ACMS

ACMS Annual Meeting and Poster Session in Toronto, Friday, March 17th, 2017
2017-03-17 19:30 - 21:30 (America/Toronto)
Please join us for our Annual Meeting, coming up on Friday, March 17th, 2017! This year’s meeting will be in Toronto, in conjunction with the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) annual meeting at the Sheraton Centre Toronto (123 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario). Our event will be at 7:30pm, Friday, March 17th, in the Provincial Ballroom South.
This year’s program will begin at 7:30pm, with a membership meeting by ACMS leadership including updates by UB Resident Director Marc Tasse and US Director David Dettmann, followed by a cultural program and poster session.
The event is free and open to public and all interested parties. Registration to AAS is not required for this ACMS event.
We also have a call for posters and displays at this time (more information on that can be found here).
Please help us spread the word, and hope to see you there!

Speaker Series - Bruno Grunau
2017-03-14 17:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Cold Climate Housing Research Center: Solutions for the Circumpolar North
The Cold Climate Housing Research Center is an industry-based nonprofit corporation created to facilitate the development, use, and testing of energy-efficient, durable, healthy, and cost-effective building technologies for people living in cold climates. The purpose of this presentation is to share our story with the people of Mongolia and find ways we can share our successes.
CCHRC’s three primary programs are the Building Science Research Program, Policy Research, and Sustainable Northern Communities.
The Building Science Research team is made up of engineers and scientists who conduct experiments and provide analysis on building and energy systems in cold climates. Examples of research activities include monitoring the performance of different wall designs and insulation products in various climate zones; gathering data on indoor air quality to test innovative ventilation strategies; and studying the efficiency and payback of renewable energy technologies such as heat pumps and solar thermal. This research is translated into technical reports, journal articles, building manuals, videos, and educational material for contractors and homeowners.
The Policy Research team is made up of economists and analysts who study the energy efficiency of housing and infrastructure in Alaska. Activities include managing and analyzing data, energy modeling, calculating economic analyses of building, retrofit, and energy projects, and making policy recommendations to agencies and officials.
The Sustainable Northern Communities program started in 2008 to address the needs for sustainable housing in rural Alaska. CCHRC designers work with state and federal agencies, housing authorities, and other design and building firms to develop energy efficient, affordable, durable housing. Local residents and stakeholders are included to ensure the designs reflect the culture, environment, and resources of individual communities.
These prototype homes incorporate experimental building and energy technologies—such as super-insulated walls, integrated heating and ventilation systems, innovative water and sanitation solutions, or adjustable foundations—aimed at improving the energy efficiency and affordability of housing. The goal is that these prototypes can be reproduced to provide much-needed housing. CCHRC has completed more than 12 prototype projects throughout all regions of Alaska. CCHRC also provides energy modeling and plan review.
Co-Sponsored by the American Cultural and Information Center, Ulaanbaatar

Khusugtun: Mongolian Folk Music performance at the Rubin Museum, NYC
2017-03-10
The Khusugtun Ethnic Band – Хөсөгтөн хамтлаг is an internationally recognized band that performs traditional music from Mongolia. They will be performing two shows at the Rubin museum in NYC on March 10th, 2017, at 6:30 and 9:00pm. They are especially renowned for their a capella arrangements using “khöömei” or “throat-singing,” which is an UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity from Mongolia. For more information or to purchase tickets: https://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/khusugtun-03-10-2017
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/774702566002624/

Humanities Reading and Discussion Group, March 9th 2017
2017-03-09 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
This group will meet every other Monday evening at 6 pm to discuss (in English) an article that was assigned and distributed the week before. “Humanities” describes a range of subjects that study human culture including archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, religious studies, and others. Articles will be selected by the ACMS Cultural Heritage Program Coordinator. This group is open to all and will be particularly useful for individuals interested in discussing topics in the humanities in Mongolia, those intending to pursue graduate degrees abroad, or those wanting to improve their academic speaking abilities. Contact Julia Clark to get the article ahead of time.

The next meeting will be held on March 9th* at 6:00 pm at the ACMS Classroom in the Natsagdorj Library back (east) entrance., Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. This week’s topic will be Culture and Tourism in Mongolia.
*Note: Because of a scheduling conflict, this meeting will take place on Thursday rather than the normal Monday schedule.

For more information, please contact
Julia Clark, PhD
Cultural Heritage Coordinator
American Center for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org
9414-9155

Humanities Reading and Discussion Group
2017-02-13 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
This group will meet every other Monday evening at 6 pm to discuss (in English) an article that was assigned and distributed the week before. “Humanities” describes a range of subjects that study human culture including archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, religious studies, and others. Articles will be selected by the ACMS Cultural Heritage Program Coordinator. This group is open to all and will be particularly useful for individuals interested in discussing topics in the humanities in Mongolia, those intending to pursue graduate degrees abroad, or those wanting to improve their academic speaking abilities. Contact Julia Clark to get the article ahead of time. The topic will be ”Mongolia, Social Media and Language”

For more information, please contact
Julia Clark, PhD
Cultural Heritage Coordinator
American Center for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org

Speaker Series - Enkhtungalag Chuluunbaatar
2017-02-07 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Better decision-making through community mapping in Mongolia
Ulaanbaatar, capital city of Mongolia is home to almost half of the country’s population, in which more than 60% live in the ger area. Centralized administrative power, rapid urbanization, economic and political instability calls for a stronger civil society with a vision for long-term, sustainable, and inclusive development. Ger Community Mapping Center sees community mapping as one of the tools to inform and empower local communities and the general public to promote participatory decision-making. Community mapping draws on the implicit knowledge within local communities on everyday issues with long-term consequences.

Humanities Reading and Discussion Group
2017-01-30 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
This group will meet every other Monday evening at 6 pm to discuss (in English) an article that was assigned and distributed the week before. “Humanities” describes a range of subjects that study human culture including archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, religious studies, and others. Articles will be selected by the ACMS Cultural Heritage Program Coordinator. This group is open to all and will be particularly useful for individuals interested in discussing topics in the humanities in Mongolia, those intending to pursue graduate degrees abroad, or those wanting to improve their academic speaking abilities. Contact Julia Clark to get the article ahead of time.

