Journey to Southern Africa

Patricia A. Turner is a professor in African American Studies and World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA; her research focuses on racial dynamics as they surface in folklore and popular culture. The author of five books, her most recent ones are Trash Talk: Anti-Obama Lore and Race in the Twenty-First Century and Crafted Lives: Stories and Studies of African American Quilters. Her work on Africa has largely focused on textile traditions in South Africa; she was an advisor on quilt exhibitions dedicated to Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. She authored the introductory essay in Conscience of the Human Spirit: The Life of Nelson Mandela. Recently, she and a team of colleagues have been documenting and analyzing UCLA Bruin Arthur Ashe’s engagement with African tennis, politics, and youth empowerment movements. Her commentary on issues related to race 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. 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, The Young Turks, and The Root. For much of her career she was a university administrator serving in vice provost and dean roles at UC Davis and UCLA. She is very active in professional societies devoted to folklore and oversees UCLA’s Arthur Ashe Legacy Project.