I am a socio-cultural and environmental anthropologist. My primary research explores how lived experiences of the Cameron Peak Fire in Colorado shape people’s understanding of the landscape and future disasters. I also write about linguistic mobility, resettlement patterns, and complex language practices of marginalized language communities in New York City, and the intersection of technology and development in Nepal. I come to UBC with a professional background in geographic information systems (GIS), with a particular focus on watershed science and the Public Land Survey System and experience in humanitarian GIS, citizen mapping, and participatory mapping initiatives. My educational background is in sociology and geography. Past research projects include: the relationship between landscape and language among Kaike speakers in Dolpa, Nepal; the role of street theater in social change in Nepal; socio-cultural manifestations of the supernatural in southern Italy; the efficacy of a women’s empowerment program for an international NGO in Nepal; and the association between food and family relationships across three generations of one Italian-American family.

PhD Supervisor: Dr. Mark Turin

Committee Members: Dr. Tracey Heatherington, Dr. Andrew Martindale, Dr. Sara Shneiderman

Research Key Words: Language, mobility, identity, borders, space and place, urban anthropology, mapping, GIS, wildfires, socioecological resilience, disaster, climate change, infrastructures, technologies

Research Summary:

I am currently involved in four ongoing research projects.

Convergence and Conflagration: Wildfires and Shifting Landscapes in the Cache la Poudre Canyon, Colorado
Using the 2020 Cameron Peak Fire in Colorado as a focal point, my research engages local perspectives and experiences to understand how people make sense of geographies of risk compounded by intersecting climatic, meteorological, hydrological, and anthropogenic processes across the landscapes in which they live. I am interested in unsettling the chronologies of disaster to understand periods of disruption and loss in the context of the socioecological processes that both precede and follow wildfires and continue to impact both people and the environment long after the fire has been extinguished.

Language Mapping
As part of a collaborative team represented by university and community researchers from UBC, Dartmouth, NYC, and the Endangered Language Alliance, we are exploring the complexities of mapping urban linguistic diversity in NYC and the impact of COVID-19 on marginalized language communities. Please see the Languages of New York City interactive map of linguistic diversity.

Civic Technologies in Nepal
I am researching civic technologies in Nepal in relation to development and other forms of technological infrastructure. The pandemic has also opened up additional research paths in this context. During the height of Nepal’s pandemic experience with the Delta variant, multiple volunteer-led initiatives emerged using technology to connect patients with critical oxygen supply, for example, illustrating the development and use of civil technologies in real time to address gaps in the government response.

Ecologies of Harm: Mapping Contexts of Vulnerability in the Time of COVID-19
Along with Principal Investigator Dr. Leslie Robertson and colleague Stephen Chignell, we have created a collaborative spatial archive to document locally defined conditions of vulnerability in order to generate opportunities for knowledge-sharing, dialogues, and solutions-based engagements. We are also interested in documenting experiences of extreme weather and how they intersect with and are exacerbated by conditions of vulnerability related to COVID-19. Read more about the project, view the spatial archive, and find out how to contribute at Ecologies of Harm. You can also submit your experiences to the Extreme Weather Survey.

2022. Daurio, Maya. “Review of The Power of Maps and The Politics of Borders”. Cartographic Perspectives 99.

2022. Daurio, Maya. “Review of Anticipating Future Environments: Climate Change, Adaptive Restoration, and the Columbia River Basin by Shana Lee Hirsch”. Environment and Society 13 (1).

2022. Daurio, Maya and Mark Turin. “Teaching Indigenous Language Revitalization over Zoom”. KULA: Knowledge Creation, Dissemination, and Preservation Studies 6 (1): 1-11.

2021. Budha, Jag Bahadur, Maya Daurio, and Mark Turin. “Tichurong (Nepal) – Language Snapshot”. Language Documentation and Description 20: 189-197.

2021. Perlin, Ross, Daniel Kaufman, Mark Turin, Maya Daurio, Sienna Craig, and Jason Lampel. “Mapping Urban Linguistic Diversity in New York City: Motives, Methods, Tools, and Outcomes”. Language Documentation & Conservation 15 (October): 458–90.

2021. Craig, Sienna, Nawang Gurung, Ross Perlin, Daniel Kaufman, Maya Daurio, and Mark Turin. “Global Pandemic, Translocal Medicine: The COVID-19 Diaries of a Tibetan Physician in New York City.” Asian Medicine 16: 55-88.

2021. Craig, Sienna R., Nawang Tsering Gurung, Maya Daurio, Daniel Kaufmann, and Mark Turin. “Negotiating Invisibility at the Epicenter: Himalayan New Yorkers Confront Covid-19.” Items. June 10.

2021. Perlin, Ross, Nawang Gurung, Sienna Craig, Maya Daurio, Daniel Kaufman, and Mark Turin. “Who Will Care for the Care Worker? The COVID-19 Diaries of a Sherpa Nurse in New York City.” Issues Journal 4 (1).

2021. Craig, Sienna, Maya Daurio, Daniel Kaufman, Ross Perlin, and Mark Turin. “The Unequal Effects of COVID-19 on Multilingual Immigrant Communities.” The Globe and Mail, March 24.

2020. Gurung, Nawang, Ross Perlin, Mark Turin, Sienna R. Craig, Maya Daurio, and Daniel Kaufman. “Himalayan New Yorkers Tell Stories of COVID-19.” The Nepali Times, June 6..

2020. Daurio, Maya, Sienna R. Craig, Daniel Kaufman, Ross Perlin, and Mark Turin. “Subversive Maps: How Digital Language Mapping Can Support Biocultural Diversity—and Help Track a Pandemic.” Langscape Magazine Vol. 9, Summer/Winter 2020, “The Other Extinction Rebellion: Countering the Loss of Biocultural Diversity.”.

2020. Maya Daurio and Mark Turin. “‘Langscapes’ and Language Borders: Linguistic Boundary-Making in Northern South Asia.” Eurasia Border Review 10 (1), 21-42.

2020. Maya Daurio. “Review of Trans-Himalayan Traders Transformed: Return to Tarang.” Himalaya 39 (2).

2019. Maya Daurio. “The Significance of Place in Ethnolinguistic Vitality: Spatial Variations Across the Kaike-Speaking Diaspora Of Nepal.” In The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya, edited by Selma K. Sonntag and Mark Turin (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers), pages 109-136.

2012. Maya Daurio. “The Fairy Language: Language Maintenance and Social-Ecological Resilience Among the Tarali of Tichurong, Nepal.” Himalaya 31 (1 & 2): 7-21.

2007. Maya Daurio. “Review of Beyond the Myth of Eco-Crisis: Local Responses to Pressure on Land in Nepal.” The Organization: A Practicing Manager’s Quarterly, July-September 10 (3).

Dean of Arts Graduate Student Research Award, 2023
Public Scholars Climate Emergency Funding, 2022
Vanier Scholarship, 2021
Esri Canada GIS Scholarship (co-recipient with Stephen Chignell), 2021
President’s Academic Excellence Initiative PhD Award, UBC, 2021-2023
Public Scholars Award, UBC, 2020
Four Year Doctoral Fellowship, UBC, 2019-2023