Keynote: Robert P. Jones

Lakeside welcomes Robert P. Jones, President and founder of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI), as Keynote Speaker at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, June 20 in Hoover Auditorium. A book signing will immediately follow his presentation.

Jones is the author of the New York Times bestseller The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy and the Path to a Shared American Future (published in 2023), as well as White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity, which won a 2021 American Book Award. He is also the author of The End of White Christian America, which won the 2019 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Shop for his books at The Fine Print Lakeside.

Jones writes regularly on politics, culture and religion for The Atlantic, TIME, Religion News Service and other outlets. He is frequently featured in major national media, such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post and others.

Jones writes a weekly newsletter for those dedicated to the work of truth-telling, repair and healing from the legacy of white supremacy in American Christianity.

He holds a PhD in religion from Emory University, a Master of Divinity from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in computing science and mathematics from Mississippi College.

Jones was selected by Emory University’s Graduate Division of Religion as Distinguished Alumnus of the Year in 2013 and by Mississippi College’s Mathematics Department as Alumnus of the Year in 2016.

He serves on the national program committee for the American Academy of Religion and is a past member of the editorial boards for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and Politics and Religion, a journal of the American Political Science Association.

Jones served as CEO of PRRI from the organization’s inception in 2009 to 2022. Before founding PRRI, he worked as a consultant and senior research fellow at several think tanks in Washington, D.C., and was an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University.