Drinko Fellows receive a stipend and financial and clerical support from the Drinko Academy for two years. During those two years, Drinko Fellows conduct research, engage in creative production or work on special projects.
This year’s Drinko Symposium was attended by more than 200 faculty, staff, administrators, and community members who gathered in the Don Morris Room of the Memorial Student Center for a formal dinner and a multimedia presentation by 29th Drinko Fellow Dr. Vicki Stroeher about her two-year project on “Benjamin Britten’s Englishness: Remembered Pasts and Possible Futures.”
The symposium concluded with the announcement by Dr. Montserrat Miller, executive director of the Drinko Academy, that Riner is the 31st Drinko Fellow.
“Dr. Robin Conley Riner is an exemplary faculty member in every respect. She excels in her work with students, is a world-class scholar in the field of linguistic anthropology, and a public intellectual who has worked with colleagues to develop programming aimed at addressing the trauma of military veterans in our area,” Miller said. “She is also a respected campus leader, who serves as the faculty representative to the Marshall Board of Governors, and also as the faculty ombud for the university.”
Riner earned her Ph.D. in anthropology with a focus on linguistic anthropology from the University of California at Los Angeles in 2011 and her B.A. in anthropology and linguistics from New York University in 2002. She teaches anthropology and is a part-time professor of dance at Marshall. She has performed professionally across the country, and her choreography has been showcased at the West Virginia Dance Festival, the Southern Ohio Dance Festival, and the Huntington Music & Arts Festival.
Riner’s research explores language use within the context of institutional violence, and she provides linguistics consultation to legal practitioners. Her 2016 Oxford University Press book, “Confronting the Death Penalty: How Language Influences Jurors in Capital Cases,” explores how capital jurors use language to counter moments of empathy they share with defendants to justify their decisions for death. She has also co-authored and edited books on linguistic anthropology, language and law, and social justice, including “A New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology,” “Just Words: Law, Language, and Power,” and “Language and Social Justice in Practice.”
Riner also works to understand the experiences of military veterans and improve their post-service lives. Her research projects have been funded by the West Virginia Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). She received two NEA grants to produce immersive theater performances with local veterans in collaboration with community artists and Marshall University students.
Riner will present the results of her fellowship work, which will bring together her anthropological and dance experience, at the university’s 2028 Drinko Symposium.
Next year’s symposium will feature the work of 30th Drinko Fellow Dr. Chris White, a professor of history at Marshall University who has authored four books, including “Creating a Third World: Mexico, Cuba, and the United States during the Castro Era,” “The History of El Salvador,” “A Global History of the Developing World,” and “The War on Drugs in the Americas.” He is also co-editor, with Kevin Barksdale, of “Appalachian Epidemics: From Smallpox to COVID-19” and the forthcoming “Concealed West Virginia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Campus Carry.”