Dr. Jovonna Jones is an Assistant Professor of African American Literature and Culture at Boston College specializing in photography and visual studies, space and place, and Black feminist criticism. She has published articles on visuality and black thought in Souls and Callaloo. Her writing has appeared in Aperture, Southern Cultures, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.
Jovonna is dedicated to Black Studies and public humanities, and she organizes reading groups and gallery activations in the Boston area. Her previous projects include The Black Studies Reading Room at Trident Booksellers & Café and the Tufts University Art Galleries, and the Black Feminist Study Hall with Print Ain’t Dead.
Jovonna holds her PhD and MA from Harvard University and BA from Emory University.
Selected Publications
“LaToya Ruby Frazier’s Flint is Family in Three Acts” in Aperture
“Walking with Ella Watson: Photography, Interiority, and the Spiritual Church Movement in the Work of Gordon Parks” in Southern Cultures
“Troubling Dignity, Seeking Truth: Black Feminist Vision and the Thought-World of Black Photography in the Nineteenth Century“ in Souls: A critical journal of Black politics culture and society
“look, look. Look: The Work of Black Aesthetics in Toni Morrison’s Jazz“ in Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters
“Daufuskie Island” in “Notes for Future Study: Photobooks by Black Artists”, guest edited by Deborah Willis for Aperture PhotoBook Review
“A Visual Record of Black Lives, Four Decades After Emancipation” on Aperture.com
“Now Found: On Faith and Wonderment in Deana Lawson’s Messier 81, Return of the Dove” in Fragments of a Crucifixion, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Jovonna Jones 