Photo: https://www.exposingtruth.com/70-of-mongolian-nomads-now-have-solar-power/
Sponsored by the Cultural Heritage Program at the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)

For more information, please contact
Julia Clark, PhD
Cultural Heritage Coordinator
American Center for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org
9414-9155

Kalmyk Diaspora Archives Project
2017-01-01 - 2017-01-31 | Page – Membership
A new cultural program has been inaugurated to assist the Kalmyk diaspora community to preserve its heritage. Responding to a request from a Kalmyk scholar in Elista, the New Jersey Folk Festival and its founder Angus K. Gillespie, have gathered a team of scholars and activists to help develop a Kalmyk Diaspora Archiving Project (KDAP). An integral part of KDAP is an exhibit featuring archival materials. The core of the exhibit will consist of 10 banners delineating subject areas such as: Women as Preservers of Kalmyk Culture, Religion, Kalmyk Tea, Literature, the Ger, From Nomadism to Urbanism, among others. Each banner will indicate the different aspects of the theme with use of images from as many examples of materials involved in the Archive Project as possible.
The opening ceremonies for the exhibit, entitled From Pastoral Nomadism to Global Urbanism, are scheduled to take place in January 2017 (NOTE: event has been postponed from the originally planned Friday, March 25, 2016). The event will be at the Douglass Library of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. Further details will be made available as the opening date approaches. Inquiries should be sent to the Project Director Nikolai Burlakoff at kap@aelitapress.org. Follow the KDAP project at its Facebook page.

Humanities Reading and Discussion Group Dec 12th, 2016
2016-12-12 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
This group will meet every other Monday evening at 6 pm to discuss (in English) an article that was assigned and distributed the week before. “Humanities” describes a range of subjects that study human culture including archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, religious studies, and others. Articles will be selected by the ACMS Cultural Heritage Program Coordinator. This group is open to all and will be particularly useful for individuals interested in discussing topics in the humanities in Mongolia, those intending to pursue graduate degrees abroad, or those wanting to improve their academic speaking abilities. Contact Julia Clark to get the article ahead of time.
The next meeting will be held on December 12th at 6:00 pm at the ACMS Classroom in the Natsagdorj Library back (east) entrance, 2nd floor. The topic will be Buddhism in Present Day Mongolia.
For more information, please contact
Julia Clark, PhD
Cultural Heritage Coordinator
American Center for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org
9414-9155

Speaker Series - William Taylor
2016-11-21 17:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
The Origins of Horse Herding and Transport in the Eastern Steppe
In the dry steppes of eastern Eurasia, domestic horses (E. caballus) provide the economic and cultural foundations of nomadic life. With no written records and sparse archaeological data, the ecological context of the first horse herding and transport – and its role in the formation of nomadic pastoral societies – is poorly understood. Some of the earliest evidence for domestic horses in the region come from small ritual horse burials found at stone monuments and burials known as deer stones and khirigsuurs, which date to the late second millennium BCE. Archaeozoological investigations reveal that these people selectively bred horses, practicing sophisticated herd management and equine dentistry. Analysis of anthropogenic changes to the equine skull indicate that these animals were bridled and used for transport, and may have engaged in early mounted horseback riding. Finally, a precision radiocarbon model suggests a rapid expansion of domestic horse use across Mongolia around ca. 1200 BCE. This expansion occurred in the context of climate amelioration, concurrent with both major changes in ritual practice and the spread of horses to new parts of the continent. These results provide compelling links between the adoption of horseback riding, new ecological opportunities, and the development of mobile pastoralism in the Mongolian steppe. Future research will explore the subject of when and why other domestic animals were adopted in Mongolia, and investigate the effects of horse riding on mobility and interaction across eastern Eurasia.

Philadelphia Speaker Series: Ts. Oyungerel and Jeffrey L. Falt "The Green Eyed Lama"
2016-11-15 00:30 - 13:30 (America/New_York)
“The year is 1938. The newly-installed Communist Government of Mongolia, under orders from Moscow, launches a nation-wide purge. Before it’s over, nearly tenth of the country’s population is murdered. Sendmaa, a young herdswoman, falls in love with Baasan, a talented and handsome lama. Baasan resolves to leave the priesthood and marry Sendmaa, but her scheming neighbor, persuades Baasan’s brother, Bold, to “ask a bride” first. Their love triangle is engulfed by tragedy when Choibalsan, Mongolia’s Stalin, moves to crush the Buddhist faith. As the country teeters toward war, Baasan is sentenced to death as a class enemy. But an improbable ally, a lama turned “KGB” agent, intervenes in a way that reaches all the way to Franklin Roosevelt. Still, Baasan must summon every bit of his talent and ingenuity if he’s to survive the gulag, reunite with Sendmaa, and help save the Buddhist faith.”

For nearly 10 years the Mongolian version of The Green Eyed Lama has been on Mongolia’s best seller list, and has won numerous awards. The book has been recently released in French and the English version is in the final stages of editing. The book was authored by former Member of Mongolia’s Parliament and former Minister of Sports, Culture and Tourism, Oyungerel Tsedevdamba and Jeffrey L. Falt, and both authors will be present at the ACMS in Philadelphia to discuss the history, issues and lessons to be learned from the dark period of Mongolia’s past in which the book is set in.
This event is free and open to the public.

