The Mongolia Society, Inc.
Founded in 1961, The Mongolia Society is a private, non-profit, non-political organization that promotes the study of Mongolia, its history, language, and culture. Its aims are exclusively scholarly, educational, and charitable.
Photo of the Genghis Khan Equestrian Statue by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash.
MonSoc News & Events
Naadam Essay Competition 2024
May 15, 2024
In honor of Naadam, the Mongolian Heritage Society, in collaboration with the Embassy of Mongolia, is holding an essay competition. This competition is open to all high school and college students.
Essays will respond to the following prompt:
Naadam is a festival that has been celebrated throughout all of Mongolia, with some sources claiming it to be a 2,000-year-old tradition. In 2010, the festival was added to the UNESCO List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and today, it has become internationally known as cities across the globe take part in Naadam. In a minimum of 500 words, discuss a brief history of Naadam and why it still holds importance today.
Contest Information
Three essays will be recognized and will receive prizes:
First place - $1,000
Second place - $500
Third place - $300
Essays must be written in English and include a reference list (this will not count towards the word count).
The submission deadline is 11:59pm EST June 15, 2024. Results will be revealed on July 11, 2024.
For more details and submission information, please see the Mongolian Heritage Society website.
The Mongolia Society Expands Its Social Media Presence
May 15, 2024
As part of our mission to promote the study of Mongolia, its history, language, and culture, the Society is seeking new ways to reach out to our members and potential new members.
To this end, we've expanded the size and accessibility of our main website and are now extending our reach into social media, including establishing new Society pages in Instagram and Threads.
Our current Facebook page is also undergoing a renovation. We've created a new Facebook page that we hope will allow us to better communicate with you, our members, as well as the general public. The current Facebook page–which is actually a “group” page–will be closing on June 30th. We ask that you join us there.
If you are new to the Society Facebook site or are subscribed to the Society’s Facebook group page, we ask that you reconnect with us at our new page.
Please click the following link and then “like” and “follow” the page: · The Mongolia Society's New Facebook page
The Society’s President, Ambassador Michael Klecheski (Ret.), Presents a Lecture on Mongolia’s Independence
March 1, 2024
Ambassador Michael Klecheski, the U.S. Ambassador to Mongolia from 2019 to 2022, presented a Mongolia Society lecture, “Mongolia’s Third Neighbor Policy in Practice: A Case Study from a former U.S. Ambassador’s Years in Mongolia,” on February 20, 2024. Lecture attendees–students, faculty, and Mongolia Society members–gathered around a large discussion table at the Global and International Studies Building on the campus of Indiana University, Bloomington, or watched via a Zoom link.
A video recording of this lecture is available here: YouTube
For the full story and award winners, please see our News and Events page.
Urgent Request for Funds to Support Mongolian Families in Need
April 2, 2024
The Friends of Mongolia in partnership with People In Need is currently raising funds to provide relief to over three hundred Mongolian herder families currently facing a natural disaster caused by extreme winter weather and snow.
Nearly eighty percent of Mongolia has been dealing with deep snows this winter, which has caused over 500,000 livestock to perish as of mid-March. The snows have also blocked access by herder families to supplies, medicines, and food for survival. The situation is especially dire for many families in the Eastern provinces.
People in Need is running a large-scale disaster relief program in cooperation with the Mongolian government and a host of international donors. The Friends of Mongolia is seeking to support these efforts by raising $5,000 before May 1, 2024, to support this relief program.
You can help by clicking the link below and donating $50 or more to this effort!
MonSoc Celebrates the Mongolian Lunar New Year, 2024
March 1, 2024
Ambassador (Ret.) Michael S. Klecheski and Ms. Ts. Legden
The Society celebrated Tsagaan Sar, the Mongolian Lunar New Year, on Saturday, February 2, 2024, at the Ferguson International Center on the Indiana University-Bloomington campus.
The event drew dozens of people, including the Society’s President, Ambassador (Ret.) Michael Klecheski, and many from the Bloomington Mongolian American community. It included music and dance, food, and a powerful sense of community, not only locally but also with relatives and friends in Mongolia, too.
