ASSISTANT/ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF TRANSNATIONAL ASIAN STUDIES AT RICE UNIVERSITY

The Department of Transnational Asian Studies at Rice University in Houston, Texas invites applications for two full-time tenure-track positions. Both will be named chairs: the Gragg Professor of Transnational Asian Studies (Assistant or Associate Professor) and the TT and WF Chao Professor of Transnational Asian Studies (Assistant Professor). 

Responsibilities include 1) teaching and mentoring undergraduate and graduate students, 2) active research and publication in area of specialization, and 3) service to the department, the university and the field. 

The application process is entirely web-based. Submit a letter of application, full CV, the names of three references, a writing sample, and evidence of teaching excellence by December 1, 2020.  Further publications may be requested at a later date. Applications are accepted only through Rice University’s electronic system, and complete instructions are available at https://jobs.rice.edu/postings/24281. Specific questions may be sent to Prof. Lisa Balabanlilar, Chair of the Department of Transnational Asian Studies, at Balabanlilar@rice.edu

27TH ANNUAL ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EURASIAN STUDENTS CONFERENCE

FEBRUARY 26-28, 2021 (ONLINE)

The Association of Central Eurasian Students (ACES) at Indiana University is requesting submissions for our annual conference on Central Eurasian studies. They are accepting abstracts for 15-20 minute presentations on topics related to Central Eurasia. They welcome proposals from all disciplinary backgrounds, as well as from any regional or historical focus. Presentations may include, but are not limited to, topics in Iranian (Afghan/Persian), Mongolic, Tibetan, Tungusic, Turkic, and Uralic (Balto-Finnic, Hungarian, etc.) studies. Undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and independent scholars are all invited to apply. 

Given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Conference will be held virtually on Zoom on the weekend of 26-28 February, 2021. We welcome submissions from any part of the globe, so long as presenters are able to participate online. Accepted panelists should be prepared to give their presentation during normal business hours (9:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M.) in U.S. Eastern Standard Time (UTC -5:00).

We are pleased to welcome Dr. Manduhai Buyandelger as our keynote speaker at this year's conference. Dr. Buyandelger is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her prize-winning first book, Tragic Spirits: Shamanism, Gender, and Memory in Contemporary Mongolia (University of Chicago Press, 2013), looks at the revival of shamanism in Mongolia as a response to the collapse of the socialist state. More recently, her research has focused on gender and politics in postsocialist Mongolia. 

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OPEN CALL FOR EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS FOR THE DIGITAL ORIENTALIST 

Digital magazine and arm the American Oriental Society, The Digital Orientalist, is happy to announce its annual open call for editors and contributors. As we continue to expand our publication and readership, we are also looking to enter into new fields and as such we are eagerly looking for several new editors for the next academic year (2020-2021) from the following (or related) fields:

• African Studies.
• Central Asian Studies.
• Indian Studies.
• Korean Studies.
• Middle Eastern Studies.
• Mongolian Studies.
• Sinology.
• South East Asian Studies.
• Oceania or Pacific Island Studies.
• Persia or Iranian Studies.

These editorial positions will be particularly attractive to graduate students and early career researchers, but are also open to senior academics. Editors will be expected to contribute 5-6 short posts (up to 1,000 words each) between September 2020 and June 2021. In addition to new editors, we are also looking for people who are able to contribute guest posts or series of guests posts on the Digital Humanities in General, Islamic Studies, Japanology, Syriac Studies or any of the above noted fields. If you have something interesting to say and you wish to reach an expanding global audience then do not hesitate to get in contact.

Interested parties should send a CV to Dr. James Harry Morris MTheol, PhD, FRAS (University of Tsukuba) at james@digitalorientalist.com

READ MORE

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CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS: MONOGRAPHS OR EDITED VOLUMES FOR OUR NEW SERIES IN EAST ASIAN STUDIES

Vernon Press invites book proposals for edited volumes, co-authored books and single-author monographs on East Asian Studies, with an interdisciplinary outlook.

Generally described as the subregion in Asia comprised by North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China, Macao, Mongolia, Hong Kong, and China, East Asia has always fascinated the Western world. The history, culture, art, and literature—to name but a few—of this area have been consistently studied in academic circles for many generations, frequently in departments called East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALC). However, and in recent decades, new outlooks have emerged to study these aspects and many others related to East Asia, especially in the wake of Edward Said’s essential Orientalism (1978). The interest in this region and its study can also be observed by the increasing number of East Asian Studies programmes in universities all around the world.

