HMONG STUDIES NEWSLETTER, SUMMER 2023
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
Andre Roland Altherr. (2022). "The Hmong-CIA Relationship as a Case Study of an Effective Ethnic Proxy Relationship." MA Paper, University of Chicago. The author of this paper argues that the success of the Hmong case an effective "ethnic proxy" in contrast with the prevailing negative sentiment regarding proxy groups raises the questions of what specific aspects of the situation, Hmong themselves, and the aid provided made the Hmong such an effective proxy for the United States in the war against the Pathet Lao and NVA in Northern Laos. The writer considers whether based on the answer to these questions it may be possible form any generalizable lessons on how future proxy relationships with ethnic groups might be successfully established and maintained.
Simon Bilodeau. (2022). Harnessing the Margins: Negotiations Over Tourism Development Among the Hmong of Dong Van and Mèo Vac Districts, Northern Vietnam. MA Thesis, University of Laval. This graduate study aims to understand and document some of the processes by which the Vietnamese state attempts to integrate the Hmong – a transborder marginal people living across the Southeast Asian Massif – into the nation, the market economy, and the state (culturally, economically, and politically) through tourism development, and how Hmong in Vietnam integrate, divert, and resist this assimilationist pressure.
Kou Her. (2022). Educational, Cultural and Family Experiences that Influence College Aspirations of Second-Generation Hmong Men. PhD Dissertation, California State University, Stanislaus. This doctoral study utilized a narrative inquiry to examine how educational experiences, family and cultural roles and expectations influence the second-generation Hmong men’s decisions to enroll in college. Four participants who grew up in Merced County, California shared their lived experiences for this qualitative study.
Sai Yang Xiong. (2022). Cultural and Gender Shifts: Trends and Factors Hmong Male Students Face in Pursuit of Higher Education. PhD Dissertation, University of the Pacific. The purpose of this doctoral study was to assess challenges that contribute to Hmong male students with the aim to understand how factors such as education, cultural influences, and life challenges impact the low educational attainment of Hmong male students in college. The research investigated (a) How do traditional cultural factors and contributing life challenges affect Hmong male students’ education? and (b) What educational challenges are perceived by Hmong male students as they navigate higher education?
Cheyanna Vang. (2022). The Cultural Wealth Hmoob (Hmong) College Students Bring to Higher Education Institutions. MA Thesis, California State University, Fresno. The purpose of this graduate research study examines what forms of cultural wealth HMoob college students possess that support them among higher education institutional contexts. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological design, this study also assesses the cultural wealth HMoob (HMong) college students bring into higher education institutions utilizing Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (2005) model.
Lou Vang. (2023). Exploring Academic Capital Formation of Hmong American Undergraduate College Students. PhD Dissertation, University of the Pacific. The purpose of this mixed methods graduate research study was to investigate whether academic capital is associated with student gender, student generation status, and parental education level of Hmong American undergraduate college students. The study also investigated the educational experience of Hmong American undergraduate college students to understand the barriers they faced in obtaining academic capital and how they overcame them.
Ko Yang. (2022). More than Just a Good Hmong Daughter. Hmong Women Reimagining Leadership in Higher Education. PhD Dissertation, California State University, Fresno. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of Hmong women navigating leadership in different contexts. Gender schema theory and bicultural socialization theory guided my research to examine gendered behaviors assigned to Hmong women and how it impacted their leadership.
Yin Yin Ye. (2020). Being Modern Miao Women: Gendered Ethnic Identity, Agency and the Commodification of Embroidery in Guizhou, China. PhD Dissertation, Macquarie University, Sydney. This graduate thesis draws primarily upon ethnographic research conducted within three Miao villages, Guizhou Province, Southwest China. Embroidery was previously the traditional activity of Miao women, but has become heavily commodified in some Miao villages, as part of the Chinese government’s policy to develop ethnic tourism. On the one hand, non-Miao actors and bodies, such as government officials, museums, art collectors and tourists increasingly define Miao embroidery as an ‘ethnic cultural resource’, as well as a valuable commodity. On the other hand, Miao women themselves have actively engaged with the commodification process, contributing to the industrialisation of the ethnic craft, and transforming village life in the process. The researcher's analysis focuses on the impact of these large-scale economic changes on Miao women’s interpretations of their ethnic cultural practices and family life, and how this is shaping new economic and social aspirations among these Miao communities.
Academic Journal Articles/Other
Marc Garallek and Christina M. Esposito. (2023). “Phonetics of White Hmong Vowel and Tonal Contrasts.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 53(1). In this paper, the authors provide a detailed description of both the vowel and tone systems of White Hmong from recordings of read speech. The researchers confirm several features of the language, including the presence of nasal vowels (rather than derived nasalized vowels through coarticulation with a coda [N]), the description of certain tone contours, and the systematic presence of breathy and creaky voice on two of the tones.
