Congratulations to Prof. Michael Gervers on receiving the Medal of Friendship of Mongolia. The Medal is one of the highest honours that can be conferred on a foreigner by the Government of Mongolia, and was presented to him by Mongolian Ambassador, Madam Sarantogos Erdenetsogt, during a conference on Canada-Mongolia relations organized by the Munk School and the Asian Institute on October 24, 2023 for the work he had done as founder and director of the Central and Inner Asia Seminar from 1988 to 2008, and as editor of the ten volumes of Toronto Studies in Central and Inner Asia (1993-2013).
Prof. Gervers first became interested in Mongolia after visiting the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg (Russia) in 1986 to see the collection of artifacts excavated between 1929 and 1949 from the 4th-century BCE tombs at Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. He travelled by train from Moscow to Ulan Bator (capital of Mongolia) in 1987 to attend the International Conference of Mongolian Studies, where he presented a paper on some of the excavated objects. Upon his return, he worked with Professor Wayne Schlepp (emeritus, East Asian Studies) to establish the Canada-Mongolia Society. In 1990, that became the Central and Inner Asia Seminar (CIAS), that he ran under the York U – UofT “Joint Centre for Asia-Pacific Studies” (JCAPS) until 2002. In that year, the UofT decided to go independent and created the Asian Institute at the Munk School, and the CIAS followed. Over the course of its existence (1989-2008), the CIAS published 10 volumes under the title Toronto Studies in Central and Inner Asia (TSCIA), containing the best papers presented at the Seminar. Prof. Gervers was the main editor of the series and worked with co-editors Wayne Schlepp, Gillian Long and Uradyn Bulag. In 2008, the Asian Institute withdrew its support, with the result that the activities of the CIAS ceased.