The following images of the event were taken by Zolboo Dashmyagmar. You can see more of her images on the Society’s 2024 Tsagaan Sar event page.
The Society wishes to thank all the groups and institutions that supported this celebration, including the Department of Central Eurasian Studies and Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center (at Indiana University, Bloomington), the Mongolian Student Association, and the Bloomington Mongolian community.
The latest edition of the Mongol Survey
Issue no. 46 (Fall-Winter 2023) (PDF)
Winners of the 2022-2023 Best of the Next Generation of American Mongolists Competition
June 7, 2023
The Mongolia Society and the Embassy of Mongolia are pleased to announce the winners of the 2022-2023 Best of the Next Generation of American Mongolists Competition.
Funded by the Embassy of Mongolia to the United States and conducted by The Mongolia Society, this competition recognizes the top three individuals whose combination of thoroughness and quality of research, knowledge and use of primary sources in original languages, and scholarly promise and commitment to advancing the field of Mongolian Studies best exemplifies the Next Generation of American Mongolists. The competition was open to master’s- and doctoral-level students and new PhDs. Materials submitted were judged in a “blind” review by a panel of judges with proven academic credentials in Mongolian studies.
Overall, the quality of the seven (7) essays submitted was outstanding and the Society hopes to publish many of them in the Journal of The Mongolia Society.
For the full story and award winners, please see our News and Events page.
Report From The Society’s 61st Annual Meeting & Conference, October 2022
November 7, 2022
The 61st Annual Meeting & Conference of The Mongolia Society was held jointly with the Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) on the Indiana University, Bloomington campus, October 20-23, 2022. The meeting and conference were well-attending, both in-person and virtually. The conference, held at the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, featured the participation of 27 panelists on 7 different panels. The conference schedule is available here: Webpage or PDF.
The Society was honored to have Ambassador U. Batbayar, Ambassador of Mongolia to the United States, attend the event, during which he met with administration officials at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and Indiana University-Bloomington (IU). Together they discussed educational cooperation in the framework of the March 15, 2022, "Agreement of Friendship and Cooperation" between Indiana University and the National University of Mongolia. The Ambassador delivered the Opening Remarks at the General Meeting & Conference and visited with members.
Ambassador Batbayar meets with Indiana University Provost
Left to Right: Dr. Jamsheed Choksy, Interim Dean of the Department of Central Eurasian Studies; Amb. (ret) Pamela Slutz, President of The Mongolia Society; Dr. Hannah Buxbaum, Vice President for International Affairs; Dr. Rahul Shrivastav, Executive Vice President and Provost; Ambassador U. Batbayar; Mr. Ganbold Ankhbayar, Counselor for Educational and Cultural Affairs at the Embassy of Mongolia.
Additional photographs and more information about the conference is available on our News and Events page.
The Mongolia Society remembers Dr. György Kara
Photo by Y. Boldbaatar. Used with permission.
October 19, 2022
It is with great sadness that the Society receives the news of the passing of Dr. György Kara, or Khar Dorj, as he was known to his many students, friends, and colleagues. A long-time member of the Society, Dr. Kara was a beloved instructor, mentor, and colleague. Our hearts and thoughts are with his family at this time.
The Mongolia Society will be remembering Dr. Kara and honoring his enormous contributions to Mongolian Studies in a forthcoming issue of the journal Mongolian Studies.
For the full story, please see our News and Events page.
IN BRIEF: MORE NEWS, EVENTS, & UPDATES
UPDATE ON DR. ALICIA CAMPI: Our dear colleague, Alicia Campi, is now residing in a long-term nursing facility at Manor Care Potomac where she continues to receive post-stroke care and therapy. She welcomes visitors (daily from 11am to 6pm) and greeting cards (but, please, not gifts). We wish her a happy holiday and look forward to her full recovery.
Dr. Alicia Campi, Room 125, First Floor Wing, Manor Care Potomac, 10714 Potomac Tennis Lane, Potomac, MD 20854