Cultural Sustainability

Rory Turner, Ph.D., is Academic Director for the Program for Cultural Sustainability, teaches courses in cultural anthropology and is a member of the International Scholars Program faculty at Goucher College. 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. Maryland Traditions developed a robust infrastructure for the study and support of traditional arts and culture in Maryland including grant programs, research, and partnerships resulting in the creation of cultural sustainability focused programs at Universities, arts councils and museums throughout the state, and award winning products such as the Bridge to Boardwalk audio journey of Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He is former president of the Middle Atlantic Folklife Association. Publications include articles, reviews and creative writing in such journals as Folklore Forum, Anthropology and Humanism, and TDR (The Drama Review).  He has served on grant review panels for the City of Baltimore, the Pennsylvania Commission for the Arts, the New Jersey State Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Michael Atwood Mason, Ph.D., is an anthropologist and the Chief of Exhibit Development and Project Management at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. He served as one of the co-curators of African Voices and Ritmos de Identidad exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, and he now manages the development of permanent exhibitions at Natural History. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, he has been studying the cultures of the African Diaspora  since 1987. His book, Living Santería: Rituals and Experiences in an Afro-Cuban Religion, was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press 2002.

Melissa McCloud, Ph.D., is the current Vice President of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Maryland. She has developed a new Center for Chesapeake Studies and specializes in the relationship between culture and nature on the Chesapeake Bay. Her areas of expertise include interpretive planning, public history, American landscape and architectural history, and exhibit development. She has worked in numerous museum settings as well as at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and the National Building Museum,  and is extensively experienced in outreach, education, exhibits, and program creation. Previously she taught at Catholic University and George Washington University, and has published extensively in her field. She received her Ph.D. from George Washington University and currently lives in Easton, Maryland.

Jon Lohman, Ph.D., is the Director of the  Virginia Folklife Program at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, where he serves as a resource to all Virginians on inquiries regarding folkways, community events, cultural centers, and other activities. He is the author of numerous public publications, including the critically acclaimed Music of Coal (Wise County) and Making Decoys the Age Old Way (Eastern Shore). He created the Virginia Folklife Apprenticeship Program, which has paired over 50 traditional folk “master artists” with apprentices to help ensure that these treasured Virginia Folkways continue into the future, and he continues to conduct ethnographic fieldwork into traditional cultural communities in Virginia. He is actively engaged in the fields of ethnomusicology—particularly vernacular music of the South and Appalaichia—and folk and public art, and produces a number of traditional music festivals and recordings (including the Independent Music Award’s “Gospel Album of the Year”).  He has taught at Mary Washington College and University of Pennsylvania, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Harold A. Anderson, Ph.D., teaches Cultural Anthropology at Bowie State University in Maryland and has been a researcher/curator for a number of museums and organizations, including the Maryland Historical Trust/Maryland State Arts Council, Prince George’s County African-American Museum, and Arlington County Cultural Affairs, among others. He was a Mozart Fellow at Otago University in New Zealand—a prestigious residency for composers—and earned his Ph.D. in ethnomusicology at University of Maryland College Park. He has published extensively on the traditions of African-American watermen and maritime communities in the Chesapeake region. He has written numerous reports on endangered folkways for prestigious national institutions like the Smithsonian, and has done extensive fieldwork both in the U.S. and in New Zealand. Harold is also an accomplished composer and award winning jazz bassist.

Guha Shankar Folklife Specialist, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin (2003), Department of Anthropology (Concentration in Folklore and Public Culture); M.A., University of Texas, Austin (1996), Folklore and Public Culture, Department of Anthropology; B.A., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1982), Radio Television and Motion Pictures & Political Science.

Experience and training in media production, digital assets management, intellectual property and cultural heritage management for traditional communities, public programs and educational outreach (festivals, concerts, symposia and seminars), teaching documentary field methods for community cultural heritage initiatives. Research interests include diasporic community formations in the Caribbean, ethnographic media, visual representation, and performance studies.