This series will be of interest to scholars and students as well as independent researchers with an interest in East Asian studies from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Possible contributions include (but are not limited to):

• Literary interpretations of East Asian countries
• Cultural studies on the region
• East Asian American literary studies
• East Asian representation in media
• Rediscovering and rewriting East Asian history
• Forgotten East Asian women
• Sociological studies on the region
• East Asian archaeology
• How to submit your proposal

Please submit one-page monograph proposals to submissions@vernonpress.com or victoria.echegaray@vernonpress.com, including a summary, a short biographical note and (if applicable) a list of similar titles. Proposals that treat other topics of relevance to the series in Irish Studies are also welcome. More information on what we look for in a proposal is available on our website. 

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

• "Inner Mongolia Meteorological Archives" Inner Mongolia Meteorological Archives now preserves more than 80,000 volumes of meteorological management files, meteorological observation records, meteorological scientific research files, and meteorological infrastructure files, providing the most fundamental support services for the development, research and application of meteorological services.

Selected scholarly articles published in November, 2020:

• Greensoft: Nation Branding - perception and attitudes about Mongolia in Croatia
• IJoEnDuICT: Point, Read, Think, Click: Expanding New Literacies in Kazakhstan and Mongolia
• Greensoft: Policy planning issues on environmental mainstreaming for achieving sustainable development in Mongolia
• Biotaxa: Saussurea odorata (Asteraceae), a new species from western Mongolia
• Springer: Spatial evolution characteristics of urban and rural settlements in Inner Mongolia
• IEEE Explore: The Hitchhiker's Guide to Successful Remote Sensing Deployments in Mongolia
• Taylor&Francis: Marketing Ulaanbaatar as a dynamic city with a nomadic soul
• Brill: Displacing, Representing and (Re-)Valuing Objects in Mongolia
• Elsevier: Rare earth element distributions in rivers and sediments from the Erdenet Cu–Mo mining area, Mongolia
• Brill: The Melodious Hoofbeat:
• Ungulate Rhythms in the Post-socialist Conservatory
• IIAS: Review of Nomad's land: Herders, their animals and the landscape among the Mongols

PAST EVENTS:

UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE HOSTS "MONGOLIA 2020 THROUGH 2021" INTERNATIONAL SEMINAR
Oct 29 - 30, 2020

This virtual seminar was hosted for two days and livestreamed throughout its entirety. The Mongolian partner of the event was the Mongolian University of Culture and Arts.

WATCH PART I HERE

WATCH PART II HERE

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"THE MONGOLS IN CENTRAL EUROPE: THE PROFILE AND IMPACT OF THEIR THIRTEENTH-CENTURY INVASIONS" ONLINE CONFERENCE, EOTVOS LORAND UNIVERSITY
Nov 26-27, 2020

WATCH HERE

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"WHERE ARE THE WOMEN WARRIORS? EVIDENCE FOR GENDER EQUALITY ON THE MONGOLIAN STEPPE" BY CHRISTINE LEE, TCFSRS, UC BERKELEY
Nov 25, 2020

WATCH HERE

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"TRADING HISTORY FOR SHEEP: MEMORY, MIGRATION, AND BURYAT-MONGOL IDENTITIES THROUGH SHAMANIC PRACTICES" UPENN CEAS CLASSROOM SERIES WITH MANDUHAI BYANDELGER
Nov 30, 2020

WATCH HERE

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"DYING OF INFORMALITY, DYING WITHOUT SOCIALITY? ABORTION BIZNES IN ULAANBAATAR" BY MARI VALDUR, MIASU, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY
Dec 1, 2020

READ MORE

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UPCOMING EVENTS:

"NATIVE-IZING THERAPIES: SHAMANIC HEALING AND THE VALUE OF HOMELAND CONNECTION IN MONGOLIA" WITH DR. ELIZABETH TURK, TCPS AND TCUSAS, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

Dec 2, 2020

WATCH HERE

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"ART AS A SOURCE FOR THE HISTORY OF MONGOL EURASIA WITH PROF SHEILA BLAIR" British Insititute for Persian Studies

Dec 8, 2020

SIGN UP HERE

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Interesting Links -- A variety of articles and content related to Mongolia were posted during November 2020. Here are some of the more notable ones:

