Ross Perlin is a linguist, writer, and translator focused on exploring and supporting linguistic diversity. Since 2013, he has been co-director of the Endangered Language Alliance, spearheading research projects focused on language documentation, mapping, policy, and public programming. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper’s, and other outlets, and his book Intern Nation: How to Earn Nothing and Learn Little in the Brave New Economy started an international conversation about unpaid labor. Ross also teaches linguistics at Columbia University.

Ross’ new book is about endangered languages in New York City: the individuals and communities from all over the world that speak them, and the fight to keep them going.

Language can reveal the deep dynamics of immigration and diaspora, the histories of persecution and catastrophe, the whole web of tangled inheritances, which race, religion, or national origin can only hint at. Nowhere is this more true than in New York City, the most linguistically diverse city in the history of the planet, but at the same time a paradoxical capital for languages in an age when more and more are being lost. Led by a motley crew at the Endangered Language Alliance, the race to document and map the languages spoken in the city is also a reckoning with a fundamental futility. What is documented and archived for posterity will forever be a pitifully partial record of the world’s linguistic diversity and all that it encompasses — but it might be all we have.

Please visit Ross’ Facebook, Twitter and his website for more information.