey J and the Jones Tones. Music is definitely a passion, as I have published five original music CDs with my own independent label, B Major Productions (the most recent CDs are 2020 Blue and Chippewa Love). In music industry language, our style would probably be “Americana” or “Roots,” but there are elements of rock, blues, reggae, indie, folk, and even jazz in my music. 

In my past creative work, I also produced and hosted two radio programs on popular music and Wisconsin culture for Wisconsin Public Radio: Jazz, Blues, and Beyond and Wisconsin Wealth. I really enjoy maintaining a flexible and relevant range of academic interests, and I’m so thankful that innovation is welcome at UWEC.