{"id":29455,"date":"2026-05-08T10:40:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T14:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=29455"},"modified":"2026-05-08T11:24:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T15:24:37","slug":"drinko-academy-names-dr-robin-conley-riner-31st-distinguished-drinko-fellow-at-marshall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2026\/05\/drinko-academy-names-dr-robin-conley-riner-31st-distinguished-drinko-fellow-at-marshall\/","title":{"rendered":"Drinko Academy names Dr. Robin Conley Riner 31st Distinguished Drinko Fellow at Marshall"},"content":{"rendered":"
At the 2026 Drinko Symposium Saturday, May 2, the John Deaver Drinko Academy for American Political Institutions and Civic Culture announced that Dr. Robin Conley Riner, professor of anthropology, is the 31st Distinguished Drinko Fellow, which is the highest faculty honor bestowed by the university.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s 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 \u201cBenjamin Britten\u2019s Englishness: Remembered Pasts and Possible Futures.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symposium concluded with the announcement by Dr. Montserrat Miller, executive director of the Drinko Academy, that Riner is the 31st Drinko Fellow.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. 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,\u201d Miller said. \u201cShe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Riner\u2019s research explores language use within the context of institutional violence, and she provides linguistics consultation to legal practitioners. Her 2016 Oxford University Press book, \u201cConfronting the Death Penalty: How Language Influences Jurors in Capital Cases,\u201d 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 \u201cA New Companion to Linguistic Anthropology,\u201d \u201cJust Words: Law, Language, and Power,\u201d and \u201cLanguage and Social Justice in Practice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Riner will present the results of her fellowship work, which will bring together her anthropological and dance experience, at the university\u2019s 2028 Drinko Symposium.<\/p>\n

Next year\u2019s 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 \u201cCreating a Third World: Mexico, Cuba, and the United States during the Castro Era,\u201d \u201cThe History of El Salvador,\u201d \u201cA Global History of the Developing World,\u201d and \u201cThe War on Drugs in the Americas.\u201d He is also co-editor, with Kevin Barksdale, of \u201cAppalachian Epidemics: From Smallpox to COVID-19\u201d and the forthcoming \u201cConcealed West Virginia: An Interdisciplinary Study of Campus Carry.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the 2026 Drinko Symposium Saturday, May 2, the John Deaver Drinko Academy for American Political Institutions and Civic Culture announced that Dr. Robin Conley Riner, professor of anthropology, is the 31st Distinguished Drinko Fellow, which is the highest faculty honor bestowed by the university. Drinko Fellows receive a stipend and financial and clerical support […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29455"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29462,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29455\/revisions\/29462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}