diff --git a/.rspec b/.rspec
index 847008d9a4..34c5164d9b 100644
--- a/.rspec
+++ b/.rspec
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 --format documentation
 --color
-#--require spec_helper
+--require spec_helper
diff --git a/spec/features/catalog_spec.rb b/spec/features/catalog_spec.rb
index 74aeaf774f..4dfe22cad6 100644
--- a/spec/features/catalog_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/features/catalog_spec.rb
@@ -164,7 +164,7 @@ def expect_poster(id)
     it 'works' do
       visit '/catalog/1234.pbcore'
       expect(page.status_code).to eq(200)
-      expect(page.source).to eq(File.read(File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__)) + '/fixtures/pbcore/clean-MOCK.xml'))
+      expect(page.source).to eq(File.read(Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/pbcore/clean-MOCK.xml'))
       expect(page.response_headers['Content-Type']).to eq('text/xml; charset=utf-8')
     end
   end
diff --git a/spec/features/media_spec.rb b/spec/features/media_spec.rb
index 987bd0f408..03c62d1755 100644
--- a/spec/features/media_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/features/media_spec.rb
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
   TARGET = 'lorem ipsum'
 
   def safe_ci
-    credentials_path = File.dirname(File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__))) + '/config/ci.yml'
+    credentials_path = Rails.root + 'config/ci.yml'
     ci = Ci.new(credentials_path: credentials_path)
     fail 'Workspace must be empty' unless ci.list_names.empty?
     ci
diff --git a/spec/models/vocab_map_spec.rb b/spec/models/vocab_map_spec.rb
index e37e25f475..9992147e7d 100644
--- a/spec/models/vocab_map_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/models/vocab_map_spec.rb
@@ -2,13 +2,13 @@
 require_relative '../../app/models/vocab_map'
 
 describe VocabMap do
-  fixtures = File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__)) + '/fixtures/vocab-maps'
+  fixtures = Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/vocab-maps/'
 
   # TODO: test xml processing, particularly attribute values.
 
   describe 'when the map is good' do
     describe 'acceptance' do
-      [File.dirname(File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__))) + '/config/vocab-maps',
+      [Rails.root + 'config/vocab-maps',
        fixtures].each do |dir|
         Dir["#{dir}/*"].reject { |file| file =~ /bad-/ }.each do |yaml|
           it "accepts #{yaml}" do
@@ -19,17 +19,17 @@
     end
 
     it '#authorized_names' do
-      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/good-ordinal-map.yml')
+      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'good-ordinal-map.yml')
       expect(map.authorized_names).to eq ['erste', 'zweite', 'dritte', 'undefined']
     end
 
     it 'implicitly case-normalizes' do
-      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/good-map.yml')
+      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'good-map.yml')
       expect(map.map_string('YesThisIsRight')).to eq 'yesTHISisRIGHT'
     end
 
     it 'maps text nodes' do
-      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/good-map.yml')
+      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'good-map.yml')
 
       doc = REXML::Document.new('<doc><element>foo</element></doc>')
       nodes = REXML::XPath.match(doc, '/doc/element')
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
     end
 
     it 'maps attribute values' do
-      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/good-map.yml')
+      map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'good-map.yml')
 
       doc = REXML::Document.new('<doc attr="foo"></doc>')
       nodes = REXML::XPath.match(doc, '/doc/@attr')
@@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
     end
 
     it 'reorders by mapped attribute value' do
-      card_map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/good-cardinal-map.yml')
-      ord_map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/good-ordinal-map.yml')
+      card_map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'good-cardinal-map.yml')
+      ord_map = VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'good-ordinal-map.yml')
 
       doc = REXML::Document.new(
         '<doc><el o="3.">drei</el><el o="second">two</el><el o="primo">I</el></doc>')
@@ -73,27 +73,27 @@
     end
 
     it 'catches case discrepancies on RHS' do
-      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/bad-mixed-case.yml') }.to(
+      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'bad-mixed-case.yml') }.to(
         raise_error(/Case discrepancy on RHS/))
     end
 
     it 'catches bad yaml types' do
-      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/bad-not-omap.yml') }.to(
+      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'bad-not-omap.yml') }.to(
         raise_error(/Unexpected datatype/))
     end
 
     it 'catches hidden keys' do
-      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/bad-hidden-keys.yml') }.to(
+      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'bad-hidden-keys.yml') }.to(
         raise_error(/Hidden keys \["ShouldNotBeRemapped"\]/))
     end
 
     it 'catches hidden substring' do
-      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/bad-hidden-substring.yml') }.to(
+      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'bad-hidden-substring.yml') }.to(
         raise_error(/Hidden keys \["this-prefix-hides", "hidden-by-this-suffix"\]/))
     end
 