Malina Her and Zha Blong Xiong. (2023). “Self-Reported Reasons for Divorce, Social Support, and Depression: An Exploratory Story with Hmong Women.” Journal of Family Issues. Volume 0(0): 1-20. The authors of this study use a mixed-methods approach to explore Hmong women’s reasons for divorce, divorce initiation, and the relationship of social support and depression levels. To analyze findings, a thematic content analysis of written responses in addition to regression models was conducted by the authors. The researchers' qualitative findings show the most prominent reasons for divorce reported by Hmong women were personality or life differences, abusive behaviors, and infidelity.
Jennifer C. Langill. (2023). “’I shouldn’t have to do this alone’: intersectional livelihoods and single Hmong women in Thailand.” Gender, Place and Culture. 20 pages. Drawing on fieldwork in an ethnic minority Hmong village in northern Thailand, the researcher presents ethnographic case studies to analyze the experiences of four Hmong women who, for different reasons, undertake their livelihoods independently from a male counterpart. These women’s experiences demonstrate important intergenerational shifts occurring in Hmong society in Thailand and changing expectations of women’s roles.
Tian Shi. (2023). “Local Fashion, Global Imagination: Agency, Identity, and Aspiration in the Diasporic Hmong Community.” Journal of Material Culture 28(2): 175-198. This article assesses how the Hmong experience
can contribute to the knowledge of dress as a vehicle of agency, identity, and aspiration in fashion and material culture studies. The researcher also explores the emotionality of materials in terms of how imagination and aspiration of ethnicity are inscribed in and ascribed to dress and clothing in diasporic groups.
Kao Kang Kue Vang. (2023). “Covid-19 Mitigation Behaviors Among English-Speaking Hmong Americans.” BMC Public Health. 23: 487. 16 pages. This study is intended to describe COVID-19 mitigation behaviors among Hmong Americans and the contextual and personal characteristics that influence these behaviors. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from April 8 till June 1, 2021, with Hmong Americans aged 18 and over. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the overall characteristics and COVID-19 related behaviors of Hmong Americans. Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact Test were computed to describe COVID-19 mitigation behaviors by gender and generational status (a marker of acculturation).
Ya-Feng Wen. (2023). Population Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenetics modelling of oxypurinol in Hmong adults with gout and/or hyperuricemia. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2023: 1-13. The aim of this study was to quantify identifiable sources of variability, including key pharmacogenetic variants in oxypurinol pharmacokinetics and their pharmacodynamic effect on serum urate (SU) among Hmong adults with gout and/or hyperuricemia.
Books/Theses/Reports
Andre Roland Altherr. (2022). "The Hmong-CIA Relationship as a Case Study of an Effective Ethnic Proxy Relationship." MA Paper, University of Chicago. The author of this paper argues that the success of the Hmong case an effective "ethnic proxy" in contrast with the prevailing negative sentiment regarding proxy groups raises the questions of what specific aspects of the situation, Hmong themselves, and the aid provided made the Hmong such an effective proxy for the United States in the war against the Pathet Lao and NVA in Northern Laos. The writer considers whether based on the answer to these questions it may be possible form any generalizable lessons on how future proxy relationships with ethnic groups might be successfully established and maintained.
Simon Bilodeau. (2022). Harnessing the Margins: Negotiations Over Tourism Development Among the Hmong of Dong Van and Mèo Vac Districts, Northern Vietnam. MA Thesis, University of Laval. This graduate study aims to understand and document some of the processes by which the Vietnamese state attempts to integrate the Hmong – a transborder marginal people living across the Southeast Asian Massif – into the nation, the market economy, and the state (culturally, economically, and politically) through tourism development, and how Hmong in Vietnam integrate, divert, and resist this assimilationist pressure.
Kou Her. (2022). Educational, Cultural and Family Experiences that Influence College Aspirations of Second-Generation Hmong Men. PhD Dissertation, California State University, Stanislaus. This doctoral study utilized a narrative inquiry to examine how educational experiences, family and cultural roles and expectations influence the second-generation Hmong men’s decisions to enroll in college. Four participants who grew up in Merced County, California shared their lived experiences for this qualitative study.
Sai Yang Xiong. (2022). Cultural and Gender Shifts: Trends and Factors Hmong Male Students Face in Pursuit of Higher Education. PhD Dissertation, University of the Pacific. The purpose of this doctoral study was to assess challenges that contribute to Hmong male students with the aim to understand how factors such as education, cultural influences, and life challenges impact the low educational attainment of Hmong male students in college. The research investigated (a) How do traditional cultural factors and contributing life challenges affect Hmong male students’ education? and (b) What educational challenges are perceived by Hmong male students as they navigate higher education?
Cheyanna Vang. (2022). The Cultural Wealth Hmoob (Hmong) College Students Bring to Higher Education Institutions. MA Thesis, California State University, Fresno. The purpose of this graduate research study examines what forms of cultural wealth HMoob college students possess that support them among higher education institutional contexts. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological design, this study also assesses the cultural wealth HMoob (HMong) college students bring into higher education institutions utilizing Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth (2005) model.
Lou Vang. (2023). Exploring Academic Capital Formation of Hmong American Undergraduate College Students. PhD Dissertation, University of the Pacific. The purpose of this mixed methods graduate research study was to investigate whether academic capital is associated with student gender, student generation status, and parental education level of Hmong American undergraduate college students. The study also investigated the educational experience of Hmong American undergraduate college students to understand the barriers they faced in obtaining academic capital and how they overcame them.
