As part of our ongoing efforts to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions that prevent Field School courses in Mongolia, the American Center for Mongolian Studies is offering online Mongolian Studies courses. As of now, the Session 2 courses are accepting new enrollments. 

The Online Field School is open to everyone and will provide opportunities to learn about Mongolia from different disciplinary perspectives, including digital humanities, geology, environmental studies, Buddhism, climate change, and literature. Available for free for all participants through the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation, the program has 5 courses by U.S. and Mongolian instructors.
 
The lessons will be delivered in English. No prior knowledge of Mongolia or Mongolian is required.

The two courses offered for Session 2 are:

1. Understanding the Human Impacts of Climate Change in Mongolia
2. Literature in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Mongolian History

Interested applicants can sign up on the ACMS website to enroll directly for the courses. The courses will release new modules every week on designated days through live-streamed lectures, synchronous discussions, and other interactive content on the ACMS website.

Session 2 Courses: 

Understanding the Human Impacts of Climate Change in Mongolia with Annika Ericksen (PhD)
Sept 25 – Oct 26

This course highlights Mongolians’ lived experiences of climate change and related challenges. Case studies from other regions of the world will also be given for comparative purposes. Course content will draw primarily from research carried out by social scientists. One premise of the course is that scientific measures of climate change, though important, need to be complemented by qualitative data, for example, rural Mongolians’ personal stories of climate change. Only such an interdisciplinary study of climate change can provide a complete picture of its challenges and serve as a solid basis for policy responses.

Literature in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Mongolian History with Simon Wickhamsmith (PhD)

Oct 29 – Dec 3, 2021

This is a book-club format course, in which the students will discuss every week three or four thematically related stories, and so develop an understanding of the relationship between literature and Mongolian politics and culture over the century since the revolution of 1921.

Learners who already signed up for a past course can enroll and access the courses using their existing accounts. Recordings are available of the following three courses of the first session that have been successfully taught on our new e-learning platform:

1. Digitizing Mongolian
2. Mining and Environment in Northern Mongolia
3. Mongolian Buddhism: Sacred Geography in Munkh Khukh Tengriin Oron