Ross Perlin is a linguist, writer, and translator from New York City. He earned his BA from Stanford University, an MPhil from Cambridge University, and an MA from the University of London (SOAS), as a Marshall Scholar. He earned his PhD in linguistics from the University of Bern in Switzerland. Perlin serves as codirector of the nonprofit Endangered Language Alliance, where he oversees research projects focused on language documentation, mapping, policy, and public programming. Himalayan languages are a focus. His PhD included the creation of a trilingual dictionary, a corpus of recordings, and a descriptive grammar of Trung, an endangered language of southwest China, based on several years of fieldwork. He also teaches linguistics at Columbia.

Perlin has written on language, labor, and China for the New York Times, the Guardian, and Harper's, among other places, and published a book on unpaid work and youth economics, Intern Nation (Verso Books, 2012). He has given talks to students, scholars, employers, career counselors, union members, activists, and politicians at venues including the Googleplex, the UK Parliament, the Economic Policy Institute, and universities and colleges across the United States. Perlin have been on MSNBC, CBS, Fox, the BBC, NPR, and many other radio and TV stations.