Bryan Turner (sociologist)

Bryan Stanley Turner (born 16 January 1945) is a British, Australian, Singaporean, and American sociologist. He is particularly known for his work on the sociology of religion, on Max Weber, and in comparative sociology, and he is Presidential Professor emeritus at The Graduate Center, City University of New York. He was a founding editor of the journals Body & Society, Citizenship Studies, and the Journal of Classical Sociology.

Early life and education

Bryan Stanley Turner was born on 16 January 1945^[1] in Birmingham, England.^[2] Turner attended Harborne Collegiate School for Boys and George Dixon Grammar School.

He went on to the University of Leeds, where he completed a first class honours degree in sociology in 1966. He received his PhD at the University of Leeds in 1970 with a thesis titled "The Decline of Methodism: an analysis of religious commitment and organisation" and supervised by A. P. M. Coxon and R. Towler.^[3]

Career

Professor Turner's research interests include sociological theory, sociology of globalisation and religion, concentrating on such issues as religious conflict and the modern state, religious authority and electronic information, religious consumerism and youth cultures, human rights and religion, the human body, medical change, and religious cosmologies.^[2]

Turner wrote his first book Weber and Islam^[4] in 1974 and has since established an international reputation for his work on religion, Max Weber and comparative sociology.^[5] He was a founding editor of the journals Body & Society (with Mike Featherstone), Citizenship Studies, and the Journal of Classical Sociology (with John O'Neill). He is also an editorial member of numerous journals including The British Journal of Sociology, the European Journal of Social Theory, Contemporary Islam and the Journal of Human Rights.^[6] He is the editor of two book series for Anthem Press: Key Issues in Modern Sociology and Tracts for Our Times; he is also editor of the series Religion in Contemporary Asia for Routledge.

Turner has held university appointments in England, Scotland, Australia, Germany, Holland, Singapore and the United States. He was a dean of the faculty of the arts at Deakin University.^[7] He was a professor of sociology at the University of Cambridge (1998–2005) and research team leader for the Religion Cluster at the Asian Research Institute, National University of Singapore (2005–2008).^[8] From 2009, he was professor of social and political thought at Western Sydney University as well as a visiting professor at Wellesley College.^[7] In 2010, he left the Wellesley position to become Presidential Professor of Sociology and Director of the Religion Committee at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York (CUNY).^[9] In 2015, he was still at CUNY and was also professor of the sociology of religion at and director of the Institute for Religion, Politics and Society at the Australian Catholic University.^[10]

He has also been a faculty associate of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University,^[11] a research associate of GEMASS at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique,^[12] a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1987,^[7] a Member of the American Sociological Research Association,^[13] president of The Australian Sociological Association 1995–1996,^[9] and a distinguished honorary fellow of the Edward Cadbury Center at the University of Birmingham.^[13]

Turner has received several honorary degrees recognising his contributions to sociology: a Doctor of Letters at Flinders University in 1987, Master of Arts at the University of Cambridge in 2002, and Doctor of Letters at the University of Cambridge in 2009.^[13]

Professional recognition

Selected bibliography

References