Colleagues call Jones, associate professor of history and associate chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies, LSA, an innovative, collaborative and visionary teacher whose interdisciplinary research infuses her teaching. One colleague says her teaching "represents the very best of Michigan's concern for undergraduate learning, for civic engagement, and for rigorous research."

Jones combines a caring, student-centered approach with insistence that students have a responsibility to plunge into primary sources and argue for their interpretation. Pushing beyond conventional classroom boundaries, she creates experiential learning projects that connect primary research with community involvement. Her public exhibits, such as the recent "Proclaiming Emancipation" project at the Hatcher Library, provide experiences where students discover how vivid the past can be.

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