Past Awardees

Sondra Cuban, Director of Adult and Higher Education, has received funding from GEO as well as from the American Center for Mongolian Studies (ACMS) and Henry Luce Foundation to support several research projects in Mongolia.  Her work explores contemporary migration and reverse migration patterns of Mongolian women between the countryside and capital city of Ulaanbaatar as well as reasons why Mongolian women have moved to South Korea, the strategies they employed, and the contributions and sacrifices they have made in that migration process.  She presented her research at the XVI Annual Mongolian Studies Conference and The American University of Paris, and her work appears on her website. She has a forthcoming article in Mobility Humanities (July 2025), and her book The Gendered Migrations of Mongolian Women published by ACL Press in its Economic Exposures in Asia series is due out in 2026.  Dr. Cuban was elected to the ACMS Board of Directors in 2024.

Holly Diaz, an instructor in Leadership Studies, conducted research on women in leadership in Mongolia. Her work expanded on data collected with Karen Stout and students who participated in a Global Learning Program to Mongolia in 2016. These several visits informed Dr. Diaz's 2019 dissertation on the persistence of Mongolian women leaders. Dr. Stout's and Diaz's collaboration has resulted in conference presentations at the International Leadership Association Annual Meeting (2016, 2017) and the XVI Annual Mongolian Studies Conference (2024).

Diana Gruman, professor of Psychology (in collaboration with David Sattler and several colleagues at National University of Mongolia), engaged in a project to assess the climate for students in Mongolian schools. This research resulted in "School Climate in Mongolia: Translation and Validation of the What’s Happening in This School," published in Learning Environments Research in 2022. 

Cynthia Horne, a professor in the Political Science department research on the nexus of globalization and women’s empowerment in Mongolia has led to a publication in Europe-Asia Studies, a forthcoming book chapter, as well as a presentation for the American Center for Mongolian Studies Invited Speaker Series in Ulaanbaatar.

Derek Moscato, professor of Journalism, explores the implications of Mongolian public diplomacy through national sport, specifically major sporting events such as Naddam.  He is interested in ways that Mongolia showcases its excellence in sports such as archery, horse racing, and wrestling not only to create national identity and soft power but also opportunities for cultural, economic, and political dialogue across Northeast Asia and beyond.

David Sattler, Professor of Psychology work focuses on environmental threats to nomadic herders, school climate, mental health issues, and the social and psychological impacts of COVID-19 vaccination.  His research, in collaboration with colleagues at National University of Mongolia, appears in Journal of Environmental Psychology, Learning Environments Research, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Hilary Schwandt, a professor in Fairhaven College, is working with colleagues in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at National University of Mongolia on a project to better understand abortion and post-abortion health care from the perspective of providers and their clients. The research focuses in particular on post-abortion counseling, provision, and uptake. This evidence-based research is intended to inform the work of the Mongolian government and NGOs as they create and implement policies and practices that provide effective female reproductive health care in the country. 

Chimgay Tserendorj, a member of the faculty in the Western Libraries, has embarked on a research project to explore the history and provenance of the early 18th-century xylograph Üliger-ün Dalai -- a 1939 edition of which the library's Special Collections and Archives unit acquired indirectly through the estate of Danish Mongolist Kaare Grønbech.  Grønbech had the edition produced while a member of an expedition to Mongolia in 1938-1939. Professor Tserendorj will compare Western's copy to one housed at the Royal Danish Library and will consult Grønbech's travel accounts and other resources in Copenhagen and Ulaanbaatar in order to learn more about the xylograph and the people involved in the Danish expedition. She seeks to better understand Mongolian book making, the organization and transmission of cultural, historical, and linguistic knowledge across time and space, and what happens to and the impact of these books following their arrival in their adopted home.