Speaker Series Audience

Speaker Series lectures are generally given from 5 pm to 6 pm on Thursday evenings on the campus of the National University of Mongolia. The lectures are 40-50 minutes in length, with an opportunity for audience members to ask questions. From 6 pm to 7 pm audience members are invited to the ACMS reading room for refreshments and an opportunity for further discussion.

The ACMS invites researchers and scholars to present public lectures at the ACMS Speaker Series on a rolling basis. If you are planning to visit Mongolia between late August and early July to conduct research or study, please contact info@mongoliacenter.org to schedule a date to present. The lectures must be conducted in English, and all academic disciplines are welcome. The Speaker Series is a great opportunity for scholars to present their work and for the general public to learn about academic research in Mongolia. Please notify the ACMS at least two weeks prior to your proposed date to speak in order to allow enough time to advertise the lecture.

The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) invites researchers and scholars to present public lectures during the ACMS Fall 2008 Speaker Series. If you are planning to visit Mongolia between September and December 2008 to conduct research or study, please contact info@mongoliacenter.org to schedule a date to participate in this public lecture series. The lectures must be conducted in English, and all academic disciplines are welcome. The Speaker Series is a great opportunity for scholars to present their work and for the general public to learn about academic research in Mongolia. Please notify the ACMS at least two weeks prior to your proposed date to speak in order to allow enough time to advertise the lecture.

‘Going on Otor’: Strategies of Mobility in Pastoral Mongolia

November 6th, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

Daniel Murphy's research examines the political ecology of resource use and resource access among herders in Bayankhutag soum, Khentii. This talk will focus on a kind of mobility called “otor” that is critical both in periods of low-level environmental stress such as drought and in conditions that could lead to disaster such as zud. The talk will examine the range of factors that shape and influence: (1) herders’ decisions to make otor migrations,(2) the methods by which herders access campsites and pasture, including the claims they make on those resources, and (3) the ways in which they defend their right to use those resources or exclude others from use. In particular, the researcher will discuss the changing nature of animal ownership and labor in the pastoral economy, the mix of informal and formal resource management institutions, and the dynamic cultural politics of use rights as critical elements in understanding this resource use strategy. This research argues that otor mobility is not a simple response to risk and environmental stress , but is also a complex socio-cultural and political economic phenomena.

Daniel Murphy is a Phd Candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, USA. His research focuses on the anthropology of globalization and economic development, political ecology, and the comparative study of pastoral societies. His current Phd research focuses on the political ecology of resource use among pastoralists in the contemporary herding economy of Bayankhutag soum in Khentii. This talk is based on data collected in Bayankhutag soum from June – July 2006 and from December 2007 – October 2008. The early phase of the research was conducted with support from the University of Kentucky Graduate School and Office of International Affairs and with a Susan Abbott Jamieson Award for Pre-Dissertation Research from the Department of Anthropology, University of Kentucky. The current research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Program, the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the National Anthropology Honor Society – Lambda Alpha, the University of Kentucky, and the National University of Mongolia’s Foreign Relations Department, the Department of Anthropology, and the Center for Development Research. He is also grateful to the American Center for Mongolian Studies for additional support, and the herders and government officials of Bayankhutag and other soums in Khentii aimag.

Christianity meets Social Work in Mongolia

November 20th, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

Mainstream Christianity arrived in Mongolia in 1990 shortly after the constitution was changed and a market economy was ushered in. Today about one percent of the population is mainstream Christian. While Christianity is experiencing limited growth in the Western world, it is thriving in the developing world, and Mongolia is no exception. This lecture will offer a glimpse on where mainstream Christianity and social work have been converging and where they could be travelling together, based on the work and perspective of Dr Roger Van Der Veen (Human Issues Consultant), on his fifth trip to Mongolia, who has been involved with the Mongolian Association of Social Work Educators, Joint Christian Services International, Union Bible Theological College (UBTC), and the National Cancer Centre.

Dr Roger Van Der Veen is a Human Issues Consultant who provides training, counselling, and debriefing to missionaries, church planters, social workers, and aid workers from Mongolia and other countries. His substantive employment in Australia is as a practitioner in the field of mental health. His previous employment includes health and hospital work, child protection, immigrants and refugees, workplace counselling, and seven years as a university lecturer in counselling and community development. He lives in Australia with his wife and two children.

Below is a list of all previous Speaker Series lecturers since 2004. The list is preseneted in chronological order beginning with the most recent lecture from the previous season. 

September 25th, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

Gender Equity in Hgher Education in Mongolia: Research Findings

Ms. Enkhjargal investigates reasons for the lower participation of males than females in Mongolian higher education. She explores the cultural and societal norms that affect gender equity and access to higher education in Mongolia, as well as economic factors. Her research is intended to contribute to the understanding of why this gender imbalance persists in Mongolian higher education, especially since in all spheres of life, including politics and certainly business, males predominate in leadership positions.

