Chinese research sites
Assisted by a local research assistant Dr Namsaraeva plans to spend three months in China conducting ethnographic research in two phases. One phase (spring 2023) will be based in the north-western city of Lanzhou, which sits in countryside intended for irrigation with water abstracted from the Selenga and other Inner Asian rivers. She will hold approximately ten interviews with researchers at Lanzhou University’s Research School of Arid Environment and Climate Change, concerning plans for water abstraction from Inner Asia. Her final phase of research (June 2023) will be in Beijing, and involve interviews with the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies, Chinese Academy of Social Science; and the Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research. These will focus on international dimensions of Chinese interests in the Selenga. Hopefully, China soon will ease quarantine restrictions and travel between the regions to enable productive fieldwork there.