• Yahoo! News, 11/11/2020: "Mongolia records first local coronavirus transmission"
• Washington Newsday, 11/14/2020: "The Mongolian bank will soon start offering crypto services"
• The Diplomat, 11/17/2020: "Mongolia Imposes Curfew Amid COVID-19 Scare"
• AKIPress, 11/17/2020: "Mongolia marks National Pride Day, Genghis Khan's birthday"
• Newstalk, 11/20/2020: "Nomadic Life in Mongolia"
• Xinhua, 11/23/2020: "Mongolia's central bank cuts benchmark interest rate by 2 pct amid pandemic"
• Financial Times, 11/26/2020: "Mongolia raises heat on Rio Tinto over vast Oyu Tolgoi copper mine"
• The Diplomat, 11/26/2020: "Mongolia marks 96th anniversary of adoption of its first Constitution proclaiming Mongolian People?s Republic"
• Gizmodo, 11/26/2020: "‘Feedback Loop’ in Central East Asia Threatens Disturbing Changes to Mongolia's Climate"
• The Star, 11/28/2020: "Mongolian documentary wins award at European documentary festival"
• EWC, 11/28/2020: "What Do You Have in Common with a Nomadic Family in Mongolia?"

Batu, Khan of the Golden Horde: The Mongol Khans Conquer Russia by Diane Wolff: 178 pages; $19.99 (Genghis Productions, 2020)

This is the lost story of Batu Khan, a true nomad prince and the grandson of Chinggis Khan. 

Batu Khan distinguished himself in battle with the greatest strategist of the Mongol Army, the great General Subudei, by his side. Together they were victorious in the Russian Campaign and went on to invade Europe.

Very little is understood about the Mongol conquest of Russia. Because it was the furthest west that the Mongol Army had conquered, Russia became the attack wing of the Empire. 

Yet the Mongol Empire was as much about trade as it was about war. The roads that spanned the continents were opened for the first time since antiquity. Russia was located on the trade routes of the Silk Road and became the hub of trade between China and Europe. 

Batu could have become the ruler, but he had no intention of moving into the civilized world to become Supreme Khan. He liked growing rich from trade on the Silk Road. 

In a brilliant coup d'etat, planned with the most extraordinary woman of her time, the Princess Sorghagtani, Batu did not become the king, but instead became the kingmaker. This changed the course of European history. This is the story of his life and times..

Diane is a Florida born-and-raised author/scholar. In 2010, she published Tibet Unconquered, with an introduction by Robert Thurman, the foremost scholar in the U. S. on Tibetan Buddhism. In February of 2018, Diane did a reading from her book Civilizing the Khan: The Man Who Saved China at the 12th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL MONGOLIAN STUDIES CONFERENCE, sponsored by the Mongolian Cultural Center, at the Embassy of Mongolia in Washington, D. C.

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Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia: Generals, Merchants, Intellectuals, by Michal Biran (Ed.), Jonathan Brack (Ed.), Francesca Fiaschetti (Ed.); 360 pages; $29.95 (University of California Press, 2020)

During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Chinggis Khan and his heirs established the largest contiguous empire in the history of the world, extending from Korea to Hungary and from Iraq, Tibet, and Burma to Siberia. Ruling over roughly two thirds of the Old World, the Mongol Empire enabled people, ideas, and objects to traverse immense geographical and cultural boundaries. Along the Silk Roads in Mongol Eurasia reveals the individual stories of three key groups of people—military commanders, merchants, and intellectuals—from across Eurasia. These annotated biographies bring to the fore a compelling picture of the Mongol Empire from a wide range of historical sources in multiple languages, providing important insights into a period unique for its rapid and far-reaching transformations.

Read together or separately, they offer the perfect starting point for any discussion of the Mongol Empire’s impact on China, the Muslim world, and the West and illustrate the scale, diversity, and creativity of the cross-cultural exchange along the continental and maritime Silk Roads.

Michal Biran teaches Inner Asian, Chinese, and Islamic history at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Jonathan Brack teaches Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Francesca Fiaschetti teaches Inner and East Asian History at the University of Vienna.

