HMONG STUDIES NEWSLETTER, SPRING 2020
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION: The Hmong Studies Newsletter has since 2001 provided a very consistent source of up-to-date information about new works in Hmong Studies and Hmong-related research resources. To access back issues of this online publication dating back to 2001 visit: http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-studies-newsletter.html
Hmong Studies Newsletter Editor: Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD
ABOUT THE HMONG STUDIES INTERNET RESOURCE CENTER:
The Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center (www.hmongstudies.org) is the online home of the Hmong Studies Journal academic journal. This unique scholarly site also contains extensive bibliographies in Hmong Studies as well as census data and an online research paper library.
Most of the Hmong Studies articles, books and dissertations listed in this newsletter and on the website may be found at the Hmong Resource Center Library (www.hmonglibrary.org) at the Hmong Cultural Center in Saint Paul, the largest depository of Hmong Studies academic journal articles and graduate theses and dissertations in the United States. The library also includes a Hmong Studies Virtual Library which includes links to full-text of hundreds of Hmong-related research studies. Hmong Cultural Center also includes a comprehensive museum that teaches visitors about Hmong culture and history and folk arts. (https://www.hmonghistorycenter.org/)
ABOUT THIS PUBLICATION: The Hmong Studies Newsletter has since 2001 provided a very consistent source of up-to-date information about new works in Hmong Studies and Hmong-related research resources. To access back issues of this online publication dating back to 2001 visit: http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-studies-newsletter.html
Hmong Studies Newsletter Editor: Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD
ABOUT THE HMONG STUDIES INTERNET RESOURCE CENTER:
The Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center (www.hmongstudies.org) is the online home of the Hmong Studies Journal academic journal. This unique scholarly site also contains extensive bibliographies in Hmong Studies as well as census data and an online research paper library.
Most of the Hmong Studies articles, books and dissertations listed in this newsletter and on the website may be found at the Hmong Resource Center Library (www.hmonglibrary.org) at the Hmong Cultural Center in Saint Paul, the largest depository of Hmong Studies academic journal articles and graduate theses and dissertations in the United States. The library also includes a Hmong Studies Virtual Library which includes links to full-text of hundreds of Hmong-related research studies. Hmong Cultural Center also includes a comprehensive museum that teaches visitors about Hmong culture and history and folk arts. (https://www.hmonghistorycenter.org/)
RECENT WORKS IN HMONG STUDIES:
Books/Theses/Reports
David M. Chambers. (2020). Gathering Vines Around a Trellis Pole: Power Geographies in Bangkok’s Hmong Refugee Communities. PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. This dissertation examines political spatialities of Hmong immigrants living in Bangkok, Thailand’s urban setting. It investigates whether Hmong immigrants have developed a distinct sense of territoriality and territories. The author maps how Hmong groups of differing national origin—Hmong Thai, Hmong Lao, and Hmong Viet—find differing positions of precarity or stability in Thailand.
Katherine Ann Birnschein. (2019). A Text-Based Exploration of Topics in White Hmong Grammar. MA Thesis, University of North Dakota. This thesis traces the historical development of the understanding of White Hmong grammar, comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing the extant analyses. It then responds to these analyses, based exclusively on a corpus of interlinearized texts included as appendices. It proposes new elements in the grammar including an indefinite article, a potential prefix (the perfective aspect marker), and several aspect markers that have grammaticalized from adverbs. It resolves conflicting descriptions of the constituent order of the noun phrase.
Nia Hansen. (2019). Hmong Americans: Cultural Stressors: Psychological Distress and Coping Skills. PhD Dissertation, Spalding University. This dissertation explores the patterns, nature, and extent of cultural stressors, coping skills, and psychological distress for Hmong-Americans.
Kao Nou L. Moua. (2019). Sib Piav Neej Neeg: Co-Constructing Young Hmong American Women’s Narratives with Young Hmong American Women Storytellers. PhD Dissertation, University of Minnesota. This graduate study centers Hmong knowledge, values, and traditional ways of inquiry, and challenges the current portrayals of young Hmong American women as victims of culture, disengaged from community, and uninterested in Hmong oral traditions. Eight young Hmong American women storytellers participated in this study, sharing the complexities, contradictions, and desires of their lived experiences. The study highlights the ways in which young Hmong American women resist, maintain, shape, and transform cultural practices, expectations, and traditions.
Chia Xiong. (2019). A Cycle of Violence: Hmong Refugees, Household Decisions, Economic Transnationalism, and Identities. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Merced. This dissertation utillizes an interdisciplinary approach in examining the question of belonging and citizenship for war refugees with a focus on the Hmong refugee experience as a case study. The author examines how war refugees belong and do not belong in different periods: from the journey to “refuge,” in the refugee camps, and the current resettled country.