Hans Hofmann’s Last Lesson: A Study of the Artist’s Materials During the Last Decade of His Career
2016-11-08 15:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
Dawn V. Rogala, Ph.D.
Paintings Conservator, Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute

Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) was intellectually and physically situated at the nexus of Abstract Expressionist experimentation. Many of the condition problems conservators face in the treatment of modern paintings first appear in Abstract Expressionist work, and Hofmann is an excellent mirror of this unique historical moment. Join us in an overview of Dr. Rogala’s research on the work of this renowned artist and teacher, and in a discussion of what Hofmann’s materials can teach us about the study and preservation of modern art.
Building on her earlier Smithsonian research revealing incompatibility problems in the incorporation of new materials by Hofmann and his Abstract Expressionist colleagues, this new research by Dr. Rogala tracks Hofmann’s use of materials during and following the operation of his popular art schools in New York City and Provincetown, Massachusetts. Using analytical data gathered from the analysis of over 500 paint and fiber samples, this presentation will trace Hofmann’s embrace of industrial paint binders and modern organic pigments, focusing on relationships between the artist’s late-career materials, style, and the impact of these choices on the long-term stability of Hofmann’s work.

Speaker Series - Dr. Cristina Bertrand
2016-11-01 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Learning from Nature

Learning from Nature is a new way of understanding the place of human beings in the world. It is also the first step for inquiring about the laws of the material world, the interrelation of these laws with the human world and its practical application to daily life. Nature, then, will be the Master and its knowledge will give human beings the wisdom they need to be successful in their lives and at the same time, to respect and protect Nature. Nature is the root of Mongolian primitive beliefs. The connection with Nature is direct, and without an understanding it, life would be impossible in the harsh conditions of Mongolia’s deserts, steppes and mountains.
In the beginning, human beings contemplated the Heaven above and the Earth below. They were in the middle. This represents by itself a cosmology which we can also be found in the Chinese book of wisdom, the “Yi Jing”. The methodology of the Yi Jing can be applied to Mongolian Nature to try to understand its hidden laws which offer a gift of wisdom. With my paintings of Mongolian landscapes, I will try to make this wisdom accessible to all who want to learn from Nature.

Humanities Reading and Discussion Group Oct 24th, 2016
2016-10-24 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
This group will meet every other Monday evening at 6 pm to discuss (in English) an article that was assigned and distributed the week before. “Humanities” describes a range of subjects that study human culture including archaeology, anthropology, history, literature, linguistics, religious studies, and others. Articles will be selected by the ACMS Cultural Heritage Program Coordinator. This group is open to all and will be particularly useful for individuals interested in discussing topics in the humanities in Mongolia, those intending to pursue graduate degrees abroad, or those wanting to improve their academic speaking abilities. Contact Julia Clark to get the article ahead of time.

For more information, please contact
Julia Clark, PhD
Cultural Heritage Coordinator
American Center for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org
9414-9155

Speaker Series - Dr. Jeffrey L. Falt & Oyungerel Tsedendamba
2016-10-24 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
“The Green Eyed Lama”

“The year is 1938. The newly-installed Communist Government of Mongolia, under orders from Moscow, launches a nation-wide purge. Before it’s over, nearly tenth of the country’s population is murdered. Sendmaa, a young herdswoman, falls in love with Baasan, a talented and handsome lama. Baasan resolves to leave the priesthood and marry Sendmaa, but her scheming neighbor, persuades Baasan’s brother, Bold, to “ask a bride” first. Their love triangle is engulfed by tragedy when Choibalsan, Mongolia’s Stalin, moves to crush the Buddhist faith. As the country teeters toward war, Baasan is sentenced to death as a class enemy. But an improbable ally, a lama turned “KGB” agent, intervenes in a way that reaches all the way to Franklin Roosevelt. Still, Baasan must summon every bit of his talent and ingenuity if he’s to survive the gulag, reunite with Sendmaa, and help save the Buddhist faith.” For nearly 10 years the Mongolian version of The Green Eyed Lama” has been on the Mongolian best sellers list, and has won numerous awards. The book has been recently released in French and the English version is in the final stages of editing. This presentation by the author Oyungerel Tsedevdamba, former Minister and human rights activist, will discuss the history, issues and lessons to be learned from this dark period of Mongolia’s past.
Co-Sponsored by the American Cultural and Information Center, Ulaanbaatar

President Elbegdorj visit to University of Pennsylvania
2016-09-23 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York)
President of Mongolia Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj
Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj will give a special lecture at the University of Pennsylvania at 4:00pm on Friday, September 23rd, 2016. The University of Pennsylvania houses the ACMS US office, and is an emerging center for Mongolian Studies in North America.
ACMS Members and friends can attend the lecture at Jon Huntsman Hall (3730 Walnut Street, Philadelphia) for free. Please contact ACMS US Director David Dettmann by Friday Sep. 9 for special reserved tickets. Email the number of tickets and names of guests attending to:ddettmann@mongoliacenter.org.
President Elbegdorj’s will be welcomed to Philadelphia by Mayor Jim Kenney, Senator Bob Casey, Congressman Joe Pitts (Chair of the US-Mongolia Friendship Caucus) and other dignitaries. He will attend a concert given by the Philadelphia Philharmonic orchestra, which will be visiting Ulaanbaatar on a special tour in summer 2017, the first US orchestra to visit Mongolia. President Elbegdorj will then give a special lecture at 4:00pm at the University of Pennsylvania in conjunction with the opening of the Perry World House, a global exchange center on campus, and in recognition of the role of the ACMS and University of Pennsylvania in fostering Mongolian Studies.
For more information on the President’s visit, see our post here.

Speaker Series: Bees, sand and water: healing and an ‘everyday extraordinary’ in contemporary Mongolia
2016-09-13 17:30 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
For many late 19th and early 20th century thinkers, the modern condition was one synonymous with increasing rationalization and secularization. They predicted a growing ‘disenchantment of the world,’ a banishing of the mystic or mysterious as humans increasingly separated from and sought mastery over the natural world. However, instead of simply a disenchanted ‘modern’ world, what we see are concurrent processes of re-enchantment; within the socio-historical trend toward modernization are spaces re-imbued with wonder and mystery.
While wonderment represents one well-worn path to understanding re-enchantment, others have framed the concept in terms of ordinary, hidden features of life that hold great capacity for transcendence: an everyday extra-ordinary. In this paper, I explore what an ‘everyday extra-ordinary’ might mean with regards to healing in contemporary Mongolia. I employ 3 examples: sand, honey bees and water. Practitioners and patients at mineral springs (rashaan) and their healing centers (rashaan suvilal), sand healing centers (elsen suvilal) and apitherapy clinics described to me feeling a sense of wonder, reverence and magic for the element(s) responsible for the transformation. However, their sense of wonderment was not separate from the value placed in scientific description and proof about how such techniques work.
By considering dis-enchantment (an illumination) and re-enchantment (a re-imbuing with mystery and wonder) as concurrent, interrelated processes, one is positioned to question a modern vs. traditional dichotomy implicit in many narratives that circulate in late- or post-socialist contexts concerning a ‘revival’ or ‘reflorescence’ of ‘traditional’ customs or religiosity.
About the speaker: Elizabeth Turk