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Subjective Lives and Economic Transformations in Mongolia, by Rebecca M. Empson; 178 pages; £20 (UCL Press, 2020)

Almost 10 years ago the mineral-rich country of Mongolia experienced very rapid economic growth, fuelled by China’s need for coal and copper. New subjects, buildings, and businesses flourished, and future dreams were imagined and hoped for. This period of growth is, however, now over. Mongolia is instead facing high levels of public and private debt, conflicts over land and sovereignty, and a changed political climate that threatens its fragile democratic institutions.

Subjective Lives and Economic Transformations in Mongolia details this complex story through the intimate lives of five women. Building on long-term friendships, which span over 20 years, Rebecca documents their personal journeys in an ever-shifting landscape. She reveals how these women use experiences of living a ‘life in the gap’ to survive the hard reality between desired outcomes and their actual daily lives. In doing so, she offers a completely different picture from that presented by economists and statisticians of what it is like to live in this fluctuating extractive economy.

Rebecca M. Empson is Professor of Anthropology at UCL. Alongside teaching in the Department of Anthropology, her research has focused on personhood, ownership, memory and material culture (Harnessing Fortune, 2011), and forms of temporary possession in the global economy (Cultural Anthropology, 2019).

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Politics and Literature in Mongolia (1921-1948), by Simon Wickhamsmith; 360 pages; €115 (Amsterdam University Press, 2020)

This study investigates the relationship between literature and politics during Mongolia's early revolutionary period. Between the 1921 socialist revolution and the first Writers' Congress, held in April 1948, the literary community constituted a key resource in the formation and implementation of policy. At the same time, debates within the party, discontent among the population, and questions of religion and tradition led to personal and ideological conflict among the intelligentsia and, in many cases, to trials and executions. Using primary texts, many of them translated into English for the first time, Simon Wickhamsmith shows the role played by the literary arts - poetry, fiction and drama - in the complex development of the "new society," helping to bring Mongolia's nomadic herding population into the utopia of equality, industrial progress and social well-being promised by the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party.

Simon Wickhamsmith is a scholar and translator of modern Mongolian literature. He teaches in the Writing Program and the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Rutgers University.

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Beyond the Steppe Frontier: A History of the Sino-Russian Border, by Sören Urbansky; 392 pages; $39.95 (Princeton University Press, 2020)

The Sino-Russian border, once the world’s longest land border, has received scant attention in histories about the margins of empires. Beyond the Steppe Frontier rectifies this by exploring the demarcation’s remarkable transformation—from a vaguely marked frontier in the seventeenth century to its twentieth-century incarnation as a tightly patrolled barrier girded by watchtowers, barbed wire, and border guards. Through the perspectives of locals, including railroad employees, herdsmen, and smugglers from both sides, Sören Urbansky explores the daily life of communities and their entanglements with transnational and global flows of people, commodities, and ideas. Urbansky challenges top-down interpretations by stressing the significance of the local population in supporting, and undermining, border making.

Sören Urbansky is a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington, DC. He is the author of Kolonialer Wettstreit: Russland, China, Japan und die Ostchinesische Eisenbahn.

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The State, Popular Mobilisation and Gold Mining in Mongolia, by Dulam Bumochir; 180 pages; FREE (UCL Press, 2020)

Mongolia's mining sector, with its environmental and social costs, has been the subject of prolonged and heated debate. This debate has often cast the country as either a victim of the 'resource curse' or guilty of 'resource nationalism'.

In this book, Dulam Bumochir aims to avoid the pitfalls of this debate by adopting an alternative theoretical approach. He focuses on the indigenous representations of nature, environment, economy, state and sovereignty that have triggered nationalist and statist responses to the mining boom. In doing so, he explores the ways in which these responses have shaped the apparently 'neoliberal' policies of twenty-first century Mongolia, and the economy that has emerged from them, in the face of competing mining companies, protest movements, international donor organisations, economic downturn, and local and central government policies.

Applying rich ethnography to a nuanced and complex picture, Bumochir's analysis is essential reading for students and researchers studying the environmental and mining, especially in Central and North East Asia and the post-Soviet regions, and also for readers interested in the relationship between neoliberalism, nationalism, environmentalism and the state.

Dulam Bumochir completed his PhD in Philology at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences in 2000, and in Social Anthropology at Cambridge University in 2006. He has been conducting research on a wide range of topics, exploring folk and shamanic practices, rituals and chants, and tracing the historical construction of the Mongolian concepts of shamanism and shamanic religion. In work on Qinghai, in north-western China, he looked at ethnic politics and the power of respect in the social production of identity, politics and the state.