Julian Dierkes has focused a lot of his research attention on Mongolia since 2005. He continues to run the Mongolia Focus blog where he also regularly writes. He has also published extensively on Mongolia in the academic literature.

Julian was trained as a sociologist at the Univ of California at Berkeley (BA) and Princeton University (MA and PhD). He also studied at Sophia University (Tokyo), the Free University of Berlin and the University of Tokyo. He was focused on contemporary Japan and in particular contemporary Japanese education for the early part of his research career before turning his attention to contemporary Mongolia.

Julian currently serves as Dean of Social Science at the University of Mannheim. From 2002 to 2024 Julian taught at the University of British Columbia, first in the Institute of Asian Research then in the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs.

In addition to his research activities, Julian is active in policy analysis and policy-making, regularly speaks to journalists about Mongolia and has written for numerous media outlets. He is also a founding co-director of the Mongolian Institute for Innovative Policies where he maintains a consulting practice. Julian was awarded Mongolia’s Friendship Medal in November 2023.

After many years of being very active on Twitter, Julian cannot stand X and instead posts on BlueSky (the natural home for all Mongolians), Mastodon and LinkedIn.