Posts
by Dr. Julian Dierkes & Dr. Charles Krusekopf
The Mongolian Parliament has been
considering a proposal for the creation of a special fund for the implementation of
a National Program for Promoting Mongolian Studies adopted by the Government in
2012. This proposal was initiated by President Ts. Elbegdorj and recently
endorsed by the Parliament’s Budget Standing Committee. As international
academics conducting research work on Mongolia, we want to applaud the overall
aim of the proposal to promote academic research and build global understanding
of Mongolia’s culture, environment and contemporary society.
Based on our more than 20 years
of research experience in Mongolia and our work with the American Center for
Mongolian Studies (ACMS) supporting academic research and exchange in Mongolia
through our office, library and programs in Ulaanbaatar, we would like to offer
four suggestions to maximize the impact and effectiveness of the National
Program for Promoting Mongolian Studies:
- Adopt an inclusive definition of the term “Mongolian Studies”;
- Use an inventory of research on Mongolia to plan further activities and to integrate researchers in different disciplines around the world;
- Make the results of research on Mongolia more accessible; and
- Build research capacity among Mongolian Studies scholars in Mongolia and abroad.
First, it is important that the
Program adopt an inclusive definition of the term “Mongolian Studies”. We
suggest that the term should include academic research on Mongolian any
discipline, from anthropology and the social sciences, to history and the
humanities, zoology and the natural sciences.From our experience, researchers
in Mongolian Studies traditionally dedicated their careers to Mongolian history
and linguistics, and were clustered around a few established centers of
Mongolian Studies. Today, universities and researchers worldwide are moving
away from geographically-defined research and toward more comparative and
theory-driven approaches.Researchers are now more likely to be trained in
disciplinary fields, and then select a particular country for their empirical
work, rather than focusing exclusively in one country.
This tendency is particularly
evident in past few years in Mongolia. Academic interest in Mongolia across a
range of disciplines has been increasing, and the ACMS has seen growth in our
membership, which now includes more than 40 universities and almost 400
scholars from around the world. The ACMS office in Ulaanbaatar hosts a growing
number of students and researchers every year who are conducting research work
in a wide variety of academic fields, including more than 300 international
visitors in 2012. Most of these researchers and students do not consider themselves
“Mongolian Studies” scholars, but work and publish in their primary
disciplines, including biology, political science, and anthropology. Field researchers find Mongolia
to be an excellent site to study topics of global interest and importance such
as climate change, economic and political transition, East Asian civilizations,
and cultural continuity and change in the face of rapid development. The
Program should capture and support this broader interest in Mongolia,
particularly among new generations of scholars, while still supporting
specialists who focus exclusively on Mongolia.
Another source of growth in
academic interest in Mongolia has been the research conducted by Mongolian
scholars, many of whom have received advanced degrees from prestigious international
universities. These scholars also may not define themselves as “Mongolian
Studies” specialists, but they are conducting research on topics crucial to
Mongolia’s present and future development. It will be important to support
these scholars and research topics that focus on contemporary Mongolia to
provide better information and analysis to decision
makers.
To support the active and growing
group of researchers working with Mongolia, we would encourage several specific
initiatives under the National Program for Promoting Mongolian Studies.
First, in order to plan for
further activities for the Program, an inventory of contemporary research on
Mongolia is needed. This should precede and inform decisions on the focus areas
for the Program. The ACMS has been exploring ways to create a database of
scholars and institutions working in Mongolia, similar to the databases of
Japan Studies scholars and institutions created periodically by the Japan
Foundation. This database might be updated and made useful through a social
media site that allows Mongolian Studies scholars to meet and share information
on their research work.
Second, we would support efforts
to make resources related to Mongolia more accessible, both within Mongolia and
online. Mongolian libraries and museums lack online catalogues, and digital
collections are underdeveloped and generally not accessible. Databases,
catalogues and digital collections can be developed using international
standards, which would allow Mongolian materials to be accessible by both
international and Mongolian scholars.Bibliographies of publications related to
Mongolia can be created through the inventory of research we recommend above,
along with archives of unpublished materials such as reports and research
papers. These efforts will require training and the development of software,
hardware and content, but Mongolia can partner with international organizations
and build on the experience of other developed and developing countries.
Third, individual scholars should
be supported in their efforts to build research and writing skills. Mongolian
scholars need training through workshops and mentoring in developing and
publishing academic papers in leading international journals and other forums,
and in finding ways to link their research work with current policy issues.
Foreign scholars need help building their networks and partnerships in Mongolia,
and skills such as Mongolian language with possible publishing in leading
Mongolian journals. Based on the experience of the ACMS, which developed the
first for-credit online Mongolian language course, we believe online courses can
be important tool to bring together a dispersed set of scholars from different
universities and raise their cultural awareness and research ability.
Several
of these suggestions would enhance the impact and support the implementation
of the National Program for Promoting Mongolian Studies.We look forward to work
with the Mongolian government, academic institutions and the ACMS to help
promote Mongolian Studies and the development of a new generation of scholars
who can contribute to both the preservation of Mongolia’s cultural heritage and
the sustainable development of the country.
Charles
Krusekopf
Executive
Director, American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS)
Associate
Professor, Royal Roads University
charles.krusekopf@royalroads.ca
Julian Dierkes
Vice-President,
ACMS
Associate
Professor, University of British Columbia
j.dierkes@ubc.ca
