Richard Turner, Department of Religious Studies -- The University of Iowa

314 Gilmore Hall • Iowa City, IA 52242 • 319-335-2164

Curriculum Vitae
Richard Turner

Business Address:
Department of Religious Studies
310 Gilmore Hall
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

Phone: 319-335-2175

E-mail: richard-turner@uiowa.edu

EDUCATION

Ph.D. (Religion) Princeton University, 1986
M.A., (Religion) Princeton University, 1983
M.A., (Afro-American Studies) Boston University, 1976
A.B., (Religion) Boston University, 1976

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

Coordinator, African American Studies, University of Iowa, 2005-2006.

Associate Professor, African-American World Studies and School of Religion (now Department of Religious Studies), University of Iowa, 2001-present

Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies, DePaul University, 1999-2001

Assistant Professor, Department of Theology, Xavier University, 1996-1999

Associate, W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African American Research, Harvard University, 1988-1989

Assistant Professor, University of California Santa Barbara, 1986-1996

AWARDS AND HONORS

DePaul Humanities Center Fellowship, 2000-2001; Faculty Research and Development Committee Grant, 2000-2001 “Religion, Music and Identity in Black New Orleans”

Resident Fellow, Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UC Santa Barbara, 1989-1990

Jonathan Edwards Stipend, Princeton University, 1980-1984

TEACHING

Courses recently taught
032:063 African-American Islam in International Perspective
129:060 Introduction to African-American Society
32:126 Readings in Twentieth-Century African-American Religion: Civil Rights to Hip Hop

RESEARCH

Books
Islam in the African-American Experience (Indiana University Press, Revised Second Edition with New Introduction, Bibliography and Visuals, 2003).

Islam in the African-American Experience (Indiana University Press, 1997), 300 pages.

Journal articles and book chapters
“The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston as Initiate Observer," in Claudine Michel and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, eds., Vodou in Haitian Life: Invisible Powers (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). (Book chapter in press).

“Religious Communities and Practices,” Encyclopedia of African American History: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-First Century (1896-2005) (Oxford University Press, 2005), (Article in press).

“Islam and African Americans,” in Kwame Anthony Appiah and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., eds., Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience (Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 307-309.

“Black Islam,” Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Second Edition, (Elsevier Ltd., U.K. 2005).

“Islam in the African-American Experience,” Jacqueline Bobo, Cynthia Hudley, Claudine Michel, eds., The Black Studies Reader (Routledge, 2004), pp. 445-471.

“Mardi Gras Indians and Second Lines, Sequin Artists, and Rara Bands: Street Festivals and Performances in New Orleans and Haiti,” Journal of Haitian Studies, Vol. 9, No. 1 (2003), pp. 124-156.

“The Haiti-New Orleans Vodou Connection: Zora Neale Hurston As Initiate Observer,” Journal of Haitian Studies, Vol. 8, No. 1 (2002), pp. 112-133.

“Islam in the African-American Experience,” Claudine Michel and Jacqueline Bobo, eds. Black Studies: Currrent Issues, Enduring Questions, (Kendall/Hunt, 2001) pp. 244-271.

“African Muslim Slaves, The Nation of Islam and The Bible: Identity, Resistance and Transatlantic Spritual Struggles in African Americans and The Bible,” edited by Vincent Wimbush, African-Americans and the Bible: Sacred Text and Social Texture, (New York: Continuum, 2000), pp. 282-303.

“Pre-Twentieth Century Islam,” Larry G. Murphy ed. Down By the Riverside: Readings in African-American Religion, (N.Y.U. Press, 2000), pp. 69-80.

“Islam and African Americans”, Microsoft Encarta Africana, 1999.

“Mainstream Islam in the African-American Experience”, International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World Newsletter , Leiden, The Netherlands (Summer 1999) and Middle East Affairs Journal (Summer-Fall 1999) pp. 35-41.

“Edward Wilmot Blyden and Pan Africanism” The Muslim World Vol. LXXXVII, No. 2 (April 1997), pp. 169-182.

