Mark Turin


Mark Turin is a British anthropologist, linguist and radio broadcaster who specializes in the Himalayas and the Pacific Northwest. From 2014-2018, he served as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program and Acting Co-Director of the at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He is Associate Professor of Anthropology and director of the Digital Himalaya Project.

Biography

Turin was born in London, United Kingdom into an Italian-Dutch family. His father, Duccio Turin, was a UN diplomat and chief architect of the Palestinian refugee camps, and his mother, Hannah Oorthuys, is a graphic designer and therapist. His half-brother, Luca Turin, is a biophysicist and writer with a long-standing interest in the sense of smell, perfumery, and the fragrance industry. After completing his undergraduate studies in Anthropology and Archaeology with First Class Honours from the University of Cambridge, Turin prepared a grammatical description and lexicon of the previously undocumented Thangmi language spoken in Nepal and northern India for his doctoral research through the Himalayan Languages Project at the University of Leiden. From May 2007 until May 2008, he served as Chief of the Translation and Interpretation Unit in the United Nations Mission in Nepal.
Turin continues to direct the Digital Himalaya Project, which he co-established in December 2000, based jointly the University of Cambridge and the University of British Columbia. In 2009, he established up the World Oral Literature Project supporting the documentation and preservation of oral literatures and endangered cultural traditions, affiliated to the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. Turin was elected to a Fellowship at Hughes Hall, Cambridge in March 2011 and made a Quondam Fellow in March 2014.
From August 2011 to June 2014, Turin held the posts of Lecturer and Associate Research Scientist, and the founding Program Director of the at the MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies, Yale University. From 2013, together with , he has served as Editor of '. His BBC Radio 4 series entitled ' on linguistic diversity and language endangerment in Nepal, South Africa and New York aired in December 2012; and his second series ' on the linguistic landscape of Bhutan and Burma/Myanmar aired in October 2014 on BBC Radio 4 and in March 2015 on the BBC World Service. Turin's work has been recognized by the ' and the .

Publications

Books