Arthur Jones
Senior Clinical Professor, Clinical Child

Over the course of my career, I have focused much of my teaching and writing in the area of multicultural issues, with a particular emphasis on African American mental health. I also have an interest in Jungian psychology.

In recent years I have developed a focused interest in African American music culture, with particular attention to the spirituals, which are the sacred songs created and first sung by enslaved Africans in North America in the 18th and 19th centuries. I've approached this work as both a professional singer and as a multidisciplinary scholar and teacher. I am the founder of The Spirituals Project, which is a non-profit community agency based at the University of Denver that is concerned with the cultural preservation and revitalization of the spirituals tradition. Various initiatives of The Spirituals Project include three multi-ethnic, multi-generational performing ensembles, a multimedia educational website project (http://ctl.du.edu/spirituals), school and community programs, an oral history project, and a series of solo lecture and concert programs that I perform around the country. Two recent initiatives are a comprehensive research project aimed at evaluating the impact of the work of The Spirituals Project both within the organization and in the community at large, and a community-based youth education project. Additionally, a documentary film, "I Can Tell the World", (www.icantelltheworld.com) focuses on the history of the spirituals, their psychological and cultural significance, and the role of The Spirituals Project in keeping this important cultural tradition alive.

Representative Publications:

Burton, M. & Jones, A.C. (Producers) (2007) "They Slice the Air", Digital Sound Recording. Denver, CO: The Spirituals Project

Jones, A.C. (2004). Black spirituals, physical sensuality, and sexuality: Notes on a neglected field of inquiry. In A.B. Pinn & D. Hopkins (Ed.), Loving the Black Body: Black Religious Studies and the Erotic. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jones, F. & Jones, A.C. (Eds), (2001). The triumph of the soul: Cultural and psychological aspects of African American music. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

Jones, A.C. (1993, 1999). Wade in the water: The wisdom of the spirituals. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books.

Jones, A.C. (1998). Upwardly mobile African American Adults: Reflections on rootedness, psychotherapy and identity. In R.L. Jones (Ed.), African American Mental Health. Hampton, VA: Cobb & Henry.

Jones, A.C. (1992). Self-esteem and identity in psychotherapy with adolescents from upwardly mobile middle-class African American families. In L.A. Vargas & J.D. Koss-Chioino (Eds.), Working with culture: Psychotherapeutic interventions with ethnic minority children. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.

Arthur Jones
Ph.D. 1974, University
of Iowa

Senior Clinical Professor,
Clinical Child
office: Frontier Hall,
Rm. 155
phone: 303.871.3795
e-mail: ajones@psy.du.edu