Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Professor of Public Health (PHPM)
Community, Environment & Policy Department
Biography
Dean, Social and Behavioral Sciences
Dean, Don Bennett Moon - Social Behavioral Sciences
Professor, Geography/Regional Development.
Professor, Public Health
Member of the General Faculty
John Paul (JP) Jones III (Ph.D. Ohio State University) is the Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a Professor in the School of Geography and Development.
Jones holds key service roles at the University of Arizona, including Chair of the Dean’s + Development Committee and memberships on the UA/UA Foundation Relations Committee, the Strategic Planning and Budget Advisory Committee, and University Development Council. He was Chair of the Provost Search Advisory Committee and served on the UA Presidential Search Committee. Locally, Jones has served as a Board member on the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and its Business Advocacy Committee.
Before being named Dean of SBS in 2010, Jones was Director of the College’s School of Geography and Development. His research centers on geographic methodology and the integration of spatial theory and social theory. Recently, he has studied the globalization of the civil society sector in Oaxaca, Mexico; the socio-political foundations of mosquito management in southern Arizona; and the co-productions of scientists and artists in the areas of climate change, geovisualization, and bioart.
Jones is Director of the Arizona in Oaxaca Study Abroad Program and has affiliated appointments in the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. He has written more than 100 articles and book chapters, edited seven books, and received numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation. He is the past editor of his field’s flagship journal, the Annals of the Association of American Geographers. He currently serves as co-editor of the Sage journal, Dialogues in Human Geography. Jones was recognized by his professional organization, the Association of American Geographers, with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015.
Before coming to the UA in 2003, Jones taught at the University of Kentucky and San Diego State University. He has held visiting appointments at University College Dublin, the University of Nimegen in the Netherlands, the Universitat de Girona in Spain, and the London School of Economics.
Past Courses Taught:
History of Geographic Thought
Quantitative Methods
Research Methods in Geography
Space and Identity
Space and Representation
Space and Globalization
Space and Social Theory
Research Synopsis
I am a human geographer with a long held interest in social theory, the history of geographic thought, and geographic methodology. Early on I was active in debates over spatial science and contributed methodologically to the spatial contextualization of regression models. I have written on theories of social space and have contributed to debates on scale within human geography. Most of my work since the 1990s has been informed by developments in critical social and cultural theory, especially poststructuralism. This research has examined issues of representation, identity, and spatial ontology and epistemology. Some past NSF-funded collaborations include examinations of: the feminization of poverty in the US; the globalization of the civil society sector in Oaxaca, Mexico; the socio-political foundations of mosquito management in southern Arizona; and the co-productions of scientists and artists in areas of climate change, geovisualization, and bioart.