Beth is a current doctoral candidate in Social Anthropology at the University of Cambridge (Selwyn College) researching healing in Mongolia’s “age of the market.” She earned her Master of Arts degree in Sociocultural Anthropology from Columbia University in 2013.
For the past 6 months, Beth has been an ACMS Cultural Heritage Fellow exploring the role of legends, stories and histories surrounding mineral springs (rashaan) as they create meaning for the people who frequent them with the purpose of health improvement or maintenance, relaxation and amusement.
Beth first arrived in Mongolia as a Fulbright scholar in 2010-11 conducting research on shamanic healing rituals in Ulaanbaatar. Since that time, she has been working with the ACMS and would like to thank everyone there for their continued support over the years, especially her language instructor Dr. Tsermaa Tomorbaatar.
Зөгий, элс, рашаан ус өнөөгийн Монголын эмчилгээний гайхамшиг болох нь
XIX зууны сүүл XX зууны эхэн үеийн олон эрдэмтэд орчин үеийн шинжлэх ухаанчаар асуудалд хандаж,шашныг хязгаарлах нь улам ихэснэ гэж үзэж байсан бөгөөд дэлхий ертөнц гайхамшигт итгэхээ больж, ид шид нууцлаг зүйлсийг үгүйсгэж байгалиас хөндийрч, байгальд ноёрхолоо тогтоохыг оролдоно хэмээн тэд таамаглаж байжээ. Гэтэл орчин үед дэлхий ертөнц гайхамшигт итгэхээ больсонгүй харин ч гайхамшигт дахин итгэх процесс нэгэнт явагдаж, орчин үежих нийгэм түүхийн чиг хандлага доторх гайхамшигт оньсого мэт орон зай зэрэг бий болж байгааг бид харж байна.
Гайхах сэтгэл нь гайхамшигт дахин итгэж буйг ойлгох нэг батлагдсан арга зам бол энэхүү ухагдахууныг олон давуу талтай амьдралын энгийн, нууцлаг шинж чанар болох өдөр бүрийн гайхамшиг гэж тодорхойлдог. Энэхүү судалгааны ажилдаа би орчин үеийн Монголд эмчилгээний “өдөр бүрийн гайхамшиг” гэж юу болохыг судалж олохыг хичээлээ. Элс, балт зөгий, рашаан ус гэсэн гурван зүйлийг жишээ болгон авч үзлээ. Рашаан, рашаан сувилал, элсэн сувилал, зөгий эмчилгээний эмчлэгч, эмчлүүлэгч нар өөрчлөлтөд нөлөөлж буй элементүүдийг гайхан бишрэх, ид шидийн мэдрэмж төрж байснаа ярьж байсан юм. Гэхдээ тэдний гайхамшиг гэж үзэх тэрхүү мэдрэмж нь шинжлэх ухааны тодорхойлолтын үнэт зүйл, ийм арга техник хэрхэн яаж ажилладаг тухай нотолгооноос салангид зүйл биш юм.
Байгалиас хөндийрөх (гэгээрэх) болон байгальд дахин татагдах (нууцлаг, гайхалтай зүйлд уусах) байдлыг нэгэн зэрэг, харилцан хамааралтай процесс гэж үзвэл уламжлалт ёс заншил буюу шашин шүтэх байдал “дахин сэргэх” буюу “дахин цэцэглэх” тухай социализмын сүүл буюу дараа үеийн ном зохиолуудад дурьдагдаж байсан орчин үе болон уламжлал хоорондоо зөрчилддөг тухай агуулгыг дахин авч үзэх шаардлагатай болно.
Илтгэгчийн тухай: Элизабет Хантер Турк
Кэмбрижийн Их Сургуулийн (Сэлвин Коллеж) Нийгмийн антропологийн докторант Элизабет Хантер Турк “Зах зээлийн үеийн Монгол дахь эмчилгээний арга зам” сэдвээр судалгаа хийж байгаа бөгөөд хүмүүнлэгийн ухааны магистрын зэргээ 2013 онд Колумбын Их Сургуульд социологи, соёлын антропологийн чиглэлээр хамгаалсан.
Өнгөрсөн 6 сарын хугацаанд АМСТ-ийн соёлын өвийн тэтгэлэгээр өвчнөө эдгээх, биеэ эрүүлжүүлэх, амарч зугаацах зорилгоор тогтмол очдог хүмүүсийн хувьд чухал ач холбогдолтой байдаг рашаан сувиллыг тойрсон домог, түүхийн талаар судалж байна.
Тэрээр анх 2010-11 онд Монгол улсад Фулбрайтын судлаачаар ирж, Улаанбаатарт бөөгийн анагаах зан үйлийн талаар судалгаа хийсэн. Тэр үеэс хойш АМСТ-тэй хамтарч ажиллаж байгаа бөгөөд энэ хугацаанд үргэлж тусалж, дэмжиж байдаг АМСТ-ийнхөө бүх хамт олонд гүн талархал илэрхийлж байна.
This talk will be given in both English and Mongolian.
Co-Sponsored by the American Cultural and Information Center, Ulaanbaatar

Speaker Series - Snow Leopard Conservation in South Gobi - Nadia Mijiddorj & Justine Alexander
2016-09-06 17:30 - 19:00 (Asia/Ulaanbaatar)
The mountain landscapes used by the endangered snow leopard (Panthera uncia) and their prey is increasingly subject to human pressures. Humans are at the centre of major threats to the species, including retaliatory killing, livestock rearing, contribution to loss of prey, and the increasing penetration of development projects into snow leopard areas.
This talk will discuss the status of snow leopards in Mongolia’s South Gobi. More specifically we discuss patterns of conflicts between herders and two carnivore species, snow leopards and wolves, in the Tost mountains. On the basis of these findings, we consider protective measures at the local scale that would benefit snow leopards, and possibly other carnivore and prey species as well.
Nadia Bio:
Nadia Mijiddorj has been engaged with snow leopard conservation since 2002. She is especially interested in understanding how herding communities interact with their local environment in the mountain rangeland ecosystems. Currently she is completing her PhD at the National University of Mongolia.

