Professor Turner is also Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the Graduate center CUNY; Professorial Fellow at the Australian Catholic University, Australia; Faculty Associate of the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University; Research Associate at the French National Centre for Scientific Research; Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and Member of the American Sociological Research Association.
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). He has held university appointments in England, Scotland, Australia, Germany, Holland, Singapore and the United States.
Recognising his contributions to Sociology, he has received several honorary degrees, most recently Doctor of Letters from the University of Cambridge. He recently received the Max Planck Research Award at Potsdam University and is a Visiting Professor at the same University.