Kip Jones

KIP JONES, an American by birth, has been studying and working in the UK for more than 20 years.
Under the umbrella term of 'arts-led research', his main efforts have involved developing tools
from the arts and humanities for use by social scientists in research and its impact on a wider
public or a Perfomative Social Science.

Jones was Reader in Performative Social Science and Qualitative Research at
Bournemouth University for 15 years.
He is now a Visiting Scholar and and an independent author and scholar.

Kip has produced films and written many articles for academic journals and authored chapters
for books on topics such as masculinity, ageing and rurality, and older LGBT citizens.
Jones' most recent work involves working with Generation Z youth to tell their stories using
social media.
His ground-breaking use of qualitative methods, including Auto-fiction, biography
and auto-ethnography, and the use of tools from the arts in social science research
and dissemination are well-known.

Jones acted as Author and Executive Producer of
the award-winning short film, RUFUS STONE, funded by Research Councils UK.
The film is now available for free viewing on the Internet
and has been viewed by more than 14,000 people in 150 countries.

Areas of expertise
• Close relationships, culture and ethnicity
• Social psychology, sociology
• Ageing, self and identity
• Interpersonal processes, personality,
individual differences,
social networks, prejudice and stereotyping
• Sexuality and sexual orientation
• Creativity and the use of the
arts in Social Science

Media experience
His work has been reported widely
in the media, including:
BBC Radio 4,BBC TV news,Times
Higher Education, Sunday New
York Times, International
Herald-Tribune
and The Independent.

Wednesday 16 November 2016

What creative people do. (For Patricia)


Richard as figure in painting "Cafe America" displayed in Paris
I came back from my solo painting exhibition in Paris early. Something had seemed wrong, out of sorts. Just before I left for Paris, I had seen Richard silently crossing the street in front of the taxi that I was in. He seemed so lost, so thin. He had ended our relationship about a year before, but we were still close, often saw each other from time to time. Then I got the phone call: Richard was in Pennsylvania hospital and probably had what we had all been whispering about, dreading, HIV as it was known initially. I hate hospitals. I hate the smell of them. I always say that it’s the shiny floors that get to me. But I went quickly to the hospital and found the floor that he was on.It was a private room with an anteroom where you washed with disinfectant. There were robes that you could put on too, but I didn’t bother. I had heard that some of the nurses refused to enter his room, but I went in anyway. Richard was asleep on the bed. So thin, so vulnerable, but peaceful. I stood and stared at him for quite a while. But what do creative people do when faced with unfathomable pain, unbelievable sorrow? I picked up the pencil and hospital menu from the bedside tray and drew his picture on it. I visited him every other day. Richard, just 25 years, died from Aids, four months later. Most of what I have done in my life since has been to make a mockery of his death.
I still have that sketch on a menu somewhere.  Even now, 30 years on, I dream of him often.