The Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies offers post-doctoral fellowships for the 2020-2021 academic year. The post-docs are open to scholars in the humanities and social sciences specializing in East Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia.

Fellowships are granted for one academic year or one semester. The starting date of the visit should not be later than four years after receipt of the doctoral degree; the fellow must hold a valid doctoral degree no later than October 2020.

The fellowship consists of a monthly stipend (tax free) of $1,800, paid in Israeli currency and linked to the representative rate of exchange. Fellows are entitled to one airline ticket (economy class, up to $1,500) for a direct flight from their hometown to Israel and back. The fellows are expected to teach one semester-long course at the Hebrew University (for additional payment, according to the Hebrew University regulations). The ability to teach a course in Hebrew is welcome, but is not a prerequisite for attaining the fellowship. The fellows will also actively participate in the life and activities of the Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies and will present their research at the seminar of the Department of Asian Studies, and possibly at other relevant forums. Any work outside the Hebrew University would be allowed only after specific approval by the Frieberg Center. Applicants should submit one hard copy and an electronic copy—in one file—of their application to the address below, no later than March 8, 2020.

The application must include:

1. CV

2. Research plan (up to 5 pages)

3. A sample of applicant’s publications (if relevant)

4. Two letters of recommendation

The applicant should indicate the names and positions of the recommenders, but the letters of recommendation should be sent by the recommenders directly to the email address below.

Please send materials to email: eacenter@mail.huji.ac.il

For questions and further info please contact eacenter@mail.huji.ac.il or Prof. Michal Biran at biranm@mail.huji.ac.il

To read more on the Department of Asian Studies: http://en.asia.huji.ac.il/; On the Frieberg Center https://eacenter.huji.ac.il/

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The Mongolia & Inner Asia Studies Unit, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, invites applications for an Early-Career Postdoctoral Fellowship tenable for four years from 1 September 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter. Applicants should be completing or have recently completed a doctorate and intend to pursue research on one or more of the societies or cultures of the area covered by the Unit (see further particulars) with a preference for the western part of the Mongolian cultural area.

The Early-Career Postdoctoral Fellow will be expected to pursue learning and research in their chosen field and publish the results. The Fellow will also be expected to play a full role in the MIASU's research activities, including seminars, workshops, conferences and developing future grant applications. The fellow may also be asked to contribute to the teaching of the Department and Unit.

Candidates should have specialist knowledge of one or more of the societies or cultures of the area covered by the Unit (the Republic of Mongolia, some areas of China [Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang] and Russia [Buryatia, Tuva, Altai, Kalmykia), and the areas of the Himalayan region [including Sikkim, parts of Nepal, and Bhutan]). Preference will be given to candidates with a plan for research on the western part of the Mongolian cultural area.

The salary for the Research Associate starts at £32,816 to £40,322 per annum. If you have not yet received your PhD you will be appointed as a Research Assistant and the salary will be starting at £26,715 to £30,942 per annum until the PhD is awarded. This includes those who have submitted but not yet received their PhD (in which case appointment will initially be made at research assistant and amended to research associate when the PhD is awarded).

Applicants should provide: (i) a curriculum vitae with details of the applicant's education record, any publications and a brief statement of eligibility for this early-career post; (ii) academic transcripts of undergraduate degree and for any higher degrees awarded; (iii) a statement of not more than 1,000 words outlining present and proposed research; (iv) A sample of the candidates writings in the English language of between 10,000 and 20,000 words in length e.g. selected chapters of a doctoral dissertation or publications; (v) the names and contact details of two referees familiar with the applicant's work. The referees of short-listed candidates will be contacted and asked to supply a reference by the end of May 2020.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 15 April 2020.

Enquiries may be addressed to: Libby Peachey, MIASU Administrator at eaup2@cam.ac.uk

Learn more at: http://www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/25326/

CALL FOR PAPERS FOR THE MONGOLIA SOCIETY ANNUAL MEETING AND PANELS AT MIT ANTHROPOLOGY (MARCH 19-22, 2020)

The 2020 Annual Meeting and Panels of The Mongolia Society will be held on Sunday, March 22, 2020 at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Anthropology in Cambridge, MA. Our event will take place while the AAS (Association for Asian Studies) is meeting in Boston (March 19-22, 2020) and not at its conference hotel, but on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Further information on the Society’s Annual Meeting will be available at a later date.

