Maris Jones

G. Maris Jones is a William Fontaine Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania pursuing a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and Africana Studies. Jones graduated magna cum laude from Brown University with a B.A. in Anthropology and Portuguese & Brazilian Studies. As a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, she researched the relationship between Black identity, cultural production, and access to citizenship rights in Brazil. Since graduating, Jones has worked as an experiential environmental educator in Hawai'i, Alaska, and Portugal, in addition to engaging in community-based participatory research and organizing in southern Louisiana.

Her research interests include environmental and climate justice, diaspora migrations, citizenship and U.S. government policy, traditional ecological knowledge, and narratives of Black resistance and resilience. Jones is the recipient of the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship and intends to explore climate change vulnerability and adaptation in coastal communities and small island states across the African diaspora.