Mark Turin is an anthropologist, linguist and occasional radio presenter. He directs both the World Oral Literature Project, an urgent global initiative to document and make accessible endangered oral literatures before they disappear without record, and the Digital Himalaya Project which he co-founded in 2000 as a platform to make multi-media resources from the Himalayan region widely available online. He is also the principal investigator for the Relational Lexicography project through which a group of aligned researchers are developing a framework and toolkit for collaborative, community-informed dictionary work with marginalized languages.
For over twenty years, Turin’s regional focus has been the Himalayan region (particularly Nepal, northern India and Bhutan), and more recently, the Pacific Northwest. He writes and teaches on language reclamation, revitalization, documentation and conservation; language mapping, policies, politics and language rights; orality, archives, digital tools and technology. Indigenous methodologies and decolonial practice inform and shape his teaching and research. Turin is the author (or co-author) of five books, three travel guides, the (co)editor of 12 volumes, and he edits an open access series on oral literature. Mark has been a regular BBC presenter on issues of linguistic diversity and language endangerment.
2023-2024 Director, Digital Scholarship in Arts (DiSA) & Interim Editor, Pacific Affairs, the University of British Columbia
2015-2025 Associate Professor, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies and the Department of Anthropology, the University of British Columbia
2016-2018 Acting Co-Director, Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, the University of British Columbia
2014-2018 Chair, First Nations and Endangered Languages Program, the University of British Columbia
2011-2014 Associate Research Scientist, South Asian Studies Council, Yale University & Founding Program Director, Yale Himalaya Initiative
2009-2011 Research Associate, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the University of Cambridge
2007-2008 Chief of Translation and Interpretation, United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN)
Single-Authored Books:
2023 Mark Turin. A Grammar Of The Thangmi Language (2 volumes). Kathmandu: Social Science Baha and Himal Books.
2012 Turin, M. Grammar of Thangmi with an Ethnolinguistic Introduction to the Speakers and their Culture. 2 Volumes. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, Languages of the Greater Himalayan Region, 5/6. Leiden: Brill.
2007 Turin, M. Linguistic Diversity and the Preservation of Endangered Languages: A Case Study from Nepal. Talking Points, 4/07. International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). Kathmandu.
Co-Authored Books:
2023 Bendi Tso, Marnyi Gyatso, Naljor Tsering, Mark Turin and Members of the Choné Tibetan Community. Shépa: The Tibetan Oral Tradition in Choné. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
2009 Evans, C., Pettigrew, J. Tamu, Y. and M. Turin. Grounding Knowledge/Walking Land: Archaeological Research and Ethno-Historical Identity in Central Nepal, by Cambridge: McDonald Institute Monograph.
2004 Turin, M. with B.B. Thami. Nepali-Thami-English Dictionary. Martin Chautari. Kathmandu.
Edited Journals
2023 Christine Schreyer and Mark Turin, eds. Special issue on Indigenous lexicography. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America (44)2.
2019 Gowar, M. and M. Turin, eds. Book 2.0, 9(1&2). Special Issue for the UN Year of Indigenous Languages.
2014 Gowar. M. and M. Turin. Digital Humanities: Now and Then. Special Issue of Book 2.0. Vol. 4, Numbers 1 & 2.
2013 Bell, J., Christen, K. and M. Turin. After the Return: Special Issue of Museum Anthropology Review. Vol. 7, No.1-2.
Edited Books:
2021 Mark Turin, Alan Macfarlane, Radha Béteille. Science and Religion: Edwin Salpeter, Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne. London: Routledge.
2021 Haykaz Mangardich, Adriel John Orena, Mark Turin and Janet F. Werker. Impact of COVID-19 on Language and Literacy in Canada. Ottawa: Royal Society of Canada.
2019 Sonntag, S.K. and M. Turin. The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya. Edited by Sonntag, S.K. and Mark Turin. Open Book Publishers.
2018 Philippe Tortell, M. Turin and Margot Young. Memory. Vancouver, Canada: Peter Wall Institute and UBC Press.
2017 Merolla, D. and M. Turin. Searching for Sharing: Heritage and Multimedia in Africa. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
2014 Gurung, O., Tamang, M.S. and M. Turin. Perspectives on Social Inclusion and Exclusion in Nepal. Kathmandu: Central Department of Sociology/Anthropology, Tribhuvan University.
2014 Niko Thangmi Kham : Kaksha Nis (Our Thangmi Language : Class Two). Bir Bahadur Thami and Laxmi Basukala, edited by Mark Turin. Kathmandu: Educate the Children.
2013 Turin, M., Wheeler, C. and E. Wilkinson. Oral Literature in the Digital Age: Archiving Orality and Connecting with Communities. Oral Literature Series, Open Book Publishers. Cambridge. ISBN 9781909254305 & 9781909254312.
2011 Turin, M. and B. Zeisler. Himalayan Languages and Linguistics: Studies in Phonology, Semantics, Morphology and Syntax. Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library, 5. Brill: Leiden.
2010 Turin, M. and I. Gunn. Special issue: Oral Literature and Language Endangerment, Language Documentation and Description, Volume 8. Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, Department of Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies. London.
2008 Turin, M. Gaiko Thangmi Kham: Kaksha Di (My Thangmi Language: Class One). Educate the Children.
UBC Dean of Arts Mentorship Award (2023)
Open Scholarship Award, Honourable Mention for the Digital Himalaya Project (2021)
UBC Open Education Resource Champion / Leader in Open Learning (2020)
UBC Wall Scholar at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (2019-2020)
UBC Killam Faculty Research Fellowship (2018-2019)
UBC Green College Leading Scholar (2014-2016)
Yvonne and Jack McCredie Fellowship at Yale in Instructional Technology for excellence and innovation in undergraduate teaching (2013)
United Kingdom Higher Education Academy Associate Award for Anthropology (2009)