The Mongolia Society is placing a CALL FOR PAPERS for the 2020 Annual Meeting and Panels at MIT Anthropology.  Please submit your abstract.  In addition to papers on general humanities, arts, education and social science topics, we invite papers on ethno-botany, environmental studies, medicine, public health, economic development, and science and technology studies in contemporary and historical periods, no later than February 10, 2020 to The Mongolia Society office. Your abstract must contain the paper title, be no more than 300 words, and have contact information, including email address.  If your abstract is accepted, you will have 20 minutes to present your paper. 

You must be a Mongolia Society member to present a paper. To join the Society⃰, please either contact the Society office or go to our website www.mongoliasociety.org   

Please send your abstract to Susie Drost, The Mongolia Society, 304 Eigenmann Hall, Indiana University, 1900 E. 10th St., Bloomington, IN  47406; Telephone and Fax number:  812-855-4078;  E-Mail address: monsoc@indiana.edu; Web:  www.mongoliasociety.org

ATTENDANCE DONATION for the 2020 Mongolia Society Annual Meeting and Panels: $15 for Mongolia Society Members, $25 for Non-Members⃰; $10 for students with ID. Please pay by going to our website (www.mongoliasociety.org) and clicking the Donation button, making the notation annual meeting. Attendance Donation fee must be paid by March 15, 2020 to attend our meeting and panels. You will be sent a receipt for your donation that you can use as your entry pass to these events.

⃰The Society is offering a special discounted membership rate when new members join and pay The Mongolia Society Annual Meeting Attendance donation at the same time. It will only cost $40 for new members to join the Society and attend The Mongolia Society Annual Meeting and Panels.

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CALL FOR APPLICATIONS AT ASIA PACIFIC WORKSHOP 2020 BY EARLY CAREER SCHOLARS (JULY 5-11, 2020)

The American Political Science Association (APSA) is pleased to announce a Call for Applications for early-career scholars who would like to participate in the 2020 APSA Asia Pacific Workshop. The program is an opportunity to connect with scholars from across East and Southeast Asia and advance research related to contentious politics in Asia.

The workshop is part of a multi-year effort to support political science research among early-career scholars in East and Southeast Asia, and to strengthen research networks linking Asian scholars with colleagues overseas.  

The workshop will be held from July 5–11, 2020 in partnership with City University of Hong Kong. Leading the workshop will be Teri L. Caraway (University of Minnesota), Edmund W. Cheng (City University of Hong Kong), Jai Kwan Jung (Korea University), and Teresa Wright (California State University-Long Beach). The organizers will cover participation costs (including airfare, lodging, and materials) for up to 22 qualified applicants. The working language of the workshop is English.  

Further information on the Asia Pacific Workshop program and a link to the 2020 Application Form can be found at https://connect.apsanet.org/asia/.

The deadline for applications is Saturday, March 14, 2020.  

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Digital collections related to Mongolia we discovered in February, 2020:

• Nomoihan.ru: "Буряад-Монгол онлайн номой hан" (Buryat-Mongol Online Literature Library) A website with hundreds of Buryat novels, short stories, folk tales, aphorisms, praises, and proverbs--all free to download.

