Rory Turner is a Professor of Practice in Goucher College's Center for People, Politics, and Markets and teaches in the Sociology/Anthropology program. He designed, launched and continues to teach in Goucher College's Master of the Arts in Cultural Sustainability Program. Formerly Program Director for Folk and Traditional Arts and Program Initiative Specialist at the Maryland State Arts Council, he co-founded and directed the Maryland Traditions program from 2000-2007. He also founded and subsequently revived the Baltimore Rhythm Festival. Publications include articles, reviews and creative writing in such journals as Folklore Forum, Journal of Folklore Research, Anthropology and Humanism, and TDR (The Drama Review).
My work centers around understanding and building sustaining communities and projects flowing from deep ethnographic encounter and partnership with people in ethical relationship. My work has involved literary, theoretical, and ethnographic writing, and the creation of events and programs that foster transformative experiences and deeper understanding and empathy between and within communities.
Article. Cultural Sustainability: A Framework for Relationships, Understanding, and Action co-written with Michael A. Mason Journal of American Folklore.
Book Chapter: “The Critique of Being: Diverse Environmentalisms and Sustainable Lives in the Anthropocene” for Performing Diverse Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture at the Crux of Ecological Change edited by John McDowell, Indiana University Press
Book chapter: “Radical Critical Empathy and Cultural Sustainability” In Music and Sustainable Cultures edited by Timothy J. Cooley, pp. 32-42. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press. 2019.
Book chapter: "Talking about the Weather Radical Critical Empathy and the Reality of Communitas" In The Intellectual Legacy of Victor and Edith Turner edited by Frank A. Salamone, Marjorie M. Snipes, pp. 3-13. New York: Lexington Books. 2018.
Book review: The Painted Screens of Baltimore: An Urban Folk Art Revealed. Elaine Eff. Journal of Folklore Research. 2015. http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jfrr/article/view/38608/40904
CFCH at the Heart of America. Smithsonian Folklife Festival Festival Blog. 2013. Retrieved June 16, 2014. (http://www.festival.si.edu/blog/2013/cfch-at-the-heart-of-america/)
Eff, Elaine and Rory Turner Introduction to Culture at a Crossroads: Mid-Maryland Traditions, by Allison Kahn, 1-3. Frederick: Catoctin Center for Regional Studies. 2012.
Book review: A Bird Dance near Saturday City: Sidi Ballo and the Art of West African Masquerade. Patrick R. McNaughton. Journal of Folklore Research Reviews. 2011. http://scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/index.php/jfrr/article/view/39146/41462
From Bridge to Boardwalk: An Audio Journey Across Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Co-Project Director, Baltimore: Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. 2004.
Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions of the Delmarva Peninsula: A Resource Guide. Contributing Editor, Baltimore: Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation. 2003.
A Sense of Presence. Anthropology and Humanism. 26(2):188-189. 2001.
Our Fathers. Anthropology and Humanism. 23(3). 1998.
Civil War Folklore. In American Folklore: An Encyclopedia, ed. Jan Harold Brunvand. Detroit: Garland Press. 1996.
Film review essay: Owu: Chidi joins the Okoroshi Secret Society. African Arts XXIX(3):75. 1996.
Poems from Ukpo. Anthropology and Humanism. 20(1):66-67. 1995.
Book review: The Social Basis of Health and Healing in Africa. Steven Feierman and John M. Janzen. American Ethnologist, 21: 953–954. 1994.
Festivals: Restoration as Performing Art. Restoration and Management Notes 10(2):177-180. 1993.
The Human Life: Vistas and Verdicts by Okechukwu Ogbuka, editor. Onitsha, Nigeria: Hybrid Press. 1993.
Bloodless Battles: The Civil War Reenacted. TDR 34 (4):123-136. 1990.
Cultural Performances: Public Display Events and Festivals. In The Emergence of Folklore in Everyday Life, ed. George Schoemaker. Bloomington, In: Trickster Press, pp. 83-93. 1990.
The Play of History: Civil War Reenactments and their use of the Past. Folklore Forum 22 (1):54-61. 1989.
Subjects and Symbols: Transformations of Identity in Nights at the Circus. Folklore Forum 20 (1): 39-60. 1987.
