K. David Harrison

K. David Harrison is a Canadian and American linguist, anthropologist, author, filmmaker, and advocate for the documentation and preservation of endangered languages.

Biography Harrison received his PhD from Yale University as a student of linguist Stephen R. Anderson, anthropologist Harold C. Conklin, and Slavist Alexander M. Schenker. He has done documentary field work on endangered languages around the world, including Turkic languages in Siberia and Mongolia including Tuvan, Tsengel Tuvan, Tofa, Chulym, Monchak, and in India on Munda, and indigenous tongues in Paraguay, Chile, Papua New Guinea, India, Vietnam, and Vanuatu. He specializes in phonology, morphology, and in the study of language endangerment, extinction and revitalization, digital lexicography, and environmental linguistics.

Harrison has served as a Professor and Vice-Provost for Special Projects at VinUniversity. He is a tenured Professor at Swarthmore College, an Explorer at the National Geographic Society and a fellow of The Explorers Club. He serves as an Affiliate Scientist at the Center for Plants, People, and Culture at the New York Botanical Garden. His early career research focused on the Turkic languages of central Siberia and western Mongolia. In 2006, Harrison created the first online "Talking Dictionary", a platform that has since expanded to cover 150+ indigenous languages. In 2007–2013, he co-directed the Enduring Voices Project at the National Geographic Society. In 2007, Harrison created the concept of "Language Hotspots", and published the first language hotspots list and map in National Geographic Magazine, in collaboration with linguist Gregory Anderson of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. His book When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World's Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge (Oxford Univ. Press, 2007) has been translated into Arabic and Spanish. His book The Last Speakers: The Quest to Save the World's Most Endangered Languages (National Geographic, 2010) has been translated into Japanese and Polish.

Harrison co-starred in Ironbound Films' Emmy-nominated 2008 documentary film The Linguists.

Awards and honors National Merit Scholar Explorers Club National Fellow (2015) National Geographic Fellow and Explorer Named to the Explorers Club EC 50: Fifty People Changing the World (2021) QS Reimagine Education, Bronze Award (2024) Human Act Prize, Vietnam (2024) "Partnering with Ethnic Minorities in Vietnam to Explore Environmental Intelligence"