K. David Harrison

K. David Harrison is Professor of Linguistics and Associate Provost for Academic Programs at Swarthmore College, co-director of National Geographic Society's Enduring Voices Project, and honorary researcher at New York Botanical Garden’s Center for Economic Botany. He holds interdisciplinary affiliations with Asian Studies, Environmental Studies, and Cognitive Science programs.

Harrison's research centers on documenting and revitalizing endangered languages globally, investigating phonological systems, lexicons, grammatical structures, and embedded cultural knowledge. His fieldwork spans Siberia, Mongolia, India, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, and Vanuatu, with early specialization in Tuvan and Turkic languages.

At Swarthmore, he leads laboratory initiatives creating digital preservation tools like Talking Dictionaries through collaboration with language communities and students. His work emphasizes computational approaches to linguistic diversity conservation and cross-cultural knowledge systems.

Harrison has received significant recognition:

• Emmy-nominated for documentary film The Linguists (2008)
• Member of the prestigious Daylight Academy

His research program receives substantial funding from major institutions:

• National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• Microsoft Research
• National Geographic Society
• Private donors

Harrison co-directs National Geographic's Enduring Voices Project expeditions while maintaining his Swarthmore laboratory as a hub for student collaboration on language preservation technologies and field documentation.