Justine Bio :
Justine is a conservationist scientist with a strong interest in snow leopard conservation. She works for the Snow Leopard Trust as the Regional Ecologist and is based in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.

Thank you to the American Corner and the Natsagdorj Library for sponsoring this event.
THESE LECTURES ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Speaker Series - Dr. Kurt Galbreath - Building infrastructure for biodiversity research in Mongolia
2016-08-30 17:30 - 19:00 (Asia/Ulaanbaatar)
Mongolia has a complex landscape that is home to a rich assemblage of plants and animals. This biological diversity represents a unique legacy that sets Mongolia apart from neighboring regions. Though the Mongolian biota remains relatively intact, large-scale forces such as climate change and expanding economic development have potential to negatively impact species. Unfortunately, very little is known about current patterns of distribution and abundance of even the most common and widespread species. Without such a baseline of fundamental information it will be impossible to evaluate the consequences of environmental change in coming years.
Working with colleagues at the National University of Mongolia, we are working to document patterns of biodiversity across Mongolia, with a specific focus on small mammals and their associated parasites (e.g., fleas, ticks, tapeworms, and roundworms). These organisms are diverse, abundant, and excellent indicators of ecosystem health and population structure. Field work during 2015 and 2016 has resulted in collections of more than 2300 mammal specimens and many thousands of parasites from dozens of localities across northern Mongolia. These specimens represent a rich resource for research that is filling large gaps in our understanding of species distributions and host-parasite interactions. All collected specimens are archived in museum collections to provide a resource for future investigations into the evolution and ecology of Mongolian biodiversity. Data for these specimens, including date and locality of collection, are freely available to researchers and the public via the internet, and the specimens themselves provide opportunities for scientists to investigate species responses to climate change, host-parasite co-evolution, emerging infectious diseases, and other topics.
In addition to this specimen-based infrastructure for biodiversity research, we work directly with Mongolian scientists and students to share knowledge and research methods, and to encourage and facilitate investigations on Mongolian biodiversity by Mongolian researchers. In this way we hope to contribute to the human infrastructure for biodiversity research within Mongolia, which will be critical to develop as Mongolia works to respond to the impacts of large-scale ecological perturbations that are expected in coming decades.

About the Speaker: Dr. Kurt Galbreath
Kurt Galbreath is an Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan. His research focuses on the diversity, evolution, and historical biogeography of small mammals and their associated parasites, including tapeworms and roundworms. He is especially interested in relationships between the mammal and parasite faunas of Asia and North America, and the past climatological and geological events that influenced them.

Co-Sponsored by the American Cultural and Information Center, Ulaanbaatar

Young Researchers Workshop - International and Interdisciplinary Collaboration
2016-08-24 10:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York)
August 24th, 2016
Open Event. All levels or researchers and academics welcome.
Collaborative research has had a long history in Mongolia. But with the increasing number of foreign educated Mongolian academics, there is a new dynamic emerging around research and collaboration relationships. Combine that with funding organizations focusing more on multinational and multi-disciplinary research, there is a need for all future researchers to adapt to new realities. This workshop is geared to set the groundwork for future collaborative research projects and begin building new research partnerships.
The primary workshop activity will be pairing off with someone from a different nationality and/or discipline to prepare a research project. We will be providing copies of application materials for various grants, if there is something you are working on or thinking of applying for, please bring that along!
Event will take place at the American Corner presentation room starting at 10 am till 3 pm.
Lunch and refreshments will be provided to participants.
For more information contact Dr. Marissa Smith at msmith@mongoliacenter.org or the ACMS at info@mongoliacenter.org

Dual Presentation - Dr. Marissa Smith & Dr. Saskia Abrahms- Kavunenko - From Contemporary Mongolian Buddhism to International Research Models
2016-08-23 18:00 - 19:30 (Asia/Ulaanbaatar)
This weeks topics.
Models for International and Interdisciplinary Research in Mongolia: Perspectives from Participant Observation with Historical Considerations
In this talk I will present some examples of successful international and interdisciplinary research collaborations from a participant observation project this past July. As an American cultural anthropologist working with a team of Mongolian, American, Australian, and Western European archaeologists with geological, physical, and biological specializations, I collaboratively confronted issues of international and interdisciplinary collaboration in everyday research activities as well as in recorded interviews with members of the research team. All of the research projects required international collaboration of some kind at some point. Successful collaboration took national differences seriously and set up relations of exchange of valuables in kind rather than a few one-way transfers in contexts of national groups independently pursuing different projects.
Since the Revolution of 1991, the diversity of researchers in terms of nationality working in Mongolia and with Mongolians has greatly increased. However, Mongolia was also the scene of numerous research projects involving international collaboration long before the 1990s, and home to a complex system of academic institutions organizing particular research interests, methodologies, and international collaborations in ways distinct to the country. Considering this history, I account for the importance of the exchange of disciplinary and more general cultural knowledge, particularly via international researchers’ development of Mongolian language skills.
Bio
Marissa Smith, PhD is a cultural anthropologist interested in Mongolian cosmopolitanism, science, and technology, particularly the ways in which these bridge distinctions of urban and rural, central and peripheral at local, national, regional, and global scales. She obtained her PhD from Princeton University in 2015 after completing a dissertation on the relationships of nutag, ovoo, and erdene in the international work of multiethnic employees of the Erdenet Mining Corporation. Her research has been supported by the Princeton Institute of International and Regional Studies and the American Center of Mongolian Studies. Marissa currently teaches cultural anthropology at De Anza College in Cupertino, California.
Light, Enlightenment and Purification: Contemporary Mongolian Buddhism in Ulaanbaatar
Before the socialist period Buddhist institutions were the custodians of enlightenment, reincarnation lineages, and of the knowledge and practices needed to become enlightened. In the 1930s, as the socialist government brutally repressed Buddhism, the term enlightenment (gegeerel) was appropriated to mean secular education (Sneath 2009). As such, enlightenment was no longer under the control of the monasteries and high lamas. It became a pursuit not only available to all Mongolians but morally incumbent upon them.
This talk will discuss how enlightenment in the Buddhist sense, once restricted to temples in the presocialist period, and suppressed, coopted and mystified during socialism (Højer 2009), is now a concept that, although confusing and contested, is available to many urban Mongolians. It will describe how Mongolian ideas about enlightenment are often related to ideas about purification, and, with the introduction of countless New Religious Movements and Christianity, is no longer simply the domain of high lamas within Buddhist institutions. The city now contains, amongst a plethora of others, several vegetarian New Religious Movements offering purification through meditation and the eating of vegetarian or ‘white foods’ (tsagaan hool).
Bio.
Dr. Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko is a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany. She is currently a fellow at the American Centre for Mongolian Studies.