Ms. Enkhjargal is a PhD student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Education. She will co-present her lecture with John C. Weidman who is Professor of Education and Sociology Chair at the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

September 11th, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

The Structural Aesthetics of the Third Wave: Movement, Developmentalism, and the New Cooperative Herding Economy in Post-2001 Mongolia

Between 1999 and 2001, a series of severe winters known as dzuds marked a shift in rural economic development work in Mongolia. In the 1990s, a comparatively atomized and livestock-focused approach to rural business growth struggled to keep pace with significant urban-to-rural migration and the challenges of transition from a centrally planned economy to a liberalized free-market economic system. But since the dzuds, a re-orientation towards support – from government as much as from non-profit NGOs and the private sector – for more diverse economic activity, often organized around herding cooperatives (horshoo or horshoolol), has taken place. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on the Gobi Regional Economic Growth Initiative, this lecture aims to examine the history of rural economic development in Mongolia since 2001, suggesting that the new cooperative herding economy shares certain parallels with collective economic models of the Soviet past. As such, the so-called “Third Wave” of collective rural institutions traces the outlines of a new critical theory of developmentalism in late-modern Mongolia.

Geoffrey Aung graduated from Columbia University in 2008, with a B.A. in Anthropology. He first came to Mongolia as part of the Spring 2007 SIT Study Abroad program, and he returns this summer thanks to support from the American Center for Mongolian Studies and the Department of Socio-Cultural Anthropology at the National University of Mongolia. Upon completion of his research in Mongolia, Geoffrey will travel to the Thailand-Burma border, where as a Fulbright Scholar he will conduct research on the relationship between migrant labor from Burma and economic development in Thailand.

August 28th, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

Non-governmental Organizations, Theories of Justice and the Mongolian Context

This talk will explore how non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a more centralized role in fulfilling obligations of justice. Ms. Obrecht will look at how this role changes between state-based versus cosmopolitan approaches and what that implies for the strengths of either approach. Her method is to paint a portrait of the type of agent an NGO is, therein describing the kinds of rights and obligations associated with that agency and how it is different from other types of agency. To achieve this, she will draw on her empirical research on NGOs in Mongolia, highlighting overarching themes that run across Mongolian and international NGOs’ views of themselves and of the other agents with whom they interact.

Alice Obrecht is a DPhil candidate in the department of philosophy, logic and scientific method at the London School of Economics. Her thesis is on the ethical agency of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and accountability. For 2007-2008 she is conducting empirical research on NGOs in Mongolia with funding by the Fulbright Commission and the Central Research Fund of the University of London.

June 26th, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

Education and labor market in Central Asia

Otgontugs Banzragch will discuss her dissertation research which is primarily an empirical study using Living Standard Measurement Surveys (LSMS) conducted by the World Bank Central Asian transition countries. Her research focused on trying to estimate returns to schooling and education in these countries.

Otgontugs Banzragch worked at School of Economic Studies at the National University of Mongolia until 1995 as a lecturer in Economics. She earned her Bachelor of Arts in Economics at Moscow State University and Master of Arts in Economics at the University of Manchester, UK. She is currently pursuing a PhD in Economics and Education at Columbia University, USA.

May 29, 2008, 5pm Room 305, Building No. 5 NUM

Mongolia’s Mineral Sector in Limbo: Perpetually Awaiting Elections…

Mongolia’s mineral development sector is in limbo due to failure of the government to consummate investment agreements and approve development of several important mining projects – projects that could add materially to the wealth of the nation. Here we suggest that the only insurmountable perils facing the mining industry today are reactionary plans for more government control of the sector, including provisions for taking majority ownership positions in large deposits, and unsustainable tax regimes. This aberrant shift in policy will erode the incentive for private mining companies and explorers, particularly targeting those from Western economies that are the very companies which under more attractive (and transparent) investment conditions would invest heavily in exploration, discover new resources and build new sustainable First-World mines. It is concluded that the mining policy issue is of critical importance to all Mongolians and its timely resolution with true maximum social benefits is an opportunity, and a challenge, without parallel in Mongolia’s fledgling market economy.

Mr. Cluer is a US-based geologist with a B.Sc. degree from Idaho State University and M.Sc. degree from the University of Arizona and has been working in and around Mongolia for 10 years, with key involvement in several large-scale development projects including the Boroo and Gatsuurt gold deposits. He has more than 20 years of international experience in the mineral exploration and development sector, having worked for companies such as Tenneco Minerals, Independence Mining, Santa Fe Pacific Gold, Uranerz, Cameco Gold and Centerra Gold. More recently he has partnered with other venture capitalist entrepreneurs to create Altan Rio, a privately funded global exploration company currently working in Nevada, Brazil and Mongolia.