“Kwandulukwa Ntu: An African-American Initiation Rite for Girls” Journal of Ritual Studies Vol. 9, No. 2 (Summer 1995), pp. 93-108.

“What Shall We Call Him: Islam and African American Identity,” Journal of Religious Thought Vol. 51, No. 1 (1995), pp. 1-28.

Selected invited papers and addresses
“African Americans and Islam,” Central District Forum for Arts and Ideas: American Heritage Series, Seattle, Washington, December 2005.

“African-American Islam: Past, Present, and Future,” Organization of American Historians National Meeting, San Jose, California, April 2005.

“The Spread of Islam Among African Americans,” University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, April 2005.

“The Politics of Hip Hop,” Panel Discussion with Mark Anthony Neale, Raquel Cepeda, and Kembrew McLeod, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, April 2005.

“Social Activism and American Religion” panel, Missouri Valley Historial Conference, Omaha, Nebraska, March 2005.

“Constructing Masculinity: Interactions between Islam and African-American Youth Since C. Eric Lincoln, The Black Muslims in America,” American Academy of Religion National Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, November 2004.

“African-American Islam: Past, Present, and Future,” Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, March 2004.

“African-American Islam: Past, Present, and Future,” Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, February 2004.

“African-American Islam: Past, Present, and Future,” Williams College, Williamstown, MA, January 2004.

“Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and the Hip Hop Community,” Luther College, Decorah, Iowa, January 2004.

“Academic and Popular Images of African-American Islam, 1920-1945,” American Academy of Religion National Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, November 2003.

“Mardi Gras Indians and Second Lines/Sequin Artists and Rara Bands: Street Festivals and Performance in New Orleanian and Haitian Vodou,” Nova Southeastern University, The Congress of Santa Barbara Fifth International Colloquium, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, June 2003.

“Religion, Politics, and Violence: The Case of African-American Islam.” The University of Iowa, School of Religion, Iowa City, Iowa, September 2001.

“In Rhythm with the Spirit: Religion, Music, and Identity in Black New Orleans.” The University of Iowa, School of Religion, Iowa City, Iowa, March 2001.

“Islam in the African-American Experience: Past, Present, and Future.” University of Kentucky, African-American Studies and Research Program, Lexington, Kentucky, February 2001.

“Islam in the African-American Experience, Past, Present, and Future.” The University of Iowa, African-American World Studies Department, Iowa City, Iowa, May 2000.

“In Rhythm with the Spirit: Religion, Music, and Identity in Black New Orleans.” African and African Diaspora Studies Lecture Series, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, April 2000.

“Islam in the African American Experience Past, Present and Future,” Indiana University, Bloomington, February 2000.

“Islam in the African American Experience: 1963-Present,” Blackside, Inc. Film and Television Production School, Cambridge, MA, October 1999.

“African American Agape: The Concept of Divine Love in African American Theology,” Amistad Research Center, Tulane University, July 1999.

“Islam in America: The Ahmadiyyah Contribution,” Ahmadiyyah Movement in Islam, National Convention, Silver Springs, MD, June 1998.

“The Route of Islam in African-American History,” American Society of Church History, Chicago, IL, January 1995.

“History of Islam in Black America,” Northeast seminar on Black Religion, Harvard University, October 1988.

“An Analysis of the Moorish Science Temple in the 1920s,” American Academy of Religion, Boston, MA, November 1987.

Current and recent research interests
I am currently working on a new book project, Religion, Music, and Identity in Black New Orleans.

SERVICE

Departmental service
Religious Studies Promotion and Tenure Committee, 2005
Religious Studies Faculty Peer Review Committee, 2004
Religious Studies Islam Tenure Track Search Committee, 2003-04
Religious Studies Islamic Lecturer Search Committee, 2003
Religious Studies Graduate Committee, 2002-

Professional service
Advisory Group, African Americans and the Bible research project, Union Theological Seminary, 2001.
Consultant, PBS documentary, “This Far by Faith,” produced by Blackside Inc., 1997
Review panelist, Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowships for Minorities, National Research Council, 2001, 2003, 2004.

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