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Russian Studies at MHC

Stephen F. Jones
Associate Professor of Russian Studies & Chair of Russian and Eurasian Studies

Stephen Jones, associate 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.