This fall, Dr. Angela Jones joined WGSS@SBU as a Senior IDEA Scholar. They are an award-winning teacher and writer with expertise in African American political thought and protest, sex work, race, gender, sexuality, feminist theory, Black feminisms, and queer methodologies and theory. Dr. Jones is a long-time friend of WGSS@SBU, and we couldn’t be more excited for them to be officially a part of our community. 

Dr. Angela Jones is the author of Camming: Money, Power, and Pleasure in the Sex Industry (NYU Press, 2020) and African American Civil Rights: Early Activism and the Niagara Movement (Praeger, 2011). They are a co-editor of Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the 21st Century (NYU Press, 2024). Jones is also a co-editor of the three-volume After Marriage Equality book series (Routledge, 2018). Jones has also edited two other anthologies: The Modern African American Political Thought Reader: From David Walker to Barack Obama (Routledge, 2012), and A Critical Inquiry into Queer Utopias (Palgrave, 2013). Jones is the author of African American Activism and Political Engagement: An Encyclopedia of Empowerment (Bloomsbury, 2023) and Black Lives Matter: A Reference Handbook (current available for pre-order from Bloomsbury).

In addition to publishing article in various peer-reviewed academic journals, they also write for public audiences and have published in venues like Contexts (digital), The Conversation, the Nevada Independent, Peepshow Magazine, PopMatters, and Salon. Dr. Jones is currently working on a mainstream trade monograph under contract with the legacy feminist press Seal Press, which is tentatively called “Sex Lives: Erotic Power and the Social Life of Sexuality.”

We asked Dr. Jones to answer a few questions about their research and teaching, their experiences in academia, and about what they do when they aren’t writing all these brilliant books and articles!

Tell us about the collection you co-edited Sex Work Today: Erotic Labor in the 21st Century.

Sex Work Today was a long time in the making. Bernadette Barton, Barb Brents, and I started the project not long before the lockdown phases of the pandemic, so finally, getting this book out into the world felt extra good. The anthology features thirty-one original essays by sex workers, advocates, researchers, and activists. The essays engage intersectional and transnational frames and are short, crisp, and accessible.

Can you also tell us about Black Lives Matter: A Reference Handbook (which will be released this May)?

Black Lives Matter: A Reference Handbook is a book I co-authored with Shaonta’ “Shay” Allen and Simone Durham. The book documents the creation and growth of BLM and profiles leading and influential activists and organizations associated with the movement. It includes a range of personal essays that explore the persistent problems of police violence and racial discrimination in the USA. There are also chapters, including governmental data and excerpts of primary documents, as well as an annotated bibliography of related books, news articles, reports, and podcasts.

When this book is published, it will also feel extra special. My co-authors, Simone and Shay, were navigating a lot: a dissertation defense and a transition to a tenure-track job, among other things. Working on this with them and the things we learned from each other was a gift.

What was the best class you took as a student?

The best class I took as an undergraduate was my senior seminar in sociology on gender, race, sexuality, and the body. It was the moment bell hooks broke my heart. We were reading from an anthology, and we got to her essay, “Selling Hot Pussy: Representations of Black Female Sexuality in the Cultural Marketplace” (from Black Looks). It was then that I realized that a number of my Black feminist mentors (hooks, Collins, Lorde) were brilliant on so much but also oh so wrong about sex and sexuality.

My favorite graduate school class was the political economy seminar I took with Agnes Heller. She had such a brilliant mind. Although she was small in stature, she filled the room. We dissected and discussed “Estranged Labor” in ways I never had. In particular, our conversations about the species being forever changed my relationship with labor. That course pushed me to think more concretely and differently about the type of world I want to live in and what role I might continue to play in the movements getting us there.

Is there a particular book that has had a huge influence on your research and/or teaching?

Hands-down W.E.B DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folks. It is not only one of my favorite books (alongside Alice Walker’s The Color Purple), but also profoundly affected my research and writing. DuBois’s conceptualizations of the veil and double consciousness have been influential academically but have also helped me personally to process living in a white supremacist world. I wrote about it here. Critically, his field-defining concepts were born out of autotheory. DuBois pioneered innovative research methods—advocating for mixed methods and fieldwork, using colorful data images, and recognizing that autoethnography and oral histories—that beautiful storytelling aren’t antithetical to scientific rigor—the personal breathes life into theory. DuBois knew and told us that theory and data are political—that research and the stories we tell can foster social justice and change.

What are you listening to right now?

I am currently listening to Lamya H’s book, Hijab Butch Blues. I still have about a third left, but it is so good! Music—I listen to a lot of R&B, Neo-Soul, and old school Hip-Hop, Trip-Hop, and dancehall reggae. Lately, CoCo Jones, Muni Long, and Snoh Aalegra have been in heavy rotation.

How do you like to relax?

How I relax depends on what my bodymind needs. If I’m feeling chill but still creative, I love to write or read in front of a fire. If the world and its people have been thunderously loud and evil, you can find me, candles lit, sage in the air, doing yin yoga and meditation on my mat. And sometimes, my spirit needs ratchet joy with rest, and I binge trashy love shows on Netflix and call it research.

Dogs or cats?

Cats—definitely, cats! I have two, Blaze and Simon, coming soon to a Zoom screen near you. I vibe with cats. Most dogs ain’t got no chill, lol—that and a huge dog bit me as a kid, and so, sure, I suppose I still have feelings about that.