Alisha Lola Jones
Dr. Alisha Lola Jones is an associate professor in the faculty of music at the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. She is a board member of the Society
for Ethnomusicology (SEM), a member of the strategic planning task force for the American
Musicological Society (AMS), and a co-chair of the Music and Religion Section of the
American Academy of Religion (AAR). Additionally, as a performer-scholar, she consults
museums, conservatories, seminaries, and arts organizations on curriculum, live and
virtual event programming, and content development. Dr. Jones’ book Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance (Oxford University Press) breaks ground by analyzing the role of gospel music-making
in constructing and renegotiating gender identity among black men. Dr. Jones' book
has been awarded: the Ruth Stone prize (SEM), Music in American Culture prize (AMS),
and Philip Brett prize (AMS). She is completing two books: a gastromusicology book
entitled Ultrasonic Tastemakers: A Critical Gastromusicology and Sound Our Signatures: A Womanist Approach to Music Research, which sets forth anti-oppressive ways of listening to Black women. Recently, she wrote
albums notes for the GRAMMY nominated record by Carlos Simon entitled Requiem for the Enslaved (2022). Rev. Dr. Jones is a fourth-generation ordained preacher on both sides in the Word
of Faith and Pentecostal traditions. A little-known fact is that Dr. Alisha Lola Jones
and her sister Rev. Angela Marie Jones are co-owners of Paradise Media Group, a Black
women-owned radio company with stations based in Oxford and Henderson, NC. Rev. Dr.
Jones is bicontinental residing in the US and Cambridge, England with her life-partner
in ministry and love, her husband Rev. Calvin Taylor Skinner.