Rhonda D. Jones

Working at the intersections of history, libraries, and community digital archives, Rhonda is an international scholar specializing in cultural memory and digital heritage informatics. As a Community Archivist, she balances curation with identifying new areas of collecting analog and born-digital materials from underrepresented communities. Rhonda also cultivates donors, manages collections, and designs encased and digital exhibits along with a collaborative team of librarians, archivists, and community stakeholders. Her scholarship centers on the challenges of documenting the history of lynching, racial violence, and the painful legacy of African American intergenerational trauma, African American philanthropy, and economic reprisals in the Civil Rights Movement's aftermath. 

Through curiosity and immersion, Rhonda analyzed cultural heritage sites and art collectives, collaborated with academics about the material infrastructure of digital archives and libraries in Africa, and interacted with diplomats and public affairs specialists at the U.S. Embassy. She offered lectures in American Studies and African American History and Culture at the University Cheikh Anta Diop (U.C.A.D.) and facilitated webinars, presentations, online meetings, discussions at the West African Research Center. Rhonda served as a Guest Lecturer for the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. Department of State. She delivered the Black History Month presentation at the U.S. Ambassador’s private residence.  

Ask Me About:

• Creating spaces for females in a male-dominated culture
• Using digital tools to document cultural history, memory, oral history, and storytelling