     it 'catches missing defaults' do
-      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + '/bad-no-default.yml') }.to(
+      expect { VocabMap.new(fixtures + 'bad-no-default.yml') }.to(
         raise_error(/No default mapping/))
     end
   end
diff --git a/spec/rails_helper.rb b/spec/rails_helper.rb
index c4dfcae97b..e4cc4fcafb 100644
--- a/spec/rails_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/rails_helper.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,5 @@
 # This file is copied to spec/ when you run 'rails generate rspec:install'
 ENV['RAILS_ENV'] ||= 'test'
-require 'spec_helper'
 require File.expand_path('../../config/environment', __FILE__)
 require 'rspec/rails'
 # Add additional requires below this line. Rails is not loaded until this point!
diff --git a/spec/scripts/ci_spec.rb b/spec/scripts/ci_spec.rb
index 83455f1b93..1e5ef82bf4 100644
--- a/spec/scripts/ci_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/scripts/ci_spec.rb
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 require 'tmpdir'
 
 describe Ci, not_on_travis: true do
-  let(:credentials_path) { File.dirname(File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__))) + '/config/ci.yml' }
+  let(:credentials_path) { Rails.root + 'config/ci.yml' }
   let(:aapb_workspace_id) { '051303c1c1d24da7988128e6d2f56aa9' } # we make sure NOT to use this.
 
   it 'requires credentials' do
diff --git a/spec/scripts/download_clean_ingest_spec.rb b/spec/scripts/download_clean_ingest_spec.rb
index 07fad501fc..e2a879289e 100644
--- a/spec/scripts/download_clean_ingest_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/scripts/download_clean_ingest_spec.rb
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ def dci_output(*args)
   end
 
   default_flags = '--stdout-log --same-mount --skip-sitemap'
-  default_mode = "--files #{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/../fixtures/dci/pbcore-dir/pbcore.xml"
+  default_mode = "--files #{Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/dci/pbcore-dir/pbcore.xml'}"
   {
     # Expected to fail:
     '' => [/USAGE:/],
@@ -50,17 +50,17 @@ def dci_output(*args)
       /Successfully added .*37-010p2nvv.pbcore/,
       /1 succeeded/
     ],
-    "#{default_flags} --id-files #{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/../fixtures/dci/id-file.txt" => [
+    "#{default_flags} --id-files #{Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/dci/id-file.txt'}" => [
       /Downloading .*guid\/37-010p2nvv/,
       /Updated solr record cpb-aacip_37-010p2nvv/,
       /Successfully added .*37-010p2nvv.pbcore/,
       /1 succeeded/
     ],
-    "#{default_flags} --dirs #{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/../fixtures/dci/pbcore-dir" => [
+    "#{default_flags} --dirs #{Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/dci/pbcore-dir'}" => [
       /Updated solr record 1234/,
       /1 succeeded/
     ],
-    "#{default_flags} --files #{File.dirname(__FILE__)}/../fixtures/dci/pbcore-dir/pbcore.xml" => [
+    "#{default_flags} --files #{Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/dci/pbcore-dir/pbcore.xml'}" => [
       /Updated solr record 1234/,
       /1 succeeded/
     ],
diff --git a/spec/scripts/pb_core_ingester_spec.rb b/spec/scripts/pb_core_ingester_spec.rb
index a0499ac0f2..e8a985e8a5 100644
--- a/spec/scripts/pb_core_ingester_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/scripts/pb_core_ingester_spec.rb
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 require 'tmpdir'
 
 describe PBCoreIngester do
-  let(:path) { File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__)) + '/fixtures/pbcore/clean-MOCK.xml' }
+  let(:path) { Rails.root + 'spec/fixtures/pbcore/clean-MOCK.xml' }
 
   before(:each) do
     @ingester = PBCoreIngester.new(is_same_mount: true)
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 27d238b829..8b183fad46 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -81,3 +81,10 @@
 #   # as the one that triggered the failure.
 #   Kernel.srand config.seed
 end
+
+module Rails
+  # Allow more idiomatic tests everywhere, without loading in all of rails.
+  def self.root
+    File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__)) + '/'
+  end
+end
diff --git a/spec/support/code_style_spec.rb b/spec/support/code_style_spec.rb
index fea905ec89..da7c3cd9e3 100644
--- a/spec/support/code_style_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/support/code_style_spec.rb
@@ -4,14 +4,13 @@
     @merge = []
     @error = []
 
-    root = File.dirname(File.dirname(File.dirname(__FILE__)))
-    all_paths = Dir[root + '/{app,config,scripts,spec}/**/*']
+    all_paths = Dir[Rails.root + '{app,config,scripts,spec}/**/*']
     paths_to_check = all_paths.reject do |path|
       path=~/\.(jar|ico|png|gif|jpg)$/ || 
         File.directory?(path) ||
         path == __FILE__
     end
-    puts "Checking #{paths_to_check.count} files under #{root} for cruft..."
+    puts "Checking #{paths_to_check.count} files under #{Rails.root} for cruft..."
     paths_to_check.each do |path|
       File.readlines(path).each_with_index do |line, i|
         combo = "#{path}:#{i}: #{line}"
diff --git a/spec/support/link_checker.rb b/spec/support/link_checker.rb
index 5431d7f185..f956239b97 100644
--- a/spec/support/link_checker.rb
+++ b/spec/support/link_checker.rb
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 class LinkChecker
   include Singleton
 
-  FILENAME = File.join(File.dirname(__FILE__), '.link-check.txt')
+  FILENAME = File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/.link-check.txt'
   RE_IGNORES = [
     /^\/catalog\?/, # too many combos
     /^\/catalog\//, # redundant: other tests load each fixture