Ricky Jones

 

Travels From: KY

Fee Range: $2,500 - $3,500

Raised by his maternal grandmother in Atlanta, Georgia's Carver Homes housing project, Ricky L. Jones not only became the first member of his immediate family to graduate high school, but by age 29 he also earned a Ph.D. Currently, he is full professor (the youngest at his University when appointed), past chair, and Director of the "Center on Race and Inequality" at the University of Louisville. He is a Morehouse College alumnus and was only the second African American to receive a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Kentucky where he specialized in Political Philosophy and Comparative Politics.

 

As a graduate student, Jones served as a Lyman T. Johnson Fellow at the University of Kentucky and a National Science Foundation Multi-Cultural Teaching Fellow at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has written scores of scholarly and magazine articles, book chapters and opinion columns in many outlets including: Griot, Black Scholar, Western Journal of Black Studies, Negro Educational Review, DIVERSE Issues in Higher Education, and International Journal of Africana Studies.

 

Jones has emerged as a strong public scholar doing especially innovative work on race, American politics, political leadership, and male identity. He has served as a local, national, and international social and political analyst across various media including appearances on "Democracy Now with Amy Goodman", a variety of NPR and PBS programs, HBO, and E! Entertainment. He has also served as a political commentator for Al Jazeera in English. Jones is a regular columnist for Louisville's alternative weekly, the Louisville Eccentric Observer and his monthly column - "Keeping up with The Jones" - is a three time winner of the Best Minority Reporting award from the Louisville Society of Professional Journalists. He has been named one of Louisville's 25 Young Future Leaders by Louisville Magazine and has also been recognized as one of DIVERSE Issues in Higher Education's "25 to Watch".

 

His first book - Black Haze: Violence, Sacrifice, and Manhood in Black Greek-Letter Fraternities - is now regarded as one of the finest works addressing the troubling issues of hazing and violence in American fraternal organizations. Jones has delivered speeches at numerous colleges and universities on the subject and has been featured on the E! Network's documentary "True Hollywood Stories Investigates: Hazing" as well as HBO's "Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel" to discuss the central theories in Black Haze.

 

Black Haze is much more than the first (and to date, the only) scholarly book solely dedicated to the subject of black fraternity hazing. It also examines a number of aspects of American socio-political culture - from the ritualistic underpinnings of sacrifice to historical and contemporary collegiate and societal discrimination to the very core of America's myriad perspectives on ethical behavior. This groundbreaking and sometimes controversial book provides a rare and sober analysis of the fraternity pledge/haze process and the identity issues associated with it which should give us all pause. In the wake of a spate of injuries and deaths in Greekdom over the last two decades, it is a must-read for Greeks and non-Greeks alike.

 

Jones' next book, the critically acclaimed What's Wrong with Obamamania?: Black America, Black Leadership, and the Death of Political Imagination, received strong reviews well before it's release. Black Agenda Report founder and Executive Editor Glen Ford commented that the book "is an important contribution to intellectual clarity-a scarce commodity at a time of mania." The eminent Dr. Ronald Walters opined, "With a critical eye, Jones examines leadership styles in the black community within the context of larger philosophical arguments about culture, education, political agency, and expectations." Transcending the Talented Tenth author Dr. Joy James wrote, "Jones revives a tradition of sharp and clear political thinking and courageous moral engagement." The Publishers Weekly review of What's Wrong with Obamamania? concluded that "Jones uses Barack Obama's presidential campaign to launch a fascinating and well-researched exploration into black leadership in America. Jones lucidly enumerates the challenges, choices and limitations Obama will face as he attempts to win the presidency, and provides a level of racial analysis and exploration that is almost entirely absent in the mainstream media."

 

Outside the academy, Jones is a regular columnist for Louisville's most popular alternative weekly, the Louisville Eccentric Observer (LEO). His monthly column - "Keeping Up with The Jones" - is a three time winner of the "Best Minority Reporting Award" from the Louisville Society of Professional Journalists. He has been named one of Louisville's 25 Young Future Leaders by Louisville Magazine and has also been recognized as one of DIVERSE Issues in Higher Education's "25 to Watch".

 

Jones is a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity.