Linguist · Cultural Anthropologist

Dr. Dezső Benedek was born in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár).
He studied at the Báthory István Theoretical High School
until 1967, when he was expelled for encouraging student protests
against the enforced expansion of Romanian-language classes.

He graduated in 1972 from the
Babeș–Bolyai University,
majoring in English and German.
In 1978, he settled in the
United States, where he pursued studies in
cultural anthropology and
comparative literature.

He earned his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania
with the dissertation “The Song of the Ancestors.”
As part of his fieldwork, he spent four years living among an
Austronesian tribe, and later carried out
cultural revitalization projects in
East Timor and the Philippines.

Dr. Benedek speaks 18 languages and is familiar with
six regional dialects.
He currently serves as an
Associate Professor at
Georgia State University, teaching
cultural anthropology,
East Asian languages,
and comparative literature.

He is the author or co-author of numerous
scholarly articles and book chapters.
He also serves as Director of Culture at the
Humanitad Foundation in London,
where he oversees projects in
general and comparative linguistics.