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Name: Andrew Jones
Title: Professor
Department: Sociology
Academic Degrees: Ph.D. in sociology, M.S. in sociology, M.S. in social sciences, B.A. in philosophy.

How long you have worked at Fresno State: 14 years.

What is your most notable accomplishment in your field, and why was it important? I would have to say working last year with the Fresno community for the Fresno Commission for Police Reform. It was important work as the Community Input Subcommittee I worked with provided an outlet for community members to voice their concerns about policing in Fresno, and this work combined research with community activism aimed at producing positive social change. Several of my colleagues in sociology volunteered their services as well, resulting in a collaboration that allowed us to connect with the Fresno community and assist in bringing about a set of police reforms within the city that the commission adopted and presented to the Fresno City Council.

What are you most passionate about in your field and why? Addressing climate destabilization and promoting ecological sustainability are my primary passions. I read Frank Herbert’s novel "Dune" at age 14, and it profoundly influenced my thinking. I did my master’s thesis on tropical deforestation and its links to globalization, and did my dissertation on news media framing of climate change. We are collectively accelerating the rate of extinction of other species and altering ecosystems with our activities, which will lead to our own extinction. We still have time to turn things around by embracing ecological sustainability — which will address climate destabilization, but this requires a fundamental shift in the dominant cultural values, systems of production and our collective world view. Right now, the political will to make such changes is sorely lacking, and the momentum is in the direction of hastening our own extinction (the late Richard Lewontin made this painfully obvious in his book "The Triple Helix"). However, we need to remember that policy and point of production decisions got us in this situation, and that means we can alter those policies and decisions, shifting us towards a more sustainable and equitable way of living and engaging in production.

What is a memorable moment you had at your job? Attaining the National Science Foundation Urban Long Term Research Area exploratory grant that allowed faculty in seven departments across three colleges to do research on the impacts of water usage on urban biodiversity in Fresno and Clovis. The principal investigator on the grant, Madhusudan Katti (formerly of the biology department), brought together a multidisciplinary team to examine the effects of water metering in Fresno. We collected tree, bird, and social data for the study, and though many faculty left the project, Madhu and I are carrying on with data analysis and expanding the scope of our study.

What is a memorable moment you had in class, and what does that reveal about your teaching style? A couple of years ago, near the end of the spring semester in my Qualitative Methods class, I asked students to assess what they had learned in the course. One student replied that it was the most "sociological" class she had taken, as she had learned more about different aspects of the social world from her fellow students through the field note debriefings I have them perform based on their research. I noted that I too learned from the student debriefings and pointed out that we are all involved in the production of knowledge. It was a great moment, as the rest of the class chimed in regarding how much they had learned from the debriefings, resulting in a deeper appreciation for their major.

What do you like to do for fun in your spare time? In my spare time, I enjoy doing home improvement projects with my wife, playing with our pets, producing art and playing video games. I also play tennis and go bicycling on occasion.

What is something interesting about you that most people don’t know? I’m a huge fan of the Marvel characters Wolverine, Deadpool and Spider-Man. I’m also a fan of Godzilla, though my 6-year-old nephew, Jack Nelson from Hanford, has surpassed me, declaring himself to be the “No. 1 fan of Godzilla in the world!”

Is there something else you would like to share that was not asked? Having been downsized and fired from private sector jobs, I appreciate the stability a career in academe has afforded me. I’m incredibly lucky to have been hired in a tenure-track position and attained tenure and promotion to full professor — there are many out there who have not been so lucky, both in academe and the private sector. This fact motivates me to work with others in seeking to rectify social and environmental inequities through the privileges my position affords.