pXRF in Culture Heritage Short Course
2016-07-29
Description:
Portable x-ray fluorescence (pXRF) technology is a valuable tool for archaeologists, art historians, geologists and conservators seeking to nondestructively determine the elemental composition of artifacts and art objects. In archaeology, pXRF is used in the field to establish the provenience of lithic, ceramic, and metal objects; distinguish patterns of exchange and mobility; and characterize distinct traditions of craft production. This workshop will provide participants with a basic introduction to the physics of XRF spectroscopy and to the mechanics of portable XRF analysis. In additional, we will discuss the potential applications and limitations of this kind of analysis for a variety of fields and research questions. Participants are encouraged to bring items with them that we will analysis with a pXRF spectrometer. This short course will be taught by PhD Candidate Camilla Sturm from the University of Pittsburgh.
Date:
Friday, July 29th, 2016
9-11:30: Introduction and Lecture
1:30-3:30: Discussion and Demonstration

Price:
10,000 ₮ for the 1 day workshop. Your payment reserves your spot in the workshop. Space is limited so reserve your spot ahead of time! Contact Julia (jclark@mongoliacenter.org) for details on how to make this payment.

Contact:
Dr Julia Clark
American Centre for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org
(+976) 9414-9155

Speaker Series - Dr. Wayne Lee & Dr. Günhan Börekçi- comparative military history of Mongolia
2016-07-05 17:30 - 19:00 (Asia/Ulaanbaatar)
Tuesday July 5th, 5:30-7:00 pm
American Corner, Natsagdorj Library, Ulaanbaatar

Comparing Strategies of Conquest and Control in the Sown, the Steppe, and the Wilderness: Understanding Landscapes and Logistics
Like most army planners, military historians tend to focus on conquest. They spend less time thinking about how a conquering society then manages or controls those territories or peoples thereafter. Furthermore, most military historians examine conquest by and of sedentary agricultural societies. There are key exceptions, but in general few examine the processes of conquest or control on the steppe or in the wilderness. This paper compares those three types of landscapes and their impact on the logistics of conquest and control, using 18th-century North America and the Mongol conquests as examples of the special problems posed in the steppe and in the “wilderness.” This is still an exploratory work, and I hope to learn from the audience more about how the steppe landscape functions and how it has been shaped by human activity, and how it in turn shapes the strategies of conquest and control.
Mounted Archers in War: The Ottoman Imperial Cavalry and their Training Exercises for Battles in the Age of Gunpowder Revolution
From the fifteenth century onward, Ottoman authors produced several important works on various aspects of military horsemanship and mounted archery. These works, some of which were based on the Mamluk furûsiyya literature, provide us highly valuable insights not only on the development of horseback archery in world history, but also on the critical question of how the Ottomans actually prepared their imperial cavalry forces for battles in an age when land warfare had been transformed by the so-called Gunpowder Revolution. In this context, by examining a select group of hitherto unpublished Ottoman military treatises and manuals, this paper discusses the training methods and related cavalry exercises utilized by the Ottomans so as to perfect their horsemanship and mounted archery skills and tactics for the new type of warfare in which artillery and firearms played an increasingly vital role in defining the outcomes in the battlefields.
Bio:
Wayne E. Lee is the Dowd Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, where he also chairs the Curriculum in Peace, War, and Defense. He is the author of Waging War: Conflict, Culture, and Innovation in World History (2016), Barbarians and Brothers: Anglo-American Warfare, 1500-1865 (2011), and Crowds and Soldiers in Revolutionary North Carolina (2001), as well as two edited volumes on world military history (both 2011) and many articles and book chapters. He has an additional career as an archaeologist, having done field work in Greece, Albania, Hungary, Croatia, and Virginia, including co-directing two field projects, and was a principal author and co-editor of Light and Shadow: Isolation and Interaction in the Shala Valley of Northern Albania, winner of the 2014 Society for American Archaeology’s book award. He is just finishing a year as the Harold K. Johnson Visiting Professor of Military History at the U.S. Army War College. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Lee served in the U.S. Army as a combat engineer.
Günhan Börekçi is an assistant professor of history and currently works as a faculty member at İstanbul Şehir University. His main areas of research include early modern Ottoman political, military and social history, 17th-century global crisis, and Turkish archery and horsemanship. In addition to his numerous articles and encyclopedia entries on Ottoman history, he has published with Ahmet Arslantürk a facsimile edition of Feridun Ahmed Bey’s illustrated chronicle, Nüzhet-i Esrârü’l-Ahyâr der Ahbâr-ı Sefer-i Sigetvar [Topkapı Palace Museum Library, MS Hazine 1339], on Süleyman the Magnificent’s last Hungarian campaign in 1566 (Istanbul, 2012). His new book on Sultan Mehmed III’s imperial campaign against the Habsburgs in 1596 is forthcoming in Turkish under the title, Macaristan’da bir Osmanlı Padişahı [An Ottoman Sultan in Hungary].
This is a free event provided with support from the United States Department of Education and the Natsagdorj Library

