Spot Lyte On...Dr. Richard Brent Turner PHD
Dr. Turner joined the University of Iowa faculty in 2001 and holds appointments in Department of Religious Studies, African American Studies Program, and International Programs.
His research program focuses on twentieth-century and contemporary African-American religious history and African diaspora religions in the Black Atlantic world. He is especially interested in the following areas: Islam in the United States; religion and music in New Orleans, before and after Hurricane Katrina; Vodou in the United States and Haiti; interactions between African-American religion and popular music — jazz, soul, and hip hop; black nationalism and religion; African-American religion and human rights; ethnography; urban religious experience; and globalization and transnationalism.
Dr. Turner is currently working on a book project on African-American religion and music in the 1960s. He is a member of American Academy of Religion, American Anthropological Association, Association for Africanist Anthropology, and is on the board of directors of KOSANBA, an international scholarly association for the study of Haitian Vodou.