Bruce Yang. (2019). Racial Microaggressions and Alienation Among Hmong American College Students. PhD Dissertation. Minnesota State University, Mankato. This study explores the relationship between racial microaggressions as measured by the Racial and Ethnic Microaggression Scale (REMS; Nadal, 2011) and alienation as measured by the University Alienation Scale (UAS; Burbach, 1972) among Hmong American students (N = 97) in higher education. The study also examines whether these experiences are different based on gender.
Academic Journal Articles/Other
Tammy Neiman (2019). "Nurses’ Perceptions of Basic Palliative Care in the Hmong Population." Journal of Transcultural Nursing 2019, Vol. 30(6) 576–586. The purpose of this study was to describe basic palliative care from the acute care nurses’ perspective with consideration for culturally diverse populations. Participants focused their responses based on their experiences with Hmong patients. The concept of cultural safety was explored to improve basic palliative care practice in acute care settings.
Ya-Feng Wen, et al. (2019). "Potential Clinical Relevance of Differences in Allele Frequencies Found within Very Important Pharmacogenes between Hmong and East Asian Populations." Pharmacotherapy 2020;40(2):142–152. Implementing pharmacogenetics for very important pharmacogenes (VIPs) holds the promise of improving clinical outcomes through optimal medication selection and dosing. However, significant differences in the frequency of actionable variants in VIPs may exist within subpopulations of a given ancestral group. Furthermore, these differences can potentially impact drug selection and dosing. The purpose of this study was to ascertain allele frequencies for VIPs and to predict medication requirements using Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guidelines in Hmong and compare with published data for East Asians.
Han Zhang et al. (2019). "Genetic diversity, structure and forensic characteristics of Hmong–Mien‑speaking Miao revealed by autosomal insertion/ deletion markers." Molecular Genetics and Genomics. Insertion/deletion (Indel) genetic markers have special features compared to other forensic-related markers, such as the low mutation rate and di-allelic markers with length polymorphism, playing an indispensable role in the forensic and population genetics, molecular anthropology and evolutionary biology. However, the genetic diversity, allelic frequency, forensic parameters and population genetic characteristics of the Indel markers in Hmong–Mien-speaking Guizhou Miao people are unclear due to the sparse sampling. Thus, the authors of this study genotyped 30 forensic-related Indel markers in 311 unrelated healthy Miao individuals (149 females and 161 males) residing in the Guizhou Province in Southwest China using the Investigator DIPplex amplifcation system.
Deborah Helsel, et al. (2020). "Their Last Breath Death and Dying in a Hmong American Community." Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing. 22(1). Hmong Americans have typically been unwilling to use biomedical palliative care for end-of-life needs. This has resulted in confusion and frustration for Hmong patients, families, and nurses. Hmong end-of-life care choices for family members usually involve in-home caregiving provided by the family using a combination of biomedicine and traditional healing methods. Health care decisions are made for the patient by the family and community in this familistic culture. A qualitative approach was used by the researchers to explore the beliefs that ultimately determine end-of-life care goals and strategies for Hmong patients. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 family caregivers of terminally ill patients and 5 shamans and Hmong funeral officiants.
Sangmi Lee (2020) Diasporic kinship hegemonies and transnational continuities in the Hmong diaspora, Identities, 27:2, 229-247. Although hegemony has been understood as the property of nation-states and the ruling classes, this paper explores cultural hegemonies among diasporic peoples by examining the pervasive compliance of Hmong living in Laos and the United States with the principles of their kinship system. Since these kinship rules are inculcated through parental education from an early age and are seen as essential for maintaining the cohesion of their dispersed diasporic community in the absence of a territorial ancestral homeland, they have become culturally engrained and taken-for-granted by Hmong through their voluntary consent and no longer have to be enforced by overt power and coercive means. However, like all hegemonies, the Hmong kinship system may also confront increasing challenges and contestation as it is enacted in the different nation-states where Hmong reside, and may eventually become an ideology that needs to be actively enforced and imposed by the direct use of power.
Robert Jay Lowinger, et al. (2020): Hmong Students’ Attitudes toward Affirmative Action, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. Using a sample of 119 Hmong students, this study employed multiple linear regression analysis to examine the role of ethnic identity, principled policy beliefs, self-interest, and gender in Hmong college students’ support for college affirmative action policies designed to benefit their own group. Results indicated principled policy beliefs as well as gender were significant predictors of support. Ethnic identity and self-interest were not significant predictors of support. Implications for research and practice are addressed.
