Mark Turin

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

Turin was interim editor of the journal Pacific Affairs from 2023-2024. 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.

Early life and education Turin was born into an Italian-Dutch family, and raised in the United Kingdom and briefly in New York. His Italian father, Duccio Turin, was a UN diplomat and chief architect of the Palestinian refugee camps. His Dutch mother, Hannah Oorthuys, is a graphic designer and therapist, and the daughter of the photographer Cas Oorthuys. Turin's half-brother is Luca Turin, a biophysicist and writer with a long-standing interest in bioelectronics, the sense of smell, perfumery, and the fragrance industry.

After attending University College School, and completing his undergraduate studies in Anthropology and Archaeology with First Class Honours from the University of Cambridge (1995), he completed his PhD at the University of Leiden, graduating in 2006.

Career Mark Turin is an associate professor of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. His work is centered on Indigenous language endangerment, reclamation, and revitalization.

Linguistics and Anthropology For his doctoral research at the University of Leiden through the Himalayan Languages Project, Turin worked collaboratively with the Indigenous Thangmi (Thami) speaking community in Nepal and Northern India to create a grammatical description and lexicon of the previously undocumented language. This work resulted in a Nepali-Thami-English dictionary published in 2004 and a grammar of the Thangmi language published in 2012. Turin's interest in Himalayan culture and language took him to Bhutan, where he was one of three principal investigators on a five-year collaborative project to record and preserve the endangered oral traditions of the nation. He has also conducted research in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and in the Indian state of Sikkim. Since 2015, Turin has worked in collaborative partnership with the Heiltsuk First Nation through a Language Mobilization Partnership, of which the University of British Columbia is a member.

Policy and Practice In 2007, Turin established and directed the Translation and Interpretation Unit in the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN), a special political mission mandated by the UN Security Council to support Nepal's peace process. Turin has occasionally worked as a consultant for the World Bank and the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD).

Collaborative Research and Digital Humanities Turin has been involved in many long term research projects and initiatives. In 2000, he co-founded the Digital Himalaya Project as a platform for multimedia resources from the Himalayan region. Turin directs the World Oral Literature Project which he established at the University of Cambridge in 2009. Since 2019, Turin has served as the principal investigator for the Relational Lexicography Project, a framework and toolkit for collaborative, community-informed dictionary work with marginalized languages. Turin is one of the project leads on a free interactive digital map of the languages of New York City, one of the most linguistically diverse metropolitan areas in the world.

From 2013 to 2017, together with Sienna Craig, Turin served as editor of Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies. Turin's BBC Radio 4 series, 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 is 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.

Awards and accolades Source: 2023: Dean of Arts Mentorship Award from the University of British Columbia 2021: Open Scholarship Award, Honourable Mention for the Digital Himalaya Project from the Canadian Social Knowledge Institute 2020: Open Education Resource Champion / Leader in Open Learning from the University of British Columbia 2019–2020: Wall Scholar Award at the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, University of British Columbia 2018–2019: Killam Faculty Research Fellowship, University of British Columbia 2014–2016: Green College Leading Scholar at the University of British Columbia 2013: Yvonne and Jack McCredie Fellowship in Instructional Technology for excellence and innovation in undergraduate teaching from Yale University 2009: Associate Award for Anthropology from the United Kingdom Higher Education Academy

Publications Books

Bendi Tso; Marnyi Gyatso; Naljor Tsering; Turin, Mark; and Members of the Choné Tibetan Community (2023). Shépa: The Tibetan Oral Tradition in Choné. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers. .

Edited volumes

2023. 2019. The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya. Edited by Selma K. Sonntag and Mark Turin. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. 2019. Book 2.0: Year of Indigenous Languages. 9 (1 & 2). Edited by Mark Turin & Mick Gowar. 2018. Memory. Edited by Philippe Tortell, Mark Turin and Margot Young. Vancouver, Canada: Peter Wall Institute and UBC Press. 2017. Searching For Sharing: Heritage and Multimedia in Africa. Edited by Daniela Merolla and Mark Turin. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. 2014. Book 2.0: Digital Humanities. 4 (1 & 2). Edited by Mark Turin & Mick Gowar. 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. Mother tongue primer for Thangmi-speaking children. 2014. Perspectives on Social Inclusion and Exclusion in Nepal, edited by Om Gurung, Mukta Singh Tamang and Mark Turin. Kathmandu: Central Department of Sociology / Anthropology, Tribhuvan University. . 2013. After the Return: Special Issue of Museum Anthropology Review, 7 (1–2). Edited by Joshua Bell, Kimberly Christen and Mark Turin. 2013. Oral Literature in the Digital Age: Archiving Orality and Connecting with Communities, edited by Mark Turin, Claire Wheeler and Eleanor Wilkinson. Cambridge: Oral Literature Series, Open Book Publishers. 190 pages. & 9781909254312. 2011. Himalayan Languages and Linguistics: Studies in Phonology, Semantics, Morphology and Syntax, edited by Mark Turin and Bettina Zeisler. Brill's Tibetan Studies Library, 5. 323 pages. Brill: Leiden. & 900419448 7. 2010. Language Documentation and Description, Volume 8, Special issue: Oral Literature and Language Endangerment, edited by Mark Turin and Imogen Gunn. London: Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project, Department of Linguistics, School of Oriental and African Studies. 175 pages. . 2008. Gaiko Thangmi Kham : Kaksha Di (My Thangmi Language : Class One). Bir Bahadur Thami and Laxmi Basukala, edited by Mark Turin. Kathmandu: Educate the Children. Mother tongue primer for Thangmi-speaking children. 2004. Kesar Lall: A Homage on the Occasion of his Buraa Janko. Edited by Corneille Jest, Tej Ratna Kansakar and Mark Turin. Kathmandu: Marina Paper. . 2003. Themes in Himalayan Languages and Linguistics . Edited by Tej Ratna Kansakar and Mark Turin. Kathmandu: South Asia Institute (SAI) Heidelberg and Tribhuvan University. .

Media

BBC Radio 4: On Language Location (October 2014) Part 1: Bhutan Part 2: Myanmar BBC Radio 4: Our Language in Your Hands (December, 2012) BBC World TV interview (June 2013) Endangered Languages Vanishing Voices