Ko Yang. (2022). More than Just a Good Hmong Daughter. Hmong Women Reimagining Leadership in Higher Education. PhD Dissertation, California State University, Fresno. This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of Hmong women navigating leadership in different contexts. Gender schema theory and bicultural socialization theory guided my research to examine gendered behaviors assigned to Hmong women and how it impacted their leadership.
Yin Yin Ye. (2020). Being Modern Miao Women: Gendered Ethnic Identity, Agency and the Commodification of Embroidery in Guizhou, China. PhD Dissertation, Macquarie University, Sydney. This graduate thesis draws primarily upon ethnographic research conducted within three Miao villages, Guizhou Province, Southwest China. Embroidery was previously the traditional activity of Miao women, but has become heavily commodified in some Miao villages, as part of the Chinese government’s policy to develop ethnic tourism. On the one hand, non-Miao actors and bodies, such as government officials, museums, art collectors and tourists increasingly define Miao embroidery as an ‘ethnic cultural resource’, as well as a valuable commodity. On the other hand, Miao women themselves have actively engaged with the commodification process, contributing to the industrialisation of the ethnic craft, and transforming village life in the process. The researcher's analysis focuses on the impact of these large-scale economic changes on Miao women’s interpretations of their ethnic cultural practices and family life, and how this is shaping new economic and social aspirations among these Miao communities.
Academic Journal Articles/Other
Marc Garallek and Christina M. Esposito. (2023). “Phonetics of White Hmong Vowel and Tonal Contrasts.” Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 53(1). In this paper, the authors provide a detailed description of both the vowel and tone systems of White Hmong from recordings of read speech. The researchers confirm several features of the language, including the presence of nasal vowels (rather than derived nasalized vowels through coarticulation with a coda [N]), the description of certain tone contours, and the systematic presence of breathy and creaky voice on two of the tones.
Malina Her and Zha Blong Xiong. (2023). “Self-Reported Reasons for Divorce, Social Support, and Depression: An Exploratory Story with Hmong Women.” Journal of Family Issues. Volume 0(0): 1-20. The authors of this study use a mixed-methods approach to explore Hmong women’s reasons for divorce, divorce initiation, and the relationship of social support and depression levels. To analyze findings, a thematic content analysis of written responses in addition to regression models was conducted by the authors. The researchers' qualitative findings show the most prominent reasons for divorce reported by Hmong women were personality or life differences, abusive behaviors, and infidelity.
Jennifer C. Langill. (2023). “’I shouldn’t have to do this alone’: intersectional livelihoods and single Hmong women in Thailand.” Gender, Place and Culture. 20 pages. Drawing on fieldwork in an ethnic minority Hmong village in northern Thailand, the researcher presents ethnographic case studies to analyze the experiences of four Hmong women who, for different reasons, undertake their livelihoods independently from a male counterpart. These women’s experiences demonstrate important intergenerational shifts occurring in Hmong society in Thailand and changing expectations of women’s roles.
Tian Shi. (2023). “Local Fashion, Global Imagination: Agency, Identity, and Aspiration in the Diasporic Hmong Community.” Journal of Material Culture 28(2): 175-198. This article assesses how the Hmong experience
can contribute to the knowledge of dress as a vehicle of agency, identity, and aspiration in fashion and material culture studies. The researcher also explores the emotionality of materials in terms of how imagination and aspiration of ethnicity are inscribed in and ascribed to dress and clothing in diasporic groups.
Kao Kang Kue Vang. (2023). “Covid-19 Mitigation Behaviors Among English-Speaking Hmong Americans.” BMC Public Health. 23: 487. 16 pages. This study is intended to describe COVID-19 mitigation behaviors among Hmong Americans and the contextual and personal characteristics that influence these behaviors. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted from April 8 till June 1, 2021, with Hmong Americans aged 18 and over. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the overall characteristics and COVID-19 related behaviors of Hmong Americans. Chi-square and Fisher’s Exact Test were computed to describe COVID-19 mitigation behaviors by gender and generational status (a marker of acculturation).
Ya-Feng Wen. (2023). Population Pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenetics modelling of oxypurinol in Hmong adults with gout and/or hyperuricemia. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2023: 1-13. The aim of this study was to quantify identifiable sources of variability, including key pharmacogenetic variants in oxypurinol pharmacokinetics and their pharmacodynamic effect on serum urate (SU) among Hmong adults with gout and/or hyperuricemia.
HMONG STUDIES JOURNAL PUBLISHES VOLUME 24
In December 2022, the Saint Paul-based Hmong Studies Journal published volume 24. View volume 24 here: https://www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hsj-volume-242022.html
ANNOTATED HMONG STUDIES BIBLIOGRAPHY AVAILABLE
Annotated Bibliography of Hmong-Related Works: 2007-2019 is available from HER Publisher. The book includes annotations of more than 600 Hmong Studies research publications along with author and subject indexes. Order this unique research reference book here: https://herpublisher.com/collections/frontpage/products/annotated-bibliography-of-hmong-related-works-2007-2019
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