Jean Michaud. (2020). "The Art of Not Being Scripted So Much The Politics of Writing Hmong Language(s)." Current Anthropology, 61(2). This article discusses the persistent absence of a consensus on a script for the language of the Hmong, a kinship-based society of 5 million spread over the uplands of Southwest China and northern Indochina, with a vigorous diaspora in the West. In search of an explanation for this unusual situation, this article proposes a political reading inspired by James C. Scott’s 2009 book The Art of Not Being Governed. A particular focus is put on Scott’s claim of tactical rejection of literacy among upland groups of Asia. To set the scene, the case of the Hmong is briefly exposed before detailing the successive appearance of orthographies for their language(s) over one century. It is then argued that the lack of consensus on a common writing system might be a reflection of deeper political motives rather than merely the result of historical processes.
Pamela Spycher, et al. (2020) "Culturally sustaining disciplinary language and literacy instruction for Hmong-American children." Theory Into Practice, 59:1, 89-98. This article argues for an instructional approach that integrates disciplinary language and literacy teaching with culturally sustaining pedagogy. The authors synthesize research and theories on the approach and provide illustrative examples with elementary grades for Hmong American children.
Timothy Wang, et al. (2020). "Healthcare Disparities Identified Between Hmong and Other Asian Origin Groups Living with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in Sacramento County 2014–2017." Journal of Community Health (2020) 45:412–418. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) disproportionately affects non-US born Asians. The Hmong have been shown to have the highest rates of CHB and mortality from liver cancer compared to other Asian groups. From September 2014 to September 2017, testing for CHB within Sacramento County was conducted through community-based testing events and an electronic health record alert that identified Asian patients by surname. Demographic and laboratory data were collected for analysis and patients were followed through the study period to assess linkage to care and treatment to compare differences between Asian origin groups.
Books/Theses/Reports
David M. Chambers. (2020). Gathering Vines Around a Trellis Pole: Power Geographies in Bangkok’s Hmong Refugee Communities. PhD Dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison. This dissertation examines political spatialities of Hmong immigrants living in Bangkok, Thailand’s urban setting. It investigates whether Hmong immigrants have developed a distinct sense of territoriality and territories. The author maps how Hmong groups of differing national origin—Hmong Thai, Hmong Lao, and Hmong Viet—find differing positions of precarity or stability in Thailand.
Katherine Ann Birnschein. (2019). A Text-Based Exploration of Topics in White Hmong Grammar. MA Thesis, University of North Dakota. This thesis traces the historical development of the understanding of White Hmong grammar, comparing, contrasting, and synthesizing the extant analyses. It then responds to these analyses, based exclusively on a corpus of interlinearized texts included as appendices. It proposes new elements in the grammar including an indefinite article, a potential prefix (the perfective aspect marker), and several aspect markers that have grammaticalized from adverbs. It resolves conflicting descriptions of the constituent order of the noun phrase.
Nia Hansen. (2019). Hmong Americans: Cultural Stressors: Psychological Distress and Coping Skills. PhD Dissertation, Spalding University. This dissertation explores the patterns, nature, and extent of cultural stressors, coping skills, and psychological distress for Hmong-Americans.
Kao Nou L. Moua. (2019). Sib Piav Neej Neeg: Co-Constructing Young Hmong American Women’s Narratives with Young Hmong American Women Storytellers. PhD Dissertation, University of Minnesota. This graduate study centers Hmong knowledge, values, and traditional ways of inquiry, and challenges the current portrayals of young Hmong American women as victims of culture, disengaged from community, and uninterested in Hmong oral traditions. Eight young Hmong American women storytellers participated in this study, sharing the complexities, contradictions, and desires of their lived experiences. The study highlights the ways in which young Hmong American women resist, maintain, shape, and transform cultural practices, expectations, and traditions.
Chia Xiong. (2019). A Cycle of Violence: Hmong Refugees, Household Decisions, Economic Transnationalism, and Identities. PhD Dissertation, University of California, Merced. This dissertation utillizes an interdisciplinary approach in examining the question of belonging and citizenship for war refugees with a focus on the Hmong refugee experience as a case study. The author examines how war refugees belong and do not belong in different periods: from the journey to “refuge,” in the refugee camps, and the current resettled country.
Bruce Yang. (2019). Racial Microaggressions and Alienation Among Hmong American College Students. PhD Dissertation. Minnesota State University, Mankato. This study explores the relationship between racial microaggressions as measured by the Racial and Ethnic Microaggression Scale (REMS; Nadal, 2011) and alienation as measured by the University Alienation Scale (UAS; Burbach, 1972) among Hmong American students (N = 97) in higher education. The study also examines whether these experiences are different based on gender.
