About
Patricia A. Turner, PhD
Patricia A. Turner is a folklorist who documents and analyzes the stories that define the African American experience.
An emeritus professor in World Arts and Cultures/Dance and African American Studies at UCLA, Turner is the author of five books on topics including rumors, legends, and conspiracy theories; African American quilters; and images of African Americans in popular culture. She is a 2021 recipient of the Linda Dégh Lifetime Achievement Award for legend scholarship. In 2023 she was awarded the inaugural Jalimuso Authors Award by the Sag Harbor Black Authors Festival.
Her latest book, Trash Talk: Anti-Obama Lore and Race in the Twenty-First Century, was published by the University of California Press in September 2022. According to Choice, “This is not a comforting book; it is a book that alerts one to important realities, so readers ignore it at their peril. Essential.” Trash Talk was recognized for second place by the American Folklore Society and University of Chicago for the 2023 Chicago Folklore Prize.
Dr. Turner’s commentary on issues related to race in America is frequently sought by print, radio, television and online journalists. She has been interviewed for stories in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, New Yorker, and many other prominent publications including the highly regarded fact checking website Snopes. Turner has participated in dozens of radio interviews including features on Fresh Air, Talk of the Nation, and All Things Considered. She has appeared on the NBC Nightly News, the CBS Evening News, the O’Reilly Factor and ABC’s 20/20. She has also been interviewed on podcasts such as Stitch Please and The Root.
Turner served on the faculty in the University of California system for more than 30 years. For much of her career she provided leadership in higher education serving in vice provost and dean roles at UC Davis and UCLA. Although she is retired, she holds the title of research professor, and is very active in professional societies devoted to folklore. She continues to support the team overseeing UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Legacy Project, an initiative she founded in 2015.
Although she spends most of the year in Los Angeles, she remains strongly connected to Sag Harbor and Bridgehampton, New York where she grew up; her next research project will focus on the communities of color based in those neighboring villages. From the under-documented migration of Virginia born blacks to the potato fields of Bridgehampton to the emergence of three Sag Harbor neighborhoods as havens for affluent African Americans in the 20th century, this work seeks to showcase the breadth and complexity of the black experience.
Whether she is in LA or on the eastern end of Long Island, she never misses an opportunity to take a Zumba class and can often be found on trails or beaches in search of birds.
