Hilary Jones

Associate Professor of History and African American and Africana Studies

Director of Graduate Studies

My teaching and research centers on West Africa and its interconnected histories with Europe and the Americas. I earned the PhD in African History from Michigan State University (2003), specializing in African History with minor fields in Comparative Black History and African Art History. My first book, The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa (Indiana University Press, 2013) examines multi-racial identity through the lens of Senegal’s Afro-European population who played key roles in the life of Senegal’s nineteenth century Atlantic and French colonial towns. Support from Fulbright IIE Scholar Fellowship and a Senior National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship from the Council on American Overseas Studies Centers facilitated research in Senegal for a second book-length project that considers the problem of the stranger in French West Africa from from the point of view of Sierra Leonean migrant workers and French Caribbean employees of the colonial service. I teach undergraduate courses: HIS 100/AAS 100: Introduction to African Studies, HIS 253/AAS 253: History of Precolonial Africa and HIS 254/AAS 254: History of Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa. In addition, I developed a transnational course: Black Paris: France in the Twentieth Century and History of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Africa. For gradaute students, I have taught History of the Atlantic World and Problems in History: African Diaspora. Currently, I serve as Director of Graduate Studies for the Department of History.

Contact Information

Hilary.Jones@uky.edu

1725 Patterson Office Tower

Schedule an appointment here: https://bit.ly/joneshilary

Fall 2026 Office Hours:

859-257-6950

Education

PhD Michigan State University (2003)
M.A. Michigan State University (1996)
B.A. Spelman College (1993)
University Cheikh Anta Diop (1991-1992)

Research Interests

African History
African Diaspora
Atlantic History
French Empire
Women
Gender and Sexuality

Affiliations

History
African American and Africana Studies
Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies

Book

The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life and Politics in French West Africa. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2013.

Selected Articles

Hilary Jones and Caroline Faria. “A Darling of the Beauty Trade: Race, Care, and the Lebanese Styling of Synthetic Hair.” Cultural Geographies 27,1(2020): 85-99. “Women, Race, and Ethnicity.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Oxford University Press, 2020 (online). Hilary Jones and Emily Clark, "Transatlantic Currents of Orientalism: New Orleans Quadroons and Saint-Louis, Senegal Signares," in New Orleans, Louisiana and Saint Louis, Senegal: Mirror Cities in the Atlantic World, 1659-2000s. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2019. “Women, Family, and Daily Life in Senegal’s Nineteenth Century Atlantic Towns.” In African Women in the Atlantic World: Property, Vulnerability, and Mobility 1680-1880. Edited by Mariana Candido and Adam Jones. London: James Currey Press, 2019. “Originaire Women and Political Life in Senegal’s Four Communes.” In Black French Women and the Struggle for Equality 1848-2015, edited by Felix Germain and Sylaine Larcher. University of Nebraska Press, 2018, Chapter 1. “The Signares, mixed race women of Senegambia, sixteenth and eighteenth centuries/Les Signares, femmes métisses de Sénégambie, XVIe-XVIIIe siècles, in Sexe & Colonies: An Illustrated Catalog of Images and Documents, edited by Pascal Blanchard, Nicolas Bancel, Gilles Böetsch, Rachel Jean-Baptiste, Christelle Taraud, and Dominic Thomas. Paris: ACHAC, 2018. “Fugitive Slaves and Christian Evangelism in French West Africa: A Protestant Mission in late Nineteenth-century Senegal,” Slavery & Abolition 38:1(2017): 76-94. “Rethinking Politics in the Colony: The Métis of Senegal and Electoral Politics in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century,” Journal of African History 53, 3 (2012): 325-344