Academic Journal Articles/Other
Tammy Neiman (2019). "Nurses’ Perceptions of Basic Palliative Care in the Hmong Population." Journal of Transcultural Nursing 2019, Vol. 30(6) 576–586. The purpose of this study was to describe basic palliative care from the acute care nurses’ perspective with consideration for culturally diverse populations. Participants focused their responses based on their experiences with Hmong patients. The concept of cultural safety was explored to improve basic palliative care practice in acute care settings.
Ya-Feng Wen, et al. (2019). "Potential Clinical Relevance of Differences in Allele Frequencies Found within Very Important Pharmacogenes between Hmong and East Asian Populations." Pharmacotherapy 2020;40(2):142–152. Implementing pharmacogenetics for very important pharmacogenes (VIPs) holds the promise of improving clinical outcomes through optimal medication selection and dosing. However, significant differences in the frequency of actionable variants in VIPs may exist within subpopulations of a given ancestral group. Furthermore, these differences can potentially impact drug selection and dosing. The purpose of this study was to ascertain allele frequencies for VIPs and to predict medication requirements using Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) guidelines in Hmong and compare with published data for East Asians.
Han Zhang et al. (2019). "Genetic diversity, structure and forensic characteristics of Hmong–Mien‑speaking Miao revealed by autosomal insertion/ deletion markers." Molecular Genetics and Genomics. Insertion/deletion (Indel) genetic markers have special features compared to other forensic-related markers, such as the low mutation rate and di-allelic markers with length polymorphism, playing an indispensable role in the forensic and population genetics, molecular anthropology and evolutionary biology. However, the genetic diversity, allelic frequency, forensic parameters and population genetic characteristics of the Indel markers in Hmong–Mien-speaking Guizhou Miao people are unclear due to the sparse sampling. Thus, the authors of this study genotyped 30 forensic-related Indel markers in 311 unrelated healthy Miao individuals (149 females and 161 males) residing in the Guizhou Province in Southwest China using the Investigator DIPplex amplifcation system.
Deborah Helsel, et al. (2020). "Their Last Breath Death and Dying in a Hmong American Community." Journal of Hospice & Palliative Nursing. 22(1). Hmong Americans have typically been unwilling to use biomedical palliative care for end-of-life needs. This has resulted in confusion and frustration for Hmong patients, families, and nurses. Hmong end-of-life care choices for family members usually involve in-home caregiving provided by the family using a combination of biomedicine and traditional healing methods. Health care decisions are made for the patient by the family and community in this familistic culture. A qualitative approach was used by the researchers to explore the beliefs that ultimately determine end-of-life care goals and strategies for Hmong patients. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 family caregivers of terminally ill patients and 5 shamans and Hmong funeral officiants.
Sangmi Lee (2020) Diasporic kinship hegemonies and transnational continuities in the Hmong diaspora, Identities, 27:2, 229-247. Although hegemony has been understood as the property of nation-states and the ruling classes, this paper explores cultural hegemonies among diasporic peoples by examining the pervasive compliance of Hmong living in Laos and the United States with the principles of their kinship system. Since these kinship rules are inculcated through parental education from an early age and are seen as essential for maintaining the cohesion of their dispersed diasporic community in the absence of a territorial ancestral homeland, they have become culturally engrained and taken-for-granted by Hmong through their voluntary consent and no longer have to be enforced by overt power and coercive means. However, like all hegemonies, the Hmong kinship system may also confront increasing challenges and contestation as it is enacted in the different nation-states where Hmong reside, and may eventually become an ideology that needs to be actively enforced and imposed by the direct use of power.
Robert Jay Lowinger, et al. (2020): Hmong Students’ Attitudes toward Affirmative Action, Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. Using a sample of 119 Hmong students, this study employed multiple linear regression analysis to examine the role of ethnic identity, principled policy beliefs, self-interest, and gender in Hmong college students’ support for college affirmative action policies designed to benefit their own group. Results indicated principled policy beliefs as well as gender were significant predictors of support. Ethnic identity and self-interest were not significant predictors of support. Implications for research and practice are addressed.
Jean Michaud. (2020). "The Art of Not Being Scripted So Much The Politics of Writing Hmong Language(s)." Current Anthropology, 61(2). This article discusses the persistent absence of a consensus on a script for the language of the Hmong, a kinship-based society of 5 million spread over the uplands of Southwest China and northern Indochina, with a vigorous diaspora in the West. In search of an explanation for this unusual situation, this article proposes a political reading inspired by James C. Scott’s 2009 book The Art of Not Being Governed. A particular focus is put on Scott’s claim of tactical rejection of literacy among upland groups of Asia. To set the scene, the case of the Hmong is briefly exposed before detailing the successive appearance of orthographies for their language(s) over one century. It is then argued that the lack of consensus on a common writing system might be a reflection of deeper political motives rather than merely the result of historical processes.
