Mount Pleasant
FY2025– Present
Brian Madison Jones serves as Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of History at The Citadel: The Military College of South Carolina. As dean, Jones is responsible for the School’s strategic vision, financial health, and academic excellence, serving over 700 students across seven academic departments and more than 300 graduate students. Jones came to The Citadel in 2020, following twelve years at Johnson C. Smith University, where he served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters and was a James B. Duke Distinguished faculty member.
As an academic leader, Jones has developed curricula and other academic enrichment initiatives, emphasized faculty development, collaborated with governing boards, private foundations, and individual donors, overseen institutional grants, and presided over various leadership, program, and search committees. He has engaged in professional development opportunities through the American Council on Education (ACE), the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD), and the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE).
Jones earned a Bachelor of Arts (cum laude) in history from Appalachian State University, a Master of Arts in history from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a Doctor of Philosophy in history from Kansas State University. As a historian, his primary areas of scholarly study are post-war American history, the nuclear age, and the American presidency. He is the author of the book Abolishing the Taboo: Dwight D. Eisenhower and American Nuclear Doctrine (Helion & Co., Ltd, 2011) and has published articles in The Military-Industrial Complex and American Society and Encyclopedia of the Cold War: A Political, Social, and Military History. He served as a historical consultant for the 3 Road Communications production of “Rescue in the Philippines” (2013) and for A&E’s ‘Biography’ of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Dr. Jones has reviewed scholarly works for the Presidential Studies Quarterly, The North Carolina Historical Review, and The Journal of American History. He has received grants from the University of Michigan, the University of Arizona, and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library.
Dean Jones is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, and currently lives in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, with his wife, two daughters, and one quite formidable Airedale Terrier, Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (Ellie).