Geophysics for Archaeologists Short Course
2016-07-02 - 2016-07-03
Introduction:
Geophysics has become an integral part of archaeological investigations based on the ability of these techniques to non-invasively and rapidly characterise the nature of the subsurface. This short course aims to provide a practical introduction to the common methods used in archaeological geophysics and inspire archaeologists to apply them to their own projects. In addition to developing this understanding of the techniques, instruction will be provided in basic field operation, data processing, data interpretation and geophysical reporting so that course participants will become “educated consumers” of geophysical information. Techniques covered will include ground penetrating radar (GPR), electromagnetic induction (EMI), direct current resistivity, magnetometry, gradiometer and magnetic susceptibility. Hands-on experience for students will include GPR and magnetometry and student will work in small groups to process, interpret and present to their peers geophysical data from an archaeological site. This course will also introduce geomatic techniques essential for modern geophysical investigations such as unmanned aerial photography, surveying and photogrammetry.
Schedule:
Saturday 2 July
9-12 am: Introduction to Geophysical and Geomatic Techniques
1-5 pm: Demonstration of Geophysical and Geomatic Field Equipment

Sunday 3 July
9-10am: Introduction to Geophysical Data Processing and Interpretation
10-3pm: Supervised Data Processing of Magnetometry and GPR Data
3-5pm: Presentation and Discussion of Results

Software:
Course participants will use the following freeware, which will be provided via Google Drive prior to the course.
Magpick
Groundvision
QGIS

Price:
25,000 ₮ for the 2 day workshop. Your payment reserves your spot in the workshop. Space is limited so reserve your spot ahead of time! Contact Julia (jclark@mongoliacenter.org) for details on how to make this payment.

Contact:
Dr Julia Clark
American Centre for Mongolian Studies
jclark@mongoliacenter.org
(+976) 9414-9155

Ceremony - Documentary film by Sas Carey
2016-07-01 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Friday, July 1st, 5:30 – 7 pm
American Corner Presentation Room, Natsagdorj Library, Ulaanbaatar
About CEREMONY
CEREMONY is a spiritual journey among shamans in northern Mongolia. The documentary revolves around a specific ceremony in the steppes. Outside we see mists with reindeer emerging, smoke coming from stovepipes through the poles of the Siberian tipis or urts, animals grazing on the steppe, and the moon in a clear sky. Inside, we experience a mysterious ritual as a shaman slips into a trance around midnight when the stars come out. The master shaman beats the drum, chants, dances, and takes on the spirit. He then motions to his young shaman apprentice to begin playing a mouth harp. The shaman and others give commentaries on the events during the ceremony to help the viewer comprehend the mysterious phenomenon.
Following the film there will be an open discussion with Sas Carey and other experts on shamanism and life in the Taiga.

Sas Carey, Biography
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sas-carey-71538b19
As a seeker for the place where earth, spirit, and healing intersect, Sas Carey has been searching in Mongolia for over two decades. She is a registered nurse, energy healer, educator, author, and filmmaker. Following her first trip to Mongolia with the American Holistic Nurses’ Association in 1994, she founded and now directs the not-for-profit Nomadicare (nomadicare.org).
Nomadicare supports the sustainability and cultural survival of nomadic peoples by harmonizing traditional and modern medicine and documenting nomadic life ways, lore, and heart songs. Being an AFS foreign exchange student in high school was the start of her passion to know cultures and people beyond a superficial level. From an energy connection with her first step on Mongolian ground, she explored traditional Mongolian medicine, served as a health educator for the United Nations Development Programme, created a documentary about Gobi women called “Gobi Women’s Song”, and published a book, Reindeer Herders in My Heart.
The journey naturally intersected with shamans who seemed to embody the connection of earth, spirit, and healing. By plane, train, car, horse and reindeer, Sas Carey travels each year to the Dukha reindeer herders, Mongolia’s smallest ethnic group, to experience their life and learn from them. She rides reindeer, migrated from the spring to summer camp, focused healing energy on shamans, and created a seven-year health database for herders. She was given her own reindeer, named Sas.
She lives in Vermont and spends two months in Mongolia each summer. All her movies are about Mongolia’s nomadic life.
Movies:
Migration, 80 minutes, 2016 (Earth’s Choice Award at the Earth Day Festival in San Francisco, official selection at Parnu Film Festival, Estonia)
CEREMONY, 45-minute documentary, 2015 (screened in New York, Washington DC, Chicago and along the east coast of the US)
Taiga Heart Song, 7-minute documentary on youTube, 2007
Gobi Women’s Song, 73-minute documentary, 2005
Steppe Herbs, Mare’s Milk and Jelly Jars: A Journey to Mongolian Medicine, 19- minute documentary, 1995

Scholar’s Corner - The Real World of Numbers
2016-06-30 18:30 - 20:00 (Asia/Ulaanbaatar)
Thursday June 30th, 6:30-8:00 pm, Blue Sky Hotel, 7th floor patio
For many, mathematics and calculations are something to be endured as a student and forgotten once you enter the “real world”. But in reality, mathematics is moving out of the chalky halls or academia and into the realms of predictive modelling, financial analysis, advertising, social media and nearly every part of our modern life.
This week, we want to meet and celebrate those who see more than just numbers but are describing and changing the world we live in. We are proud to have as our guest host for the evening Prof. Jonathan Dawes Director of the Bath Institute for Mathematical Innovation at Bath University and Deputy Director of the Centre for Networks and Collective Behavior, an internationally recognised applied mathematician.
Scholar’s Corner events are informal gatherings where interested individuals can meet, share their research, their interests and make new connections. It is open to students, academics, experts and arm chair scholars.
The event is organized by the American Center for Mongolian Studies. This event is open to all interested in the topic of discussion.
Cash bar will be available for those wishing to have a meal or beverage.
For more information contact the ACMS office 7711-0486 or info@mongoliacenter.org

