As a scholar, Jones seeks to examine the social construction of race by exploring three distinct sources of change in the contemporary racial landscape -- immigration, the growing multiracial population, and shifting social relations between and within racial groups. By focusing on these three themes, she works to expand our understanding of how people become racialized and make sense of that racial identity, as well as how those identities impact social relations and politics.
Race and Immigration
Jones' primary project in this first line of research includes her book, The Browning of the New South. The Browning of the New South examines a case study of shifting race relations and the experiences of Mexican immigrants who have settled in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina to explore regional racial change. In her manuscript, Jones argues that in many locations throughout Southeast, Latinos are being situated alongside blacks as excluded minorities, who see African-Americans as allies rather than adversaries. Moreover, she posits that such changes have enormous implications for local, state, and national politics.
In addition to a variety of projects that examine Latino immigrant integration and local-level enforcement, she is also working on a large-scale project with Hana Brown that compares immigrant serving organizations and immigration policy regimes across New South states, looking at the relationship between race-making, advocacy, and state-level policy-making in producing distinct immigration enforcement regimes in neighboring states. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, The Institute for Scholarship in Liberal Arts at Notre Dame, the Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies, and the Wake Forest Collaborative Research Grant, this project uses paired comparisons of Alabama and Mississippi and North Carolina and Georgia to examine how and why race matters in the realm of immigration politics. Findings from this study have appeared in such journals as American Behavioral Scientist, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Law and Contemporary Problems, and Contexts Magazine.
Multiracials and Racial Formation
Jones examines the production of mixed race identity at the group level. Her first study in this line of research on group formation in multiracial organizations, published in Sociological Perspectives, was awarded its distinguished contribution to the journal. In a related project with collaborators Reanne Frank (published in Social Pyschology Quarterly) and Mary Kate Blake, she is exploring racial classification and identities by comparing phenotypically white multiracials with other multiracials in order to understand how they experience and inhabit racial meanings and categories. In her other projects, Jones uses the concepts of racial formation to investigate how and why groups become racialized and develop a racialized identity. Jones published a theoretical piece that highlights this approach in the inaugural journal of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity titled "Re-thinking Panethnicity and the Race Immigration Divide: An Ethnoracial Model of Group Formation" (with Hana Brown).
Intra and Intergroup Relations
In her recent work, including The Browning of the New South, Jones examines inter-minority relations, with an emphasis on black/brown relations in the New South. Jones also has worked with Sandra Smith to theorize intragroup harassment and the mechanisms that drive the shoring up of intergroup boundaries among racialized minorities, published in Ethnic and Racial Studies.
Afro-Latinxs and Afro-Latinidad
Jones also seeks to explore racial formation and politics in comparative perspective. Her article "Mexicans Will Take the Jobs that Even Blacks Won’t Do”: An Analysis of Blackness and Invisibility in Contemporary Mexico" published in Ethnic and Racial Studies explores the salience of race among Afro-Mexicans. She is also the co-editor of the book Afro-Latinos in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas which brings together cutting edge research on Afro-Latino identities and experiences, and has contributed chapters to such volumes as the Cambridge Companion to Afro-Latin America and Critical Dialogos in Latino Studies.
Race and Immigration
Jones' primary project in this first line of research includes her book, The Browning of the New South. The Browning of the New South examines a case study of shifting race relations and the experiences of Mexican immigrants who have settled in the Winston-Salem area of North Carolina to explore regional racial change. In her manuscript, Jones argues that in many locations throughout Southeast, Latinos are being situated alongside blacks as excluded minorities, who see African-Americans as allies rather than adversaries. Moreover, she posits that such changes have enormous implications for local, state, and national politics.
In addition to a variety of projects that examine Latino immigrant integration and local-level enforcement, she is also working on a large-scale project with Hana Brown that compares immigrant serving organizations and immigration policy regimes across New South states, looking at the relationship between race-making, advocacy, and state-level policy-making in producing distinct immigration enforcement regimes in neighboring states. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, The Institute for Scholarship in Liberal Arts at Notre Dame, the Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies, and the Wake Forest Collaborative Research Grant, this project uses paired comparisons of Alabama and Mississippi and North Carolina and Georgia to examine how and why race matters in the realm of immigration politics. Findings from this study have appeared in such journals as American Behavioral Scientist, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Law and Contemporary Problems, and Contexts Magazine.
Multiracials and Racial Formation
Jones examines the production of mixed race identity at the group level. Her first study in this line of research on group formation in multiracial organizations, published in Sociological Perspectives, was awarded its distinguished contribution to the journal. In a related project with collaborators Reanne Frank (published in Social Pyschology Quarterly) and Mary Kate Blake, she is exploring racial classification and identities by comparing phenotypically white multiracials with other multiracials in order to understand how they experience and inhabit racial meanings and categories. In her other projects, Jones uses the concepts of racial formation to investigate how and why groups become racialized and develop a racialized identity. Jones published a theoretical piece that highlights this approach in the inaugural journal of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity titled "Re-thinking Panethnicity and the Race Immigration Divide: An Ethnoracial Model of Group Formation" (with Hana Brown).
Intra and Intergroup Relations
In her recent work, including The Browning of the New South, Jones examines inter-minority relations, with an emphasis on black/brown relations in the New South. Jones also has worked with Sandra Smith to theorize intragroup harassment and the mechanisms that drive the shoring up of intergroup boundaries among racialized minorities, published in Ethnic and Racial Studies.
Afro-Latinxs and Afro-Latinidad
Jones also seeks to explore racial formation and politics in comparative perspective. Her article "Mexicans Will Take the Jobs that Even Blacks Won’t Do”: An Analysis of Blackness and Invisibility in Contemporary Mexico" published in Ethnic and Racial Studies explores the salience of race among Afro-Mexicans. She is also the co-editor of the book Afro-Latinos in Movement: Critical Approaches to Blackness and Transnationalism in the Americas which brings together cutting edge research on Afro-Latino identities and experiences, and has contributed chapters to such volumes as the Cambridge Companion to Afro-Latin America and Critical Dialogos in Latino Studies.