HMONG STUDIES NEWSLETTER, WINTER 2026
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
Kong Pheng Pha. Queering the Hmong Diaspora: Racial Subjectivity and the Myth of Hyperheterosexuality. Seattle: University of Washington Press. In this monograph, the author critically examines how Hmong Americans are positioned within racial, gendered, and sexual discourses in the United States.
Academic Journal Articles/Other
Ian Baird. (2025). "History-