Some scholarly papers published in February, 2020:

• Sagepub: "The All-Buryat Congress for the Spiritual Rebirth and Consolidation of the Nation: Siberian politics in the final year of the USSR"
• Springer: "Dynamical downscaling simulation and projection for mean and extreme temperature and precipitation over central Asia"
• Wiley Online Library: "Recently increased cold air outbreaks over Mongolia and their specific synoptic pattern"
• Papersearch.net: "Who is Rex Corum in the Letter of 1333 by Pope John XXII?"
• Carolina Digital Repository: "Errant Latin: The Transformation of Language in Medieval Missions to the Mongol Empire"
• Elibrary.ru: "The impacts of positive emotion, engagement and relationship on job satisfaction: the case of Mongolia"
• Elibrary.ru: "
• Dudley Knox Library: "Opportunities and Risk of Mongolia Joining the Asian Super-Grid"

GOOGLE'S SPEECH-TO-TEXT APP GBOARD NOW SUPPORTS MONGOLIAN

Google has added the Mongolian voice-to-text AI in its mobile keyboard app. The news trended on Facebook and Twitter this past week when Battulga Bayarsaikhan, a prominent Mongolian software engineer at Google, announced this news, prompting many users who have tried to app to laud its accuracy and ease of use.

The app is available on both Android (link here) and iOS (link here), and also has Google Translate embedded, so one can voice-type in Mongolian, and have it be translated into English or any of the 200 languages the app supports. 

Read more (in Mongolian)...

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HOW BOULDERS IN MONGOLIAN MOUNTAINS REVEAL THE PACE OF CLIMATE CHANGE 

A team of glacial geologists from University of Maine worked on the moraines, or landforms carved into the landscape by glaciers, at the Altai Tavan Bogd National Park. Their research is concerned with finding out what caused the climate to warm and cool all on its own before humans had a hand in increasing greenhouse gas emissions.

Read more...

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WHAT BACTERIAL CULTURES REVEAL ABOUT OURS

The Heirloom Microbes project team has been working to identify and preserve rare microbes used in transforming milk into yogurts and cheeses. In the process, they hope to understand which microbes were unique to specific early dairy communities.

In Mongolia, most herders have no idea that the khöröngo is, in fact, made up of a wealth of microbes. And that lack of knowledge could be a problem. Not only do these microbes bring benefits to the health, diet, and food practices of Mongolians—as well as a distinctive taste endemic to their cuisine—but they could be lost as Western industrial practices come to the country..

Read more...

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A RENAISSANCE IS UNDERWAY FOR MONGOLIA'S LITERATURE LOVERS

As Mongolia marks the 30th anniversary of its transition from state socialism to a free market economy, its publishing market has evolved to reflect the priorities of a more internationally connected society.

Bookshelves in Ulaanbaatar are heaving with international literature in translation, and new local authors writing in their native language.

Read more...

Interesting Links -- A variety of articles related to Mongolia were posted during February 2020; here are some of the more notable ones:

• Reuters, posted on Feb 1: "Mongolia closes border to China until March 2 to stop virus"
• AKIPress, posted on Feb 3: "Mongolia evacuates its 31 citizens from Wuhan"
• Idaho Mountain Express, posted on Feb 2: "Talk on Mongolian forest at Hailey Library"
  
• The Oklahoman, posted on Feb 3: "Ancient Egypt, Mongolia on exhibit at Kansas City museum"
• AKIPress, posted on Feb 3: "Mongolia debuts its first ever produced automobile"
• The Diplomat, posted on Feb 9: "Mongolia Braces for Coronavirus Impact"
• Brighton&HoveNews, posted on Feb 9: "The Hu bring their warrior rock to Brighton"
• AKIPress, posted on Feb 10: "Mongolia-South Korea relations expected to move forward to strategic partnership"
• Argus Media, posted on Feb 11: "Mongolia halts all coal exports amid coronavirus spread"
• Foreign Policy, posted on Feb 14: "Living While Female in Mongolia"
• Nikkei Asian Review, posted on Feb 14: "Mongolians embrace 21st century tourism boom"
• AKIPress, posted on Feb 18: "Mongolia cancels all tourism events in March"
• New York Times, posted on Feb  19: "Mongolia to Shut Schools Until March 30 to Curb Virus Outbreak"
• AKIPress, posted on Feb 19: "U.S. pledges to help preventing coronavirus outbreak in Mongolia"
• NASDAQ, posted on Feb 20: "Rio Tinto Subsidiary Seeks Arbitration To Settle Tax Dispute With Mongolia"
  
• Daily Beast, posted on Feb 22: "‘Black Milk’ Is a Feminist Saga About a Woman Who Repels Bad Men With Black Breast Milk"

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Transnational Law and State Transformation: The Case of Extractive Development in Mongolia,  by Jennifer Lander; 284 pages; $49.95 as ebook (Routledge, 2019)

This book contributes new theoretical insight and in-depth empirical analysis about the relationship between transnational legality, state change and the globalisation of markets.

