Dr. James R. Jones is an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Sociology at Rutgers University-Newark. He is also the director for the Center for Politics and Race in America.

He received his PhD in Sociology from Columbia University in 2017. His research investigates racial representation and inequality inside of American political workplaces. In this work, he centers the career experiences of Black government workers to understand the complicated relationship between race, power, and inequality in our nation’s top political institutions.

He is the author of The Last Plantation: Racism and resistance in the halls of Congress, forthcoming from Princeton University Press in Spring 2024. The title draws on the fact that members of Congress and their staff have applied this telling nickname to the legislature in order to highlight how the institution is exempt from the very policies and principles it is tasked to create and implement (including federal workplace laws). In the Last Plantation, Dr. Jones draws upon the plantation metaphor to analyze how race and racism are produced and maintained within the congressional workplace and the Capitol at large. 

Dr. Jones is a leading expert on congressional staff diversity. He has authored three groundbreaking policy reports on racial representation among congressional staff. His research demonstrates that people of color are underrepresented in both top and junior staff positions on Capitol Hill. His first public policy documented the underrepresentation of racial minorities in top staff positions in the Senate for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. In 2017, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer adopted policy recommendations from this report to increase racial diversity amongst democratic staff and improve transparency in staff decisions. His recently published “The Color of Congress” with Pay Our Interns, which documents how White students dominate congressional internships.

Dr. Jones’ research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Dirksen Congressional Center, Columbia University, Duke University, and Princeton University. 

His writing has appeared in academic journals including Du Bois Review and  Sociological Forum, as well as in public outlets including Teen Vogue, The Daily Beast, Newsworks, and The Hill. In addition, his research has been covered by NPR, The Washington Post, and the Atlantic.

His CV is available here.