Nicholas R. Jones

Nicholas R. Jones is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, previously serving as Assistant Professor of Spanish at Bucknell University. He holds a Ph.D. from New York University and has been a visiting professor at Georgetown University and New York University. His research focuses on the African diaspora in early modern Spain, Black presence in literature, and race studies. Jones is the author of Staging Habla de Negros: Radical Performances of the African Diaspora in Early Modern Spain (2019) and co-editor of Early Modern Black Diaspora Studies: A Critical Anthology (2018) and Pornographic Sensibilities (2021). He co-edits The Routledge Critical Junctures in Global Early Modernities book series. His work has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Notable awards include the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize (MLA) and the Outstanding First Book Prize from the Association for the Study of the Worldwide African Diaspora. Jones’s recent book, Cervantine Blackness (2025), critiques Cervantes’ portrayal of Blackness and challenges traditional discourses on agency in early modern studies.

His research explores themes such as linguistic blackface, Black agency in early modern theater, and the intersection of race and literature. He has published in journals like Hispanic Review, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies, and postmedieval. Jones also engages with contemporary issues, such as the 2020 op-ed on the Cervantes statue vandalism in San Francisco, linking historical Black representation to modern activism. His work bridges critical race theory, early modern studies, and cultural analysis.