Mongolia’s recent transformation as a mineral-exporting country provides a rare opportunity to witness economic and legal globalisation in process. Based on careful empirical analysis of national law and policy-making, the book traces the way distinctive processes of transnational legal ordering have reorganised and reframed the governance of Mongolia’s mining sector, specifically by redistributing state power in relation to the market, sub-national administrations and civil society.

Jennifer Lander is a Lecturer in Law at De Montfort University, UK.

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Long Song Heritage of Inner Mongols (Өвөр Монголчуудын уртын дууны өв) by Dorjdagva Myagmarjav (Erdenezul, 2019)

Based on a survey done in 2009 across 5 banners of Inner Mongolia (Ordos, Alasha, Chahar, Horchin-Zarud, Buryat, Barga), the book categorizes long song styles of over 271 songs by 139 singers. The book comes with a DVD of the said singers.

ISBN: 978-99978-4-888-8

To purchase or order this book, please write to: info@nomadic.mn

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Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains: Ecology at the Russia-Mongolian Border, edited by Alex Oehler and Anna Varfolomeeva (Lexington Books, 2019)

Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains brings together new ethnographic insights from the mountains of Southern Siberia and Mongolia. Contributors to this edited collection examine Indigenous ideas of what it means to make a home alongside animals and spirits in changing alpine and subalpine environments. Set in the Eastern Saian Mountain Region of South Central Siberia and northern Mongolia, this book covers an area famous for its claim as the birthplace of Eurasian reindeer domestication. Using ethnographic nuance, the contributors highlight the many connections between humans and other species, stressing the networks of relationships that transcend idioms of dominance or mutualism. This book is recommended for students and scholars of anthropology, environmental studies, and Asian studies.

"Multispecies Households in the Saian Mountains: Ecology at the Russia-Mongolia Border highlights the complex attunements between humans, animals, and invisible entities in the taiga, using a historical and anthropological perspective. Through rich and original ethnographical vignettes, this volume offers subtle insights into the taiga landscape, perceived as a home shared by human and non-human sentient beings, and adds to our understanding of the shaping of multispecies coexistence in a time of change and uncertainty in Inner Asia" • Charlotte Marchina, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales

Alex Oehler is assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Anna Varfolomeeva is assistant professor at School of Advanced Studies at Tyumen State University.

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The Anti-Social Contract: Injurious Talk and Dangerous Exchanges in Northern Mongolia by Lars Hojer: (Berghahn, 2019)

Set in a remote district of villagers and nomadic pastoralists in the northernmost part of Mongolia, this book introduces a local world where social relationships are cast in witchcraft-like idioms of mistrust and suspicion.

While the apparent social breakdown that followed the collapse of state socialism in Mongolia often implied a chaotic lack of social cohesion, this ethnography reveals an everyday universe where uncertain relations are as much internally cultivated in indigenous Mongolian perceptions of social relatedness, as they are externally confronted in post-socialist surroundings of unemployment and diminished social security.

“This book is a very important and vibrant ethnographic work… By emphasizing the dynamics of distancing, suspicion and avoidance in anti-social relations, the author introduces a new, and much fuller, conceptual purchase onto the anthropological term ‘other’, which has underpinned a great deal of classical and contemporary analysis in the discipline.” • Katherine Swancutt, King’s College London

Lars Højer is an associate professor at the Centre for Comparative Culture Studies, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies at the University of Copenhagen. He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Mongolia and Inner Asia. His previous anthropological research has mainly focused on social, economic, religious, and political aspects of transition processes in urban and rural post-socialist Mongolia.

