Lisa Randisi (UCL) - 2025-26 Students
lisa.randisi@ucl.ac.uk

Towards a model for public archaeology and heritage engagement in Mongolia: relevance, practice, impact

This project explores the potential of public archaeology and heritage engagement to address contemporary issues on a local scale, by developing a methodology toolkit to enable local communities and heritage professionals to co-create relevant, context-specific engagement models.

In the post-Soviet era, Mongolia has forged a national identity grounded in narratives of nomadism, empire, and historic ties with Asia and the wider world. Despite significant investments in heritage projects and growing media attention, tensions persist between heritage professionals and local communities. Meanwhile, rural areas, seen as the “anchors” for these cultural narratives, are faced with threat from the climate crisis, rapid urbanisation, reliance on extractive industries, and civic and social disillusionment.

Through this case study, this project proposes to explore the opportunities for the heritage sector to address these issues, by consulting directly with local communities, testing different formats for heritage engagement, and evaluating their social impact. At the core of this study is the question: can a focus on community engagement and co-production within heritage practice create enduring positive impacts for local communities in Mongolia?

This project proposes to address the following questions:

1) How can heritage practice alter its process(es) to address local challenges and priorities as a key goal?
2) In what ways might different formats of public engagement with archaeology appeal to a local audience?
3) Can a methodology toolkit be developed to enable local communities and heritage professionals to co-create relevant, context-specific public archaeology and heritage engagement?
4) What short- and longer-term impact can co-produced heritage engagement have in rural communities?

By trialling a people-centred approach to Mongolian archaeology grounded in partnerships, coproduction and engagement evaluation, the aim is to establish a foundation for future public archaeology practice – and develop a methodology for crafting bespoke models for public engagement in other contexts.

Principal Supervisor: Dr Gabriel Moshenska