News and Networking Events
March 2025
On 21 March a delegation including the Speaker of the Parliament of Mongolia (Mr Amarbayasgalan Dashzegve) and eleven Members of Parliament visited MIASU. During their visit, project Principal Investigator Professor David Sneath introduced research carried out by the Resource Frontiers team. The delegation expressed great interest in our research and asked for project findings to be sent to parliament.
December 2024
Resource Frontiers hosted the conference ‘Law and water management: regulation, non-human personhood, and practices of cooperation from an interdisciplinary perspective’. Taking place at Pembroke College, Cambridge the event involved project members presenting research findings alongside papers given by international scholars working on similar themes. The conference programme can be accessed here. https://www.miasu.socanth.cam.ac.uk/files/media/law_and_water_management44.pdf
November 2024
Resource Frontiers team members presented at the American Anthropological Association’s Annual Conference in Tampa, Florida. Conference The programme can be accessed here. https://openanthroresearch.org/index.php/oarr/preprint/view/419
July 2024
Resource Frontiers project members participated in the conference 'Interrogating the Cooperative governance of water in Inner Asia.' Hosted by project partner the National University of Mongolia, this international event critically interrogated what cooperation in water management means in everyday life in Inner Asia. MIASU and the National University of Mongolia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to signify further academic collaboration. The conference program can be accessed here. https://dep.num.edu.mn/aat/?p=2060
May 2024
Resource Frontiers project members Dr Sayana Namsaraeva and Dr Joseph Bristley were invited to present project research at the ‘Contesting Authorities in Central Asia’ conference, Centre for Oriental Studies, Tartu University. https://kultuuriteadused.ut.ee/en/content/international-workshop-contesting-authorities-central-asia-prospects-concerns-and-balances
April 2024
Dr Joseph Bristley gave a talk at the Silk Roads Programme Seminar at King’s College, Cambridge. https://talks.cam.ac.uk/talk/index/216301
March 2024
The workshop "Water management in Inner Asia: human and non-human actors in placed-based approaches" took place alongside the Cambridge Festival on 15–16 March 2024
On day 2, a morning ritual of worshiping the Cam River water-beings was a special event. Members of the public at Coe Fen and some of the Cambridge Mongolian Speaking Society participated the ritual with their families and children.
The event was well attended both in person and online. Please follow this link for the CUSAS news item: Cambridge University Social Anthropology Society report and a report from the organisers can be found here
October 2023
Dr Sayana Namsaraeva presented at International Conference “The Mobility of Nomadic and Sedentary Peoples in the Margins of China: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives” (October 12-13, 2023, Sorbonne, Paris) with a paper on history of irrigation fields in Khalkiin gol valley, based on the Qing dynasty central government’ correspondence with Hulunbuir banner troops
April 2023
Resource Frontiers is delighted to announce that it is going to collaborate with the Institute for Mongolian Studies and the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, NUM. The Institute is hosting project researcher Dr. Joseph Bristley during his research period in Mongolia.
Dr. Bristley and Dr. Byambabaatar Ichinkhorloo will carry out joint research at Egiin Gol, Khalkha Gol and Lake Buir during summer 2023. MIASU and the Institute of Mongolian Studies, NUM look forward to this joint research and future collaborations including participation in project conferences.
March 2023
Dr Bristley was invited by Professor Altansukh Ochir, a member of the Project Advisory Group, to present the National University of Mongolia’s Department of Environment and Forest Engineering. His talk focused on his fieldwork-to-date, and the conceptual framing of his research in Mongolia.
Sayana presented at the 6th Oxford Interdisciplinary Desert Conference with a paper titled “When ‘masters of water’ leave the spot: Innerasian cosmology of water and desertification from the Buddhist perspective”
January 2023
Dr Bristley was invited to present on ongoing project research at Geneva Water Hub, an international hydropolitics NGO in Switzerland.
Sayana presented on ongoing research project at River Cities as Method international network (IIAS, Leiden). https://ukna.asia/river-cities
December 2022
Dr Namsaraeva, together with Ven. lama Zhargal Dugdanov (representative of religious NGO Buddhist Sangkha of Buryatia and a member of the Project Advisory Group) prepared 30 min radio programme in Buryat language to discuss environmental and water management issues of the Selenga and the Lake Baikal, as well as religious and common law practices to protect local water sources. The Programme was on air several times and received a good respond from the public. Link to the Radio Programme https://buryad.fm/broadcast/10767/
During her fieldwork in Buryatia, Sayana presented a lecture at Department of Law, Buryat National University (Ulan-Ude), on perspectives of recognising the Selenge River as a legal subject. Participating in the VI-th International Conference on “Legal Culture of the Central Asian peoples: Traditions and Innovations” allowed to meet many of Buryat and Mongolian legal specialist on traditional Mongolian common law, as well as to establish connections with specialist in the present environmental legislation. http://www.bsu.ru/news/27892
Dr Bristley and Dr Namsaraeva were invited to present on ongoing project research at the Cambridge Mongolia Forum (December 2022). This practice-oriented event, jointly organized with the Embassy of Mongolia in the UK, brought together academic and policy making experts from Mongolia to discuss pressing issues and challenges faced by Mongolia http://embassyofmongolia.co.uk/?p=4276&lang=en
October 2022
The first meeting A Project Advisory Group was successfully held at Cambridge.