Truth, history and politics in Mongolia

The major project that is (more or less) behind me is, of course, the research that led to Truth, History and Politics in Mongolia. The project had a number of components. At one level, it was an examination of how Mongolians were/are rethinking what it means to be Mongolian in light of the collapse of the socialist system and the democratic revolution of 1989-1990. In essence, while almost everyone agreed that the socialist period (1921-1990) should now be viewed as a time when people weren't allowed to be "true Mongols," there was less agreement on who a "true" Mongolian was. What did this entail? What parts of history and tradition - key to any sort of identity construction - were important, and what parts weren't? These were the questions I sought to answer.

In doing so, I did a number of other things. One was to write the most comprehensive account in English of the democratic revolution in Mongolia. Despite all the attention the transition to a democratic government brought to Mongolia, the actual revolution received almost no attention itself.

I also made (or tried to) a couple of theoretical / conceptual contributions to anthropology and related fields. One of these was to propose an alternate form of social memory, not only linking it to political regimes, but I also called into question most preoccupations with place and time in studies of memory and commemoration.

And in re-thinking social memory, I also tried to demonstrate the mechanism by which social memory can be transmitted and preserved through extending the work of James Scott and Caroline Humphrey on 'hidden' and 'evocative' transcipts.

Political violence

Although my work on the legacy of political violence has lead to some publications, I consider it ongoing, so check the current research section for information.