Scholar's Corner- Women leaders in Mongolia
2016-06-27 18:30 - 20:00 (America/New_York)
Monday June 27th, 6:30-8 pm – Blue Sky Hotel 24th Floor Blue Sky Lounge VIP
Our fourth informal event of the summer, this evening’s open discussion will focus on women leaders in Mongolia. This is a collaborative event between the ACMS and the Liberal Women’s Brain Pool and the students of a visiting study abroad course from Western Washington University.
Scholar’s Corner events are informal gatherings where interested individuals can meet, share their research, their interests and make new connections. It is open to students, academics, experts and arm chair scholars.
The event is organized by the American Center for Mongolian Studies. This is a free event, open to all interested in the topic of discussion.
A cash bar will be available for those wishing to have a meal or beverage.
See you on Thursday at the Blue Sky 7th floor.

Sensory Engagements with Ulaanbaatar’s Toxic Atmosphere
2016-06-21 17:30 - 19:00 (America/New_York)
Speaker Series: Chisato Fukuda
Air quality metrics have become the most pervasive scientific form of air pollution evidence. In Ulaanbaatar, the government has invested in an air quality monitoring network, planted Air Quality Index (AQI) boards along sidewalks, and designed websites to showcase real-time air quality data. Although these initiatives attempt to raise public “awareness”, they fail to capture how most Ulaanbaatar citizens understand air pollution. City residents make sense of toxic air, not through numbers, but through breathing, absorbing, and dwelling in polluted space. Drawing from participant-observation, interviews, and surveys among ger district residents, coal workers, atmospheric scientists, and health practitioners, this paper ethnographically examines how city dwellers gauge toxicity levels, explain disease causation, and navigate city life through sensory engagement. This paper reveals how air’s multiple and overlapping properties and processes – heat, emission, flow, odor – inform the ways many urban Mongolians make sense of their toxic surroundings. I suggest that an ethnographic attunement to the sensorial de-stabilizes narrow ideas about air pollution, breaking down dichotomies of polluted/non-polluted, unhealthy/healthy, risky/safe and reconfigures pollution into a matter of material flows, spaces, and social relations.
Co-Sponsored by the American Cultural and Information Center, Ulaanbaatar
About the Presenter
Chisato Fukuda is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. As a medical and environmental anthropologist, she is interested in studying the relationship between human health, political economy, and the urban environment. She is currently completing 20 months of dissertation fieldwork on air pollution in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Her project examines how local perceptions about air pollution are shaped by state politics, the informal coal economy and everyday engagements with degrading infrastructures. Working alongside coal workers, peri-urban residents, atmospheric scientists, and health practitioners, she examines how city dwellers are constantly adapting to and making sense of the toxic spaces they inhabit. Her dissertation research is supported by the National Science Foundation, Wenner-Gren Foundation, Fulbright Institute of International Education, and the Holtz Center for Science and Technology Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She will begin writing her dissertation thesis in Fall 2016.

Ecological change in Lake Hovsgol, Mongolia's largest lake
2016-06-14 17:30 - 19:00 (Asia/Ulaanbaatar)
Speaker Series: Chris Free
Lake Hovsgol, Mongolia’s largest freshwater lake and the 19th largest lake in the world by volume, is among the world’s most pristine and unique lakes. Despite its remoteness, protected status, and low human population density, Lake Hovsgol is threatened by the synergistic pressures of climate change, water pollution, overfishing, and development. Analysis of local weather station data reveals a 1.8°C increase in air temperature over the last half century, a rate of warming more than three times the global average, which contributes to the drying of many previously reliable streams and the loss of fish spawning habitat. Surveys for pelagic microplastics and shoreline macroplastics indicate that Lake Hovsgol is more polluted than other more developed and densely populated watersheds owing to its lack of waste management system and long residence time. Interviews with herders and park rangers and shoreline surveys for derelict fishing gear suggest that gillnet fishing, though illegal, is an important source of food and income for the resident herder population and that fishing effort is increasing in intensity. Although stable isotope analyses suggest that food web structure has not changed over the past decade, analyses of long-term monitoring data suggest that fish populations, particularly Hovsgol grayling (Thymallus nigrescens), burbot (Lota lota), and roach (Rutilus rutilus), are in decline. It is difficult to know whether these declines are due to overfishing or climate change without robust measurements of fisheries removals, but data-poor stock assessment analyses indicate that plausible levels of fishing have the capacity to overexploit the endangered, endemic Hovsgol grayling population. These issues are likely to be exacerbated as access and tourism increase and the way in which these issues are resolved or ignored in the iconic Lake Hovsgol National Park could shape future protected area management in Mongolia.
Co-Sponsored by the American Cultural and Information Center, Ulaanbaatar
About the Presenter
Chris Free is a PhD candidate and NMFS-Sea Grant Population Dynamics Fellow working with Olaf Jensen in the Department of Marine & Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.His research focuses on using quantitative and interdisciplinary methods to explore solutions to aquatic conservation and management problems. Currently, he is working on data-poor fisheries management methods in the United States and on the impacts of anthropogenic stressors such as illegal fishing, hydropower development, microplastic pollution, and climate change on endangered salmonids in Mongolia.

Eurasian Continentalism and the Global Community
2016-06-02 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York)
Scholar’s Corner
Our second informal event of the summer, this evening’s open discussion will focus on on Mongolia’s role in Eurasia and in the global community.
Scholar’s Corner events are informal gatherings where interested individuals can meet, share their research, their interests and make new connections. It is open to students, academics, experts and arm chair scholars.
The event is organized by the American Center for Mongolian Studies. This event is open to all interested in the topic of discussion. Cash bar will be available for those wishing to have a meal or beverage.