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The Mongols and the Armenians (1220-1335) by Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog: 270 pages; Open Access (Brill, 2011)

This book is an invitation to a journey to the medieval world, which, in author’s opinion, is the most picturesque period of human history to embark back to, and it is definitely one of the fascinating moments of the Great Mongol Empire. It is an interesting journey in many way: historically, geographically and culturally. It will take the reader from the Inner Asian plateau to the Caucasus, Anatolia, Middle and Near East; from a nomadic culture to sedentary civilizations; from a warrior’s mindset to the subjects’ survival policy.

The present work tries to understand the connection between the various aspects of East and West in Medieval times by exploring relations between two nations, the Armenians and the Mongols, who began interacting with each other during the thirteenth century. During that time the Mongols became widely known to the world for building the most extensive land empire in human history that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Adriatic Sea, covering mosts of Asia all the way to Korea, excluding India and Eastern Europe, but including Hungary.

Bayarsaikhan Dashdondog currently works at the History Department at the National University of Mongolia. Bayarsaikhan does research in History of Mongol Empire; Mongol-Armenian Relationship; History of Religion and Historiography of the Mongols. Her current project is 'Chancellery Practice of the Mongols.'

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Urban Hunters: Dealing and Dreaming in Times of Transition by Lars Hoger and Morton Axel Pederson; 288 pages; $85 (Yale University Press, 2019)

Urban Hunters is an Ethnography of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, during the nation's transition from socialism to a market-based economic system. Following the Soviet collapse in 1991, Mongolia entered into a period of economic chaos characterized by wild inflation, disappearing banks and closing farms, factories and schools. During this time of widespread poverty, a generation of young adults came of age. In exploring the social, cultural and existential ramifications of a transition that has become permanent and acquired a life of its own, the authors present a new theorization of social agency in post- socialist as well as post-colonial contexts.

Lars Hoger is Associate Professor and Deputy Head at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. 

Morten Axel Pederson is Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Copenhagen and Vice Director of the Copenhagen Center for Social Data Science. 

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Mongolia: A Political History of the Land and its People by Michael Dillon; 232 pages; $29.95 (IB Tauris, 2019)

In the words of pre-publication material from the publisher, "Mongolia remains a beautiful barren land of spectacularly clothed horse riders, nomadic romance and windswept landscape. But modern Mongolia is now caught between two giants: China and Russia; and known to be home to enormous mineral resources they are keen to exploit. China is expanding economically into the region, buying up mining interests and strengthening its control over Inner Mongolia. 

"Michael Dillon, one of the foremost experts on the region, seeks to tell the modern history of this fascinating country. He investigates its history of repression, the slaughter of the country's Buddhists, its painful experiences under Soviet rule and dictatorship, and its history of corruption. But there is hope for its future and it now has a functioning parliamentary democracy which is broadly representative of Mongolia's ethnic mix. How long it can last is another question. Short, sharp and authoritative, Mongolia will become the standard text on the region as it begins to shape world affairs.

Michael Dillon was founding director of the Center for Contemporary Chinese Studies at the University of Durham where he taught modern Chinese history. He is a Fellow at the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Asiatic Society and was Visiting Fellow at Tsingha University in Beijing. He has travelled throughout China and Central Asia for over 40 years and speaks and reads both Chinese and Mongolian. He is the author of China: A Modern History.

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Several non-traditional books on Mongolia have been published this year or are anticipated in 2020. Though entirely non-academic in nature, some of these titles may nonetheless be of interest to ACMS members. 

Examples of the types of unusual, offbeat, interesting and at times intriguing English language books related in some way to Mongolia that find their way into print include Easy Mongolian Cookbook: Enjoy Authentic Mongolian Cooking with 50 Delicious Mongolian Recipies (Independently Published, 2019); The Mongolian Conspiracy by Rafael Bernal (Kindle Edition, 2019); Girl Forward: A Tale of One Woman's Unlikely Adventure in Mongolia by Heather Wallace (Water Horse Press, 2019); Tend My Sheep: A Veterinarian in Mongolia by Gerald Mitchum (Independently Published, 2019); and a new Lonely Planet Mongolian Phrase Book and Dictionary (Lonely Planet, 2020).