Description
The American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) was established in 2002 to encourage academic exchange with Mongolia and Inner Asia. A member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, ACMS supports research, develops resources and fosters academic partnerships in all fields of study related to Mongolia. It is the only international academic organization with a full-time staffed office in Ulaanbaatar, serving a global scholarly community including 40 institutional members from the United States, Mongolia and elsewhere. The Luce Foundation has supported two of ACMS’s previous efforts, a graduate student fellowship program and a cultural heritage research and training program.
ACMS requests funding from the Luce Foundation to support a Mongolia Field School program that will allow students and faculty from North America and Mongolia to explore critical issues facing Mongolia and its neighbors in a collaborative field setting. Although still a country that lies beyond the scope of many Asian studies programs, Mongolia is attracting growing interest as a historical cross-roads whose empires influenced civilizations across Eurasia, and as a developing country embarking on a natural resource-intensive development path, where traditional nomadic pastoralism faces socio-economic and ecological challenges.
The field school, organized and overseen by ACMS, will take place across Mongolia annually over three weeks in the summer. Four parallel field opportunities will be offered each year, each developed and led by experienced North American faculty in collaboration with Mongolian partners. For the first year, proposed topics are corporate social responsibility in the mining sector (Charles Krusekopf, economics, Royal Roads University); preservation of Mongolia’s cultural heritage (Julia Clark, anthropology and archaeology, ACMS); globalization and migration (Holly Barcus, geography, Macalester College); and renewable energy from sun, wind and rain (Darrin Magee, geography, Hobart & William Smith Colleges). The field school model will introduce field research techniques and allow interdisciplinary, international teams to explore issues in context and develop new insights and perspectives on Mongolia.
Undergraduate and graduate students from American and selected Canadian universities are eligible to apply, with selection determined by a committee comprised of the four faculty leads. One or two additional North American or Mongolian faculty are expected to join each field opportunity as well, either with their students or at the invitation of the faculty lead. ACMS anticipates enrolling ten students in each of the four topic areas, for a total of 40 students per summer session. Approximately 30 of the students will come from North America and ten from Mongolia. Mongolian faculty participants, identified through the ACMS network, will join ACMS representatives on a committee to vet Mongolian student applications.
The field school will begin with a four-day orientation in Ulaanbaatar with lectures and lessons on Mongolian history, culture and language, followed by two weeks of site visits and field research in the capital and other locations in Mongolia. It will conclude with a three-day wrap-up conference where the student teams will present on their experiences and preliminary findings to each other and invited guests. Students who wish to extend their stay in Mongolia can apply separately to participate in Mongolian language lessons through ACMS. ACMS is also available to assist with applications for internships or other academic programs in Mongolia.
Program participants will be encouraged to make presentations to audiences in their home institutions or communities. ACMS will make funds available to those who present at academic conferences. All participating faculty are expected to develop curriculum and other teaching resources on Mongolia.
North American participants are responsible for their international travel. Grant funds and tuition will cover the direct costs of running the field school, including housing in Ulaanbaatar and the field sites, travel within Mongolia, and guest speaker stipends. Our grant will also support preparatory reconnaissance by the four faculty leads in year one; the participation of all Mongolian students; partial scholarships for 18 of the 30 North American students per year, based on need; stipends for Mongolian faculty participants and North American faculty leads; and subsidies for travel to present at conferences.
Recommendation: That the Directors of the Henry Luce Foundation approve a three-year grant of $450,000 to the American Center for Mongolian Studies for the Mongolia Field School program.
