He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from The University of Florida, a Master’s of Philosophy in Linguistics at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland, and a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology with a Graduate Certificate in Education Policy Research at Duke University. Along with fellow anthropologists Mariela Nuñez-Janes (U North Texas) and Angela Booker (UC San Diego), Dr. Thornburg has edited a collection of essays titled Deep Stories: Practicing, Teaching, and Learning Anthropology with Digital Stories, which is under license to publish with De Gruyter Open.