I have been co-directing the Baltimore Rhythm Festival since 2014. Baltimorerhythmfestival.org
“The Communitas of Resistance” American Anthropology Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, Dec 6, 2017
“Baltimore Rhythm Festival as Applied Existential Folklore”, poster at Society for Applied Anthropology, Santa Fe, NM, March 29, 2017
“Culture-making in the Anthropocene: Participation and Diverse Environmentalisms” paper delivered at Performing Diverse Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture at the Crux of Ecological Change Symposium at Indiana University, March 3, 2017
“Cultural Existentialism and the Enactment of Participation; Or Pathetic Fallacies, All the Way Down.” Forum presentation in Folklore and “Environmental Humanities”: Rich Pasts, Future Engagements, at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in Miami, FL. Oct. 21. 2016
Gallery Talk for Held from Beneath: An Exploration of Cultural Sustainability Carnegie Center for Arts and History, New Albany, IN March 19, 2015.
“The Outcomes of Learning Folklore” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Long Beach, CA. Oct. 16, 2016
“Cultural Sustainability: A Life Lesson.” Baltimore Living Building Challenge Collaborative Meeting, Hunt Valley, MD March, 25, 2014.
“Cultural Sustainability Perspectives: Transformative Action from the Heart”, The Carnegie Center for Art & History, New Albany, IN June 4, 2014.
Diamond Session Presentation: Lessons from the Baltimore Rhythm Festival, American Folklore Association, Nov. 7, 2014.
“Talking About the Weather,” American Anthropology Association Annual Meeting, Washington DC, Dec 6, 2014.
Moderator for “Cultural Sustainability, Successful Organizational Models” Forum at the American Folklore Society Annual Conference in Providence, RI on Oct. 18, 2013
“Cultural Sustainability and Post-Capitalism.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, New Orleans, LA Oct. 27, 2012
Cultural Sustainability: Programs, Projects and Practices of Folklorists and Their Cultural Community Partners. Forum Participant Oct. 25. 2012 at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society in New Orleans, LA.
“Breaking Bubbles, Changing Lives: Ethnography, Practice and Project Based Pedagogy at Goucher College.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology, March 28, 2012 in Baltimore, MD
“Communitas Revisited.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct. 15, 2011 in Bloomington, IN
“Cultural Sustainability: A Collaborative Inquiry.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct 15, 2010 in Nashville, TN
“Cultural Sustainability: Beginnings.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct 24, 2009 in Boise, ID
Discussant: Maryland Traditions Roundtable, Annual meeting of the American Folklore Society October 24, 2008 in Louisville, KY
“Appreciation, Capability, Positive Psychology: Theorizing Public Folklore As Cultural Health.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct. 19, 2007 in Quebec City, Quebec
“Maryland Traditions Discovered” poster session, chair, presenter at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct. 2005 in Atlanta, GA
“Reframing Folklore: Post Folk Presence and the Re-Emergence of Community.” Paper delivered at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct.11, 2003 in Albuquerque, NM
Forum Convener. Lessons from the Delmarva Project. Forum at annual meeting of the American Folklore Society, Oct. 18, 2003 in Rochester, New York
Discussant. Anthropology Undisciplined: Essays in Honor of Edie Turner. Panel at annual meeting of the American Anthropology Association, December 1, 2001 in Washington D.C.
“Culture-making in the Anthropocene: Participation and Diverse Environmentalisms” paper delivered at Performing Diverse Environmentalisms: Expressive Culture at the Crux of Ecological Change Symposium at Indiana University, March 3, 2017
“Digging in the Dirt of the Landscape of Cultural Sustainability.” Plenary Keynote Lecture delivered at the American Folklore Society Annual Conference on Oct. 16, 2013 in Providence, RI.
Concluding Keynote Talk at Sequestering Tradition?: A Cultural Sustainability Symposium Sterling College, Craftsbury Common, VT August 18, 2013.
Invited Panelist. Making Ecology Work: Professional Environmental Practices as part of GMU Cultural Studies Graduate Student Conference, Sept. 23, 2011 in Fairfax, VA.
Invited Talk on Music and Cultural Sustainability, May 19, 2011, Portland State University
Keynote Address for the Arkansas Arts Council Artslink Conference Oct. 25, 2010, Little Rock, AR
Invited panelist: Folklore's Futures: Scholarship and Practice, American Folklore Society Pre-Conference symposium, Oct. 18, 2006 in Milwaukee, WI
Society for Applied Anthropology
American Anthropological Association
American Folklore Society
Middle Atlantic Folklife Association
Society for Humanistic Anthropology
“Rory Turner is one of the wisest people I have ever met... Rory has individualized goals and learning outcomes for each student in his many classes. Rory loves his students as people, and wants what's best for their humanity as well as their academic success.”