My name is Tim Jones. I have a Ph.D. in Political Science and I am also the Chair of the International Studies programs at BC.
In my classes I try to foster a deep-seeded commitment to social justice and civic engagement. No matter how many times I teach a subject or how much I think I know about it, I always try to approach my next class as if I were teaching it for the first time. If I want my students to be excited and open-minded about a subject then I believe I need to model that attitude and behavior myself. In Buddhist terms, I try to adopt a “beginner’s mind” rather than an “expert’s mind.” An illustrative quote in this respect, which I like to share with my students is “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” What this means for me in practice is that I try not to introduce any topic that I am not truly interested in myself; I regularly try out new teaching techniques; I often reinvent assignments; and I am up-front about the fact that I do not have all the answers. It also means that I encourage my students to question convention and authority, including my own, and to consider alternative ways of thinking and relating to the world. In the process, I try to have as much fun as possible as I believe that what we learn with pleasure we are less likely to forget. In the end, I hope my students leave my classes more curious, more critical, more self-aware, and more self-confident than they were when they entered.
Sheets, P., Rowling, C. M., & Jones, T.M. (in press). The View from Above (And Below): A Comparison of American, British, and Arab News Coverage of U.S. Drones. Media, War & Conflict.
Rowling, C. M., Sheets, P. & Jones, T.M. (2015). American Atrocity Revisited: National Identity, Cascading Frames, and the My Lai Massacre. Political Communication, 32(2): 310-330.
Rowling, C. M., Sheets, P., & Jones, T.M. (2013). Frame Contestation in the News: National Identity, Cultural Resonance, and the U.S. Drone Policy. International Journal of Communication, 7: 2231-2253.
Jones, T.M. Van Aelst, P. & Vliegenthart, R. (2013). Foreign Nation Visibility in the U.S. News Media: A Longitudinal Analysis (1950-2006). Communication Research, 40(3): 417-436.
Rowling, C. M., Jones, T.M. & Sheets, P. (2011). Some Dared Call it Torture: Cultural Resonance, Abu Ghraib, and a Selectively Echoing Press. Journal of Communication, 61: 765-786.
Jones, T.M. & Sheets, P. (2009). Torture in the Eye of the Beholder: Social Identity, News Coverage, and Abu Ghraib. Political Communication, 26(3): 278-295.
Jones, T. M. (2008). Review of Comparative Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics. Comparative Political Studies, 41(1): 128-131.Rowling, C. M., Sheets, P. & Jones, T. M. (in press). American Atrocity Revisited: National Identity, Cascading Frames, and the My Lai Massacre. Political Communication.