Overseas Faculty Development Seminar

Public Health in Mongolia: Challenges and Opportunities

Dates: July 26 - August 9, 2025*

Course Overview

Public Health in Mongolia: Challenges and Opportunities is a specialized Mongolia Field School course for faculty and administrators at US Community Colleges. It is administered through the CAORC Overseas Faculty Development Seminar program (OFDS) and presented in collaboration with the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).

CAORC offers fully-funded overseas seminars that help faculty and administrators at community colleges gain the requisite first-hand experience needed to develop and improve international courses, curricula, and teaching materials.

This seminar, administered by CAORC in collaboration with its member center in Mongolia, the American Center for Mongolian Studies, funds participation in a two-week seminar in Mongolia focused on public health issues. The program includes stays in the urban capital Ulaanbaatar, the rural communities at Kharkhorin, the historic capital of the Mongol Empire, Erdene Zuu Monastery, the oldest Buddhist monastery in Mongolia, and a visit to Hustai National Park, home to the rare and endangered Przewalski’s horses. Mongolia, with its vast landscapes, shares similarities to rural parts of the United States and other countries, where limited infrastructure and a dispersed population that lives on the land must contend with challenges related to economic opportunity and limited availability of health resources.

Community colleges are at the forefront of training for professional careers in the health professions and related fields. These topics also impact a wide range of issues in the social sciences and humanities through economic development, government, and cultural change. Through site visits and meetings in Mongolia, participants will be able to hear from local officials, health specialists, and nomadic pastoralists and gain a first-hand understanding of the unique public health challenges facing both urban and rural communities in the region. Participants will explore how socio-economic conditions and availability of resources impact local responses, and how international cooperation can help overcome challenges. Participants will be able to connect experiences of people living in their own communities with the health issues facing this remote region, and discuss how we can collaborate to develop shared solutions. Round-trip travel, accommodations, in-country transportation, and selected meals will be provided for the seminar.

*Please note that the dates listed are tentative program dates and are not inclusive of travel. Dates may be adjusted slightly due to flight availability.

Instructor

Charles Krusekopf  is a professor in the School of Business at Royal Roads University and current Oxford New Horizons Programme fellow. He has been working in Mongolia since 1992 founded the American Center for Mongolian Studies in 2001. Dr. Krusekopf has a PhD in Economics from the University of Washington, an MA in International Relations and China Studies from Johns Hopkins School of International Studies. He has served as a Fulbright Lecturer in Mongolia and has led numerous student and faculty programs in the country. He teaches across a range of fields including international trade and the global political economy, international business strategy, and environmental economics and policy, and writes regularly on Mongolia’s economic development and performance and the role Mongolia can play in energy cooperation in Northeast Asia.

Eligibility

The program is open to full-time or part-time faculty and administrators at U.S. community colleges and is open to faculty in all fields, at all academic ranks, and from any academic or administrative department.  

CAORC and the U.S. Department of State do not require any vaccinations to participate in the Overseas Faculty Development Seminar program, however the host countries, overseas research centers, individual sites, and communities that are part of the OFDS program schedule may have their own requirements for vaccination. These requirements may change from the time of application to the time of travel.

Applicants must be U.S. citizens at the time of application and must hold a valid, current U.S. passport that does not expire within six months of the last date of the program.

Applicants may apply to more than one seminar. Each application will be reviewed individually. 

Previous Overseas Faculty Development Seminar awardees are requested to observe a one-year waiting period before applying for another program. For example, a January 2025 participant would next be eligible to apply in January 2026, and participate in Summer 2026. 

Program Expectations

As an outcome of the Overseas Faculty Development Seminar program, participants are required to develop and implement a project to increase internationalization on their campus. Details and examples of these projects will be shared with awardees during pre-departure orientation. Projects should be implemented within one year of the conclusion of the program, at which time participants will be asked to submit a project report and share curriculum and/or documentation of the project that will be featured on CAORC's Open Educational Resources site.

Deadlines

Application deadline: December 2, 2024 at 5:00pm ET

Recommendation letter deadline: December 6, 2024 at 5:00pm ET

Notification of award decisions: January 31, 2025

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