Mark Turin

Mark Turin (born 1973) is a British anthropologist, linguist and occasional radio broadcaster who specializes in the Himalayas and the Pacific Northwest.

After attending University College School, and completing his undergraduate studies in Anthropology and Archaeology with First Class Honours from the University of Cambridge (1995), Turin prepared a grammatical description and lexicon of the previously undocumented Thangmi (Thami) language spoken in Nepal and northern India for his doctoral research through the Himalayan Languages Project at the University of Leiden.

Turin has worked in close partnership with members of the Thangmi-speaking community (in Nepal and India) since 1996, and with members of the Heiltsuk First Nation (British Columbia, Canada) since 2015.

Turin has been a consultant to the World Bank, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, and a number of United Nations agencies.

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.

Turin co-founded the Digital Himalaya Project in 2000, which has become an important open scholarly portal for multimedia resources on the Himalaya region.

Turin briefly worked as the fieldwork coordinator for the Chintang and Puma Documentation Project (CPDP).

From May 2007 until May 2008, he served as Chief of the Translation and Interpretation Unit in the United Nations Mission in Nepal.

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.

Since 2009, Turin has directed the World Oral Literature Project, with the goal of supporting Indigenous-led research and publishing beyond the academy.

He is the principal investigator for the Relational Lexicography (RelLex) project, which is developing a toolkit for dictionary-making for marginalized languages through community-informed methodologies.

Turin also serves as one of project leads on a free intereactive digital map of New York City, one of the most linguistically diverse metropolitan areas in the world.

In the classroom and beyond, Turin is committed to creating rich instructional experiences through the use of digital tools and open source materials.

Turin has received grants from:

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 Yale Himalaya Initiative at the MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies, Yale University.

Turin's BBC Radio 4 series entitled Our Language in Your Hands aired in December 2012; and his second series On Language Location 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 serves as founding editor of the World Oral Literature Series with the Cambridge-based Open Book Publishers, which aims to preserve and promote the oral literatures of Indigenous communities in innovative, responsive, ethical and culturally-appropriate ways.

Turin's work has been recognized by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies and the Killam Trust.

Turin currently serves on 10 Editorial Boards, 2 Advisory Boards, 3 Advisory committees, 2 Steering Committees, and 2 Scientific Committees.

From 2013, together with Sienna Craig, Turin has served as Editor of Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies.

From 2014–2018, he served as Chair of the First Nations and Endangered Languages Program and Acting Co-Director of the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

He is an Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia, cross-appointed between the Department of Anthropology and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies.

He currently serves as the Interim Editor of the journal Pacific Affairs.

He is also a member of the board of directors for the Canadian Language Museum since 2020; an Honorary committee member for the Association for the Promotion and Preservation of Himalayan Cultures (2020 – present); and was an Advisory Group Member for the Prince's Trust Canada Indigenous Languages Revitalization Initiative (2019–2020) and a Curatorial Affiliate for the Peabody Museum of Natural History (Yale, 2012 – 2020).

A complete list of his appointments can be found on his faculty home page.

Mark Turin's research, teaching and community engagement are focused on three principal areas:

For over 20 years, Turin has worked in the Himalayan region, particularly in Nepal, northern India, and Bhutan.

Most recently, he has developed research partnerships in the Pacific Northwest.

In both regions, he works collaboratively with local Indigenous communities.

Turin has also led research projects in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and in India's state of Sikkim.