Faculty and
Staff Profiles
Stephen
Jones, Chair Fall 2005
Courses
Stephen Jones, professor
of Russian and Eurasian Studies, has been a member of the Mount
Holyoke College faculty since 1989. Specializing in Russia
and the Caucasus (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), Jones is an
expert on post-communist societies in the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe. He regularly briefs the CIA and US State Department
on developments in Caucasia and the North Caucasus. In 1995,
he briefed William Courtney, the newly appointed US ambassador to
Georgia.
From 1989-1991
during the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jones was repeatedly called
upon by The New York Times, The McNeil-Lehrer News Hour and the
National Geographic Magazine for background information. In 1992,
he was included in a New York Times article discussing Georgia's
future. Additionally, he has participated in five different news
programs with the BBC World Service as well as numerous American
radio and TV stations, including NPR's Weekend Edition. Most
recently, in July 1996, Jones traveled to Georgia for the World
Bank to examine the impact of economic reform on the lives of ordinary
citizens in Caucasia. Jones is also leading an ongoing effort to
work with officials in Georgia to identify, preserve, and catalogue
archival materials and employ contemporary library technologies
to support the nation's archival and library systems.
Originally funded at
Mount Holyoke by the Mellon Foundation to explore Russian and Soviet
history and culture, Jones has taught "Nationalism: East and
West," "Post-Soviet Foreign Policy" and "The
Rise and Fall of the Soviet Empire." Co-convening six conferences,
Jones has published widely, including dozens of articles, chapters
and book reviews on contemporary events in the Commonwealth of Independent
States. His papers and lectures number over 70. He is
currently writing two books: The Georgian Social Democratic
Republic: 1918-21 and A History of Twentieth-Century Caucasia.
Prior to joining the
Mount Holyoke faculty, Jones taught Soviet politics at the University
of California at Santa Cruz (1986), at the University of London
(1986-88), and at Oxford University (1988-89). From 1986-1991, he
received a grant every year for his scholarly activities, including
awards from Harvard and Oxford Universities.
Jones earned his B.A.
with honors from the University of Essex in comparative government.
He received an M.Sc. in 1976 from the London School of Economics
where he studied Soviet politics. In 1984, he completed a Ph.D.
at the London School of Economics. A native to England, Jones is
fluent in Georgian and reads Russian and French fluently.
College Street Journal
Article:
Volume 16, Number 16, Mount Holyoke College, January 17, 2003 Strengthening
Connections with Librarians from Georgia.
MHC Press Release:
January 2003 Librarians
from Republic of Georgia Visit U.S. to Study Role of Libraries in
Democratic Societies.
This article
ran in the Toronto Globe and Mail on Wednesday, November
26, 2003 Georgia in his time.
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