The Regulator welcomes Martha Jones, author of Birthright Citizens: A History of Race and Rights in Antebellum America, in conversation with Duke professor Deondra Rose (Citizens by Degree).

Birthright Citizens tells how African American activists radically transformed the terms of citizenship for all Americans. With fresh archival sources and an ambitious reframing of constitutional law-making before the Civil War, Jones shows how the Fourteenth Amendment constitutionalized the birthright principle, fulfilling the long-held aspirations of African Americans.

Martha S. Jones is the Society of Black Alumni Presidential Professor and Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University. She was formerly a Presidential Bicentennial Professor at the University of Michigan and was a founding director of the Michigan Law School Program in Race, Law & History. For more information, please visit www.marthasjones.com.  

Deondra Rose is an Assistant Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy with a secondary appointment in the Department of Political Science. In addition to U.S. public/social policy, Rose's research and teaching interests include higher education policy, American political development (APD), political behavior, identity politics (e.g., gender, race, and socioeconomic status), and inequality. She is the author of Citizens by Degree: Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Citizenship.