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), 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.
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. From 2013, together with Sienna Craig, Turin has served as Editor of Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies. 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.
Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, jointly appointed in the Department of Anthropology and the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies[3]
Turin currently serves on 10 Editorial Boards, 2 Advisory Boards, 3 Advisory committees, 2 Steering Committees, and 2 Scientific Committees.[9] 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).[9] A complete list of his appointments can be found on his faculty home page.
Research and Teaching
Mark Turin's research, teaching and community engagement are focused on three principal areas:[10]
Linguistics and Anthropology
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. 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.
Policy and Practice
Turin has been a consultant to the World Bank, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, and a number of United Nations agencies.[2]
Collaborative Research and Digital Humanities Projects
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). 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.
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. ISBN 9781800648012.
2019. The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya. Edited by Selma K. Sonntag and Mark Turin. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers. doi:10.11647/OBP.0169
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. doi:10.11647/OBP.0111
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. ISBN9789937524506.
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. ISBN9781909254305 & 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. ISBN9789004194489 & 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. ISSN1740-6234.
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. ISBN9993389072.
2003. Themes in Himalayan Languages and Linguistics . Edited by Tej Ratna Kansakar and Mark Turin. Kathmandu: South Asia Institute (SAI) Heidelberg and Tribhuvan University. ISBN9993354163.
Media
BBC Radio 4: On Language Location (October 2014)[12]
Part 1: Bhutan
Part 2: Myanmar
BBC Radio 4: Our Language in Your Hands (December, 2012)[12]
Part 1: Nepal
Part 2: South Africa
Part 3: New York City
50 langues autochtones sur Google Earth – Radio-Canada Colombie-Britannique[13][14]