Mongolian Institute Newsletter: Looking back at 2023
Diplomatic Visits
- On 6 March 2023 the Mongolian Minister for Education and Science visited with a delegation. The CAP Dean hosted a lunch meeting with delegates, followed by a tour of the Mongolia room and meeting with staff and visiting students. As a feature of the visit, the Mongolia Institute showcased a display of photographs in the Coombs Foyer commemorating 50 years of diplomacy between Australia and Mongolia.
- Hosted by the ANU, the Minister for Education and Science attended a roundtable discussion with representatives from tertiary institutions from across Australia regarding Mongolian student exchanges and study in Australia. With the Mongolian Ambassador to Australia, the Minister also met with Vice-Chancellor Brian Schmidt to recognise a renewed Memorandum of Understanding between the National University of Mongolia and the ANU, facilitated by the Mongolia Institute.
- A Research Affiliate of the Mongolia Institute and former PhD student at the ANU, Narantuya Ganbat is commissioner at the National Human Rights Commission in Mongolia. She organised for a group of Australia Awards Fellows to visit the Mongolia Institute as part of a study tour. They were met by Director of ANU School of Culture, History and Language (CHL) Simon Haberle and Director of the Mongolia Institute Natasha Fijn, while Dr Uchralt Otede later presented a seminar to the group.
- On 1 November, Bolormaa Enkhbat, Governor of Khovd Province in Mongolia, visited as part of her participation in a Special Visits Program facilitated by DFAT.
Honours
- Li Narangoa was presented with a prestigious Polar Star Award by the President of Mongolia, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh, at the International Mongolian Studies Congress. Professor Narangoa was also elected to serve as Vice-President for the Society for International Mongolian Studies at the conference.
- Natasha Fijn was promoted to Associate Professor in anthropology.
- Uchralt Otede graduated with his second PhD, this time from the Australian National University.
Mongolia Institute Seminar Series and Visitors
The Institute hosts monthly seminars throughout the year, which are held in the Mongolia Room within the Coombs building but are also available to attend online.
We hosted two visitors in October. Benedikte V. Lindskog, a medical anthropologist from Norway, who was an international contributor with Professor Li Narangoa and Associate Professor Natasha Fijn on an ARC Discovery team project on the transfer of knowledge relating to Mongolian medicine. Benedikte gave a seminar entitled ‘Healing waters in Mongolia’, connecting to her chapter contribution within a co-edited book on Mongolian medicine as part of output from the ARC project. The second visitor was Professor Battogtokh Jarzandolgor from the National University of Mongolia. She presented on Mongolian foreign relations as a part of the seminar series.
Other presenters during the year included: Jesse Sequra, Uchralt Otede, Gerald Roche, and Tergel Tened. Three visiting students from Inner Mongolia gave presentations on their current research while at the ANU: Debao, Hao Riwa and Dagula.
We will have three students from Inner Mongolia engaging with the Mongolia Institute during 2024, as well as Associate Professor Chimge, a social linguist from Inner Mongolia University in China.
Courses
Li Narangoa and Natasha Fijn coordinated an in-country course in Mongolia with 15 students from the ANU from 29 June until the 13 July 2023. Batjav Bayartuul and Erdene-Ochir Tumen-Ochir, provided logistical support and introductory language lessons at the National University of Mongolia in the mornings. The students were an engaged cohort and were fortunate to have influential presenters from different walks of life.
Students had the opportunity to visit the Mongolian Embassy in Canberra prior to departure and the Australian Embassy while in Ulaanbaatar. In the afternoons they visited significant institutions in Ulaanbaatar, including being guided by two monks around Ganden Monastery and by historians at the new seven-story Chinggis Khan Museum. In the countryside, the group travelled to the ancient capital of Kharkhorin, attended a local Naadam festival and visited Hustai Nuruu National Park to learn about the management of the park by Mongolian scientists.
After the course, Natasha Fijn stayed on in Mongolia to conduct field research relating to her ARC Future Fellowship project, 'A multispecies anthropological approach to influenza' until the end of August, she travelled to Khovsgol, Arkhangai and Govi-Altai Provinces.
Mongolian Landscape Photography
One of the main events for the Mongolia Institute in 2023 was the opening of a photography exhibition on 28 September, Mongolian Perspectives through the Lens, featuring 72 diverse images from across Mongolia. The photographs were featured within the large Coombs tearoom and along a walkway on the floor above, which made for an interesting space.
Six dedicated Mongolian photographers travelled to Australia to attend the exhibition opening, all of whom are members of the very proactive Mongolian Landscape Photographer’s Society. Itgel Chuluunbaatar, a past alumni of the ANU and former Research Assistant to the Mongolia Institute, helped facilitate the success of the exhibition.
On 27 September, in conjunction with the CHL’s Immersia festival, the photographers gave a workshop for postgraduate students.
The Mongolian Perspectives through the Lens exhibition remained in the Coombs building for two weeks then was subsequently displayed in two other locations in the highlands of New South Wales. Enkhtsatsar, a member of the Mongolian Institute’s advisory board, and husband Brian Thornton, featured the exhibition at Mongolian evening within the community of Exeter. Natasha Fijn travelled to Exeter for the evening’s event and spoke about the significance of the photographs.
Mongolia Institute Afternoon Teas
On 7 June we held a farewell afternoon tea for two of our visiting students, Debao Han and Hao Riwa. We also farewelled Gan-Erdene Shagdarsuren from the Mongolian Embassy, who worked collaboratively with the Mongolia Institute throughout his five-year posting.
We had an afternoon tea for our two international visitors in October, Associate Professore Benedikte Lindskog and Professor Battogtokh Jarzandolgor.
Toward the end of the year we held an advisory board meeting, followed by a wider afternoon tea, where we farewelled visiting student Dagula, while welcoming two new visiting PhD students, who will be with us in 2024. Thank you to our four external advisory board members for their invaluable advice regarding the Mongolia Institute: Prof. Kent Anderson (who has supported the Institute from its inception), David Vosen, Sarah Johnston and Enkhtsatsar Thornton.
Publications
As part of the series of Immersia festival events, there was a launch of Natasha Fijn’s children’s book Mongol Mountain Journey, held outside the ANU ger, which remained set up beneath the gum trees on the north side of the Coombs building throughout Immersia.
Natasha Fijn co-edited a special issue in Anthropology Today on the topic of mutuality, which included her article on 'A mutual ecological approach to health in Mongolia'.
With Muhammad Kavesh, Natasha also published an edited book Nurturing Alternative Futures: living with diversity in a more-than-human world, which includes a chapter on 'Mongolia’s biocultural landscape: the importance of domestic and wild multispecies diversity'.
New Website
We now have a new Mongolia Institute website, including a people page with our fourteen members, which include ANU staff and postgraduate students; four external advisory board members; and seventeen international research affiliates.
The MongolInk blog has been archived on the website. Blog posts and other news items will be posted directly onto the Mongolia Institute website in future.
