Sociology

Anthony J. Stone

Assistant Professor

901.678.3341 Clement 209 ajstone1@memphis.edu

Dr. Anthony Jerome Stone Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Memphis. His research draws together Black Sociology, social psychology, cultural sociology, and interdisciplinary knowledges to examine how race, racism, and culture function as social processes of meaning-making. Using multiple methods, he studies how racial meanings are produced, circulated, interpreted, negotiated, and contested across cultural, interactional, and institutional settings. His primary research centers Black men’s interpretations of racially gendered representations while treating Black men and other racialized communities as active interpreters and producers of knowledge.

His current research is developing a framework for understanding Black men’s knowledge production and interpretive practices. Other projects examine digital Black placemaking and collective experience, the interactional production of racial ambiguity, and how race and class shape attachment to unequal cities. Across related work on health, education, immigration, and public memory, he also considers how institutions and public narratives produce knowledge about racialized communities.

His research has been published in Information, Communication, & Society, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities, Studies in Symbolic Interaction, and the Journal of Communication & Religion. His co-edited book Sociology and Hip Hop: An Anthology is available from Cognella (2021).

Dr. Stone’s areas of expertise include Race & Racisms, Social Psychology, Sociology of Media & Culture, Gender, and Qualitative Methods.

He teaches undergraduate courses, including Racial/Ethnic Minorities and Hip Hop & Sociology. At the graduate level, Dr. Stone teaches the Urban Theory Seminar, Black Sociology, and Media Sociology.

Publications

Toney, Kierra N., and Anthony J. Stone Jr. Forthcoming. “Between Pride and Pity: Black Students' Affect and Cultural Mistrust of U.S. History Curricula.” In Impacts of Cultural Mistrust in Education, Work, and Identity Politics, edited by C. Sloss and M. Grier. Hershey, PA: IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Stone Jr., Anthony J., Madeline Arriaza, Claire Brindley, Elliot Meador, Wesley James, and Karen Matthews. 2025. “‘You’re Not Dealing with What We’re Dealing with’: COVID-19 Hesitancies and Motivations Among Late Vaccinating Black Americans in the Deep South.” Online. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-025-02479-6

Stone Jr., Anthony J. 2025. “‘Cuz This is What it Feels Like’: Black Men’s Affective Decodings and Reflections of Film.” Information, Communication, & Society. 29(1): 289-305. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2508937

Wright II, Earl, Kierra Toney, Keri Eason, and Anthony J. Stone Jr. (eds.). 2021. Sociology and Hip Hop: An Anthology (1st edition). San Diego, CA: Cognella.

Stone Jr., Anthony J. and Carol Rambo. 2021. “Surviving Racism & Genocide: Native American Caricature Iconography and Racial Formation Projects.” Pp. 91-115 in Studies in Symbolic Interaction Vol. 54, edited by N.K. Denzin and S.L. Chen. Bingley: Emerald Publishing Limited.

Johnson, Andre E. and Anthony J. Stone Jr. 2018. "The Most Dangerous Negro in America: Rhetoric, Race and the Prophetic Pessimism of Martin Luther King Jr." Journal of Communication & Religion, 41(1): 8-22.