Historian Martha S. Jones to Join National Humanities Center Board

The National Humanities Center (NHC) is pleased to announce the election of historian, legal scholar, and author Martha S. Jones to the Center’s board of trustees. Dr. Jones joins a dedicated group of leaders from academia, business, and public life who guide the Center’s mission to advance advanced study in the humanities and advocate for their foundational role in public life.

“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Martha S. Jones to our board of trustees,” said Dr. Blair LM Kelley, president and director of the National Humanities Center. “Martha is not only a brilliant scholar whose work has fundamentally reshaped our understanding of American democracy, legal history, and race; she is also a passionate and impactful champion for public humanities. Her insight and vision will be invaluable as the Center continues to expand its reach and support the next generation of humanities scholarship.”

Dr. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, where she is also a professor of the SNF Agora Institute and director of the Hard Histories at Hopkins project. Her groundbreaking work examines how Black Americans have shaped the story of American rights and democracy. She is the author of several award-winning books, including Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality for All (2020) and Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America (2018), which was written during her fellowship year at the NHC in 2013–14. Her most recent book, The Trouble of Color: An American Family Memoir (2025), explores complex questions about racial identity through accounts of five generations of family history.

Dr. Jones is a highly sought-after speaker in addition to being a frequent guest and contributor to major media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic, where she brings historical context to contemporary conversations about citizenship, justice, and equality.

Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Jones taught history and Afroamerican and African studies at the University of Michigan and was an affiliate faculty member of the University of Michigan Law School. She holds a JD from the CUNY School of Law and a PhD in history from Columbia University.

In 2025, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She was previously elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Society of American Historians. Her scholarly work has been supported by the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Humanities Center, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, among others. 

“The National Humanities Center is a vital sanctuary for the deep, transformative thinking our world so urgently needs,” said Dr. Jones. “I am deeply honored to join the board and look forward to working alongside my fellow trustees to champion the essential insights that the humanities offer to our global community.”

Dr. Jones’s term on the Center’s board of trustees begins effective immediately.