Pamela Spycher, et al. (2020) "Culturally sustaining disciplinary language and literacy instruction for Hmong-American children." Theory Into Practice, 59:1, 89-98. This article argues for an instructional approach that integrates disciplinary language and literacy teaching with culturally sustaining pedagogy. The authors synthesize research and theories on the approach and provide illustrative examples with elementary grades for Hmong American children.
Timothy Wang, et al. (2020). "Healthcare Disparities Identified Between Hmong and Other Asian Origin Groups Living with Chronic Hepatitis B Infection in Sacramento County 2014–2017." Journal of Community Health (2020) 45:412–418. Chronic hepatitis B (CHB) disproportionately affects non-US born Asians. The Hmong have been shown to have the highest rates of CHB and mortality from liver cancer compared to other Asian groups. From September 2014 to September 2017, testing for CHB within Sacramento County was conducted through community-based testing events and an electronic health record alert that identified Asian patients by surname. Demographic and laboratory data were collected for analysis and patients were followed through the study period to assess linkage to care and treatment to compare differences between Asian origin groups.
HMONG STUDIES JOURNAL PUBLISHES VOLUME 20
At the end of December 2019, the Saint Paul-based Hmong Studies Journal published volume 20.
Articles in Volume 20 include the following.
Neo-Rural Hmong in French Guiana by Marie-Odile Géraud
A Hmong Story Cloth Featuring Mak Phout (Lima Site 137) In Northern Laos: Rare in Content and Artistic Detail by Linda Gerdner, Lee Gossett and Frederic C. Benson
The impact of language brokering on Hmong college students’ parent-child relationship and academic persistence by Kikuko Omori and Kyoko Kishimoto
The Miao in China: A Review of Developments and Achievements over Seventy Years by Tian Shi, Xiao Hua Wu, De Bin Wang and Yan Lei
Influence of Perceived Parental Involvement on Hmong Children’s Academic Performance by Zha Blong Xiong, Kyle Nickodem, Jordan St. Charles, Sun-Kyung Lee, Jacqueline Braughton, Chen Vue, and Nancy Lo
Commentary: Constructing Refugees in the Academic Discourse: The Hmong in America by Marc Dorpema
View the Hmong Studies Journal Volume 20 Press Release here: https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/uploads/4/5/8/7/4587788/hsjpressrelease20.pdf
View Volume 20 here: https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hsj-volume-202019.html
Articles in Volume 20 include the following.
Neo-Rural Hmong in French Guiana by Marie-Odile Géraud
A Hmong Story Cloth Featuring Mak Phout (Lima Site 137) In Northern Laos: Rare in Content and Artistic Detail by Linda Gerdner, Lee Gossett and Frederic C. Benson
The impact of language brokering on Hmong college students’ parent-child relationship and academic persistence by Kikuko Omori and Kyoko Kishimoto
The Miao in China: A Review of Developments and Achievements over Seventy Years by Tian Shi, Xiao Hua Wu, De Bin Wang and Yan Lei
Influence of Perceived Parental Involvement on Hmong Children’s Academic Performance by Zha Blong Xiong, Kyle Nickodem, Jordan St. Charles, Sun-Kyung Lee, Jacqueline Braughton, Chen Vue, and Nancy Lo
Commentary: Constructing Refugees in the Academic Discourse: The Hmong in America by Marc Dorpema
View the Hmong Studies Journal Volume 20 Press Release here: https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/uploads/4/5/8/7/4587788/hsjpressrelease20.pdf
View Volume 20 here: https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hsj-volume-202019.html
COMPREHENSIVE AND EXPANDED HMONG STUDIES RESEARCH BIBLIOGRAPHIES ARE ONLINE:
Doing research on a Hmong Studies research topic? More than 40 comprehensive and frequently updated online subject bibliographies of Hmong Studies works are available at the following link: http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-studies-bibliographies.html
A 2007-Present research bibliography is updated every few months with information about the latest research publications in Hmong Studies, online links to full-text are included where applicable:
http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-studies-publications-from-2007-present.html
Doing research on a Hmong Studies research topic? More than 40 comprehensive and frequently updated online subject bibliographies of Hmong Studies works are available at the following link: http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-studies-bibliographies.html
A 2007-Present research bibliography is updated every few months with information about the latest research publications in Hmong Studies, online links to full-text are included where applicable:
http://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hmong-studies-publications-from-2007-present.html
