K. David Harrison

K. David Harrison is a Canadian and American linguist, anthropologist, author, filmmaker, and activist 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 Turkic languages in Siberia and Mongolia including Tuvan, Tsengel Tuvan, Tofa, Chulym, Monchak, and in India on Munda, and also 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 is Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of Student Experience at VinUniversity. He has been a Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Swarthmore College, an Explorer at the National Geographic Society and a fellow of The Explorers Club. He serves as an Affiliate Researcher at the Center for Economic Botany of 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, a 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.

He co-starred in Ironbound Films' Emmy-nominated 2008 documentary film The Linguists. He served as director of research for the non-profit Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, and has served on the boards of 7,000 Languages, The National Museum of Language, and BeeLine Reader Inc. He is a Member of the Daylight Academy (Switzerland). He is a founding member of the Center for Environmental Intelligence at VinUniversity.

He has received numerous research grants from the National Science Foundation, Volkswagen Stiftung, The Explorers Club, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic Society, Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and Velux Stiftung, including projects on the documentation of endangered languages, cultural anthropology, ethnobotany, and daylight studies. Harrison's research is in digital lexicography (creating Talking Dictionaries), and Environmental Linguistics in locations such as Vanuatu, Fiji, Vietnam, and Siberia.

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)

As editor

 * Davis, Wade and K. David Harrison (2008) Book of Peoples of the World: A Guide to Cultures, National Geographic, (2nd edition).