Hilary Jones teaches and researches about West Africa and its interconnected histories with Europe and the Americas. Jones studied at University Cheikh Anta Diop (Dakar, Senegal) during her junior year at Spelman College. In 2003, she earned the PhD in African History from Michigan State University, minoring in Comparative Black History and African Art History. Jones’ first book, The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa (Indiana University Press, 2013) examines multi-racial identity through the lens of Senegal’s Afro-European population who played key roles in the life of Senegal’s nineteenth century Atlantic and French colonial towns. Her second work, in progress, considers the problem of the stranger in French West Africa from World War I until the dawn of decolonization in 1950. Through case studies of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants, British West African followers of Marcus Garvey, & French Caribbeans in the colonial service this work explores the intersection of race, class, and identity in colonial towns and seaports of French West Africa. The recipient of a Fulbright IIE Scholar award and a Senior National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship from the Council on American Overseas Studies Centers, Jones conducted field research in Senegal, Martinique, and Guadeloupe for this project. She teaches HIS 100/AAS 100: Introduction to African Studies, AAS 301, Introduction to the African Diaspora, and HIS 253/AAS 253: History of Precolonial Africa, upper-level courses on African gender history, and graduate seminar on the African Diaspora and the making of the Atlantic World. Hilary Jones currently serves as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of History.
- African History
- African Diaspora
- Atlantic History
- French Empire
- Women
- Gender and Sexuality
- History
- African American and Africana Studies
- Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies