Reflections on Academic Community

Abstract

When I was in Ulaanbaatar for only two days in early 2024 September, I had the chance to meet Tsetsentsolmon

Baatarnaaran at the National University of Mongolia for a very brief meeting. Due to my interest in both Mon-

golian archaeology and anthropology, she told me about a conference that was to take place. A bit more than two

months later, I had the pleasure of participating in the “International Mongolian Studies Symposium: Current

Research and Practices in Anthropology, Art & Archaeology in Mongolia and Beyond” in Vienna, which was

held at the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften from 2024 November 25th-26th. As a young research-

er, I am sometimes apprehensive of conferences. In the worst-case scenario, they turn into an elitist competition

between senior male scholars who happen to be specialists in a topic entirely unrelated, but very relevant to the

current conversation. This symposium was the complete opposite: it filled me not only with novel information

and ideas but with a feeling of belonging and new connections.