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.

Sunday 19 October 2014

RUFUS STONE goes LIVE and FREE on the Internet

Bournemouth University is pleased to announce that the research-based, award-winning short film, RUFUS STONE, is now live and can be viewed for FREE on the Internet. 

View RUFUS STONE here:  https://vimeo.com/109360805

The University has championed the film as ‘an outstanding example of public engagement at BU’ and as ‘inspirational’ in the University’s Annual Report.

RUFUS STONE is based on three years of a Research Council UK funded study of the lives of older lesbians and gay men in south west England and Wales, a part of the national New Dynamics of Ageing Programme of research.

Winner of two awards at the prestigious Rhode Island International Film Festival in 2012, the film has gone on to be screened at film festivals, other universities in the UK, USA and Canada and by organisations such as Alzheimer’s Society UK, LGBT groups, and health, social and ageing support networks.

The film has been reported in the press widely, including in the New York Times, Times Higher Education, The Independent, BBC Radio 4 and local media.

RUFUS STONE was directed by Josh Appignanesi (The Infidel) and produced by Parkville Pictures, London. The film stars William Gaunt and Harry Kershaw, sharing the title role of “Rufus”. Niall Buggy and Tom Kane take on the part of Rufus’ love interest, “Flip”. Tattletale “Abigail”, a role shared by Lin Blakley and Martha Myers-Lowe, completes the triangle. The film cleverly interweaves each of the three main characters’ younger selves with their older selves. Gaunt commented: “It’s a sad and touching story, but also one about age and what it’s like to fall in love when you’re very young, and how that remains with you.”
 
Award-winning author and educator, Patricia Leavy, describes the plot in her review of the film for The Qualitative Report:
The film tells the story of a young man in rural England who, while developing an attraction to another young man, is viciously outed by small-minded village people. He flees to London and returns home 50 years later and is forced confront the people from his past and larger issues of identity and time. 

Leavy sums up: This film is as good as most Oscar-nominated shorts, and vastly superior to many. In my opinion, it is just about as good as a short film gets.”

Author and Executive Producer of RUFUS STONE, Dr, Kip Jones, has written widely in the academic press and elsewhere on the process of collecting the biographic material and subsequently his writing the story for the film. He has presented the film with follow-up Question and Answer sessions at prestigious institutions such as Cambridge, Birkbeck, Durham and Keele Universities in the UK.

Jones explains the process of creating composite characters based in the research and, indeed, in his own experience:
The naïveté of same-sex attraction and young love, too often forbidden and misunderstood love, was a story reported over and over again in our study and. therefore, became central to the plot of the film. By compositing these stories in RUFUS STONE, at last we remember them together, finally gaining strength in each other for something misunderstood and condemned from our isolated youthful experiences.

Jones is available by arrangement for Q&A discussions by Skype following screenings for larger audiences. Contact: Kip Jones mailto:kipworld@gmail.com

Trailer for the film: https://vimeo.com/43395306

Background on the research and making of the film: http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/rufus-stone/

Screenings of the film would be appropriate for a wide variety of audiences, including in undergraduate and graduate teaching, community groups, and LGBT and ageing support organisations. Length: 30 minutes.

Intrigued?   
View RUFUS STONE here:  https://vimeo.com/109360805

Friday 10 October 2014

Sage Publications’ Social Science Space features KIPWORLD article





















Sage Publications disseminates important research across the social science disciplines around the world. For the second time, Sage’s on line presence, Social Science Space, features an article by Bournemouth University’s Kip Jones.
 
“(The Grand Theory of) Neo Emotivism” is Jones’ take on the current state of mind of many researchers globally wishing to connect to their research “subjects” as well as to their own emotions. The article first appeared on Jones’ blog, KIPWORLD, where it has been viewed nearly 900 times in less than a month. The article went live today as the lead article on Social Science Space.
“’Neo-emotivism’ is a concept Kip Jones describes as intentionally using emotional responses for academic ends in large part by drawing from non-traditional sources like art and literature for inspiration and even vocabulary”. Fashioned in a tongue-in-cheek way after 19th and 20th Century art manifestos, the article makes it’s case by highlighting examples from a range of resources, including singer Jeff Buckley, composer Max Richter, artist Kazimir Malevich and architect Zada Hadid.
Thoughts for the article initially emerged from Jones’ interactions with fellow BU academics at a recent ARTS in Research (AiR) two-day workshop at Bournemouth University. Jones was surprised and encouraged by faculty and students, not only from Health & Social Care, but also from Media, Design, Engineering and Computing and Tourism with a similar ache to connect emotionally with their subjects and to acknowledge the “first person” in their dialogues. His concept of the “Pre-REFaelites” materialised from that encounter.
The ARTS in Research (AiR) cross-Schools collaborative will hold an additional two days of workshops at the Lighthouse in Poole led by artist-in-residence, Hazel Evans, on 20th and 21st November. Faculty and students from across schools and from outside of the University are encouraged to join us for the two days of creative engagement. More info