Kurt C. Dewhurst

C. Kurt Dewhurst, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Arts and Cultural Initiatives and Senior Fellow, University Outreach & Engagement, and Curator of Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Michigan State University Museum and Professor of English at Michigan State University. He is also Director Emeritus of the MSU Museum. A founder of the folk and traditional arts programs at the museum, he coordinates a variety of folklife research, collection development, and outreach & engagement programs. He is one of the founding directors of the Festival of Michigan Folklife, a coordinator for the National Folk Festival when it was in East Lansing, and is a founding director for the Great Lakes Folk Festival.  His research interests include folk arts, material culture, ethnicity, occupational folk culture, and cultural economic development, and cultural heritage policy.  He is the author and co-author of numerous books and exhibition catalogues.