420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1327 www.michigandaily.com NISA KHAN Editor in Chief 734-418-4115 ext. 1251 nisakhan@michigandaily.com JUEUI HONG Business Manager 734-418-4115 ext. 1241 jueuih@michigandaily.com EDITORIAL STAFF Dayton Hare Managing Editor haredayt@michigandaily.com Jennifer Meer Managing News Editor news@michigandaily.com SENIOR NEWS EDITORS: Andrew Hiyama, Kaela Theut Sarah Khan Editorial Page Editor tothedaily@michigandaily.com Jacob Shames Managing Sports Editor sportseditors@michigandaily.com Will Stewart Managing Arts Editor arts@michigandaily.com SENIOR ARTS EDITOR: Dom Polsinelli Alexis Rankin and Max Kuang Managing Photo Editors photo@michigandaily.com Michelle Phillips Managing Design Editor design@michigandaily.com Emily Miiller Managing Copy Editor copydesk@michigandaily.com SENIOR COPY EDITOR: Ashley Woonton Christian Paneda Managing MiC Editor michiganincolor@michigandaily.com Abe Lofy Managing Video Editor video@michigandaily.com Ishan Vashinta Managing Web Editor ivashi@michigandaily.com Ellie Homant Managing Social Media Editor CONTACT INFORMATION Newsroom Office hours: Sun.-Thurs. 11 a.m. - 2 a.m. 734-763-2459 opt.3 News Tips news@michigandaily.com Corrections corrections@michigandaily.com Letters to the Editor tothedaily@michigandaily.com or visit michigandaily.com/letters Photo Department photo@michigandaily.com Arts Section arts@michigandaily.com Editorial Page opinion@michigandaily.com Sports Section sports@michigandaily.com Magazine statement@michigandaily.com Advertising Phone: 734-418-4115 Department dailydisplay@gmail.com The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published every Thursday during the spring and summer terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $110. Winter term (January through April) is $115, yearlong (September through April) is $195. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. 2 Thursday, May 25, 2017 The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS Longtime law professor Martha Jones reflects on her 15 years at University Jones to relocate to Johns Hopkins after influential tenure at U-M By RIYAH BASHA Daily News Editor In her 15 years at the University of Michigan, History Prof. Martha Jones has invested much of herself into the campus community — and the return has not disappointed. As a co-director of the Law School’s program in Race, Law and History, former associate chair of the Department of Afroamerican and African Studies and, most recently this winter, her work as a Presidential Bicentennial professor with the landmark Stumbling Blocks exhibit — Jones has become somewhat of a stalwart in convening campus around issues of race and social justice. Jones arrived in Ann Arbor the day before 9/11, and — from the battle over affirmative action and Proposal 2 to Obama to Trump to the University’s contentious celebration of its 200th year — took part in molding the University in the years thereafter. This summer, though, Jones will relocate to Baltimore to join the history department at Johns Hopkins University. She joined the Daily for an exit interview of sorts, to reflect on her career at the University and the lessons she’s taken from this year, and decade, of powerful turbulence. TMD: You’re leaving us! Is the move to Baltimore for research on your new book, a change of scene, or both? MJ: 16 years is a long time to be someplace. The opportunities to be closer to my archives was really exciting, to have those things at my fingertips…. you can imagine Baltimore presents the kinds of opportunities and challenges similar to a city like Detroit. In a lot of ways at Michigan, I had — at least personally — accomplished a lot of the things I had hoped to accomplish, and more. It seemed like the right moment to think about a change. TMD: Your Stumbling Blocks exhibit really took ahold of campus this semester, and it was so interesting to watch those conversations unfold. What reactions did you find most compelling? MJ: Wow, after 18 months of planning and thinking, it was all very compelling. We were really lucky that the Sunday we set up Stumbling Blocks was warm and beautiful, and so while I thought we’d just be setting up, I had a chance to talk with people very informally. The first people I talked to were a mother from Chicago and her daughter, a Michigan student, and her younger daughter, who was thinking about college. They were African American, and we stood together in front of the chairs to talk about the history, the meaning of the chairs, what it’s like to be a student of color at Michigan. I watched one of my former students, who does tours for visitors and prospectives, give his spiel on the steps of the Union, and incorporate the sign on the front of the Union into students’ first introduction to the University. What we hoped for was just that, that people just slow down in places like the Diag, Ingalls Mall, the Union and stop, read, talk, look and look again. Some people won’t know how much goes on behind the scenes in order to create an installation like this. Memorable moments are the first night when it rained cats and dogs and the power went out on the exterior of the Union, and there was a team that worked with me in the mud getting the power back up. I knew I’d be out there, but the staff was out there, too. The last category, of course, is criticism. I learned a lot myself as a thinker, community member, a creative person about hanging in there for the hard conversations. The ones I was a party to were emblematic of our capacity to have hard conversations when we commit to them. And we walk away understanding each other better and building relationships that, I hope, bear fruit. Some people didn’t want them to ever come down, and I think the pop- up is important to show the real work isn’t in installations on the Diag. I think it was right to do it for a week and let it generate thought, be provocative and then send us back to do the work we do every day. TMD: The pop-up provided space for conversations and pause in a year where it seemed like we didn’t really have time to stop, where it felt like campus was always moving — especially after a year of multiple racist incidents. How is it that those singular, incendiary moments can take hold of an entire campus? What are your overall reflections on this year? MJ: This work on climate requires making a lot of noise, all the time. I think the reason that we survived this year was because people stepped up from all kinds of corners of campus and made a lot of noise, in a year where a lot of other institutions haven’t fared as well. That noise functioned in a way that was bigger than any one poster campaign or rally or pop-up. It was all of those things happening at once. An Expect Respect campaign was just a piece, but it was one piece of everything else, the counter-postering, the rallies around urgency and emergency. That’s not to say that we’ve reached the goal or solved all our concerns, but if it were my project for the future, I would be about continuing that noise. UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR MARTHA JONES COURTESY OF MARTHA JONES/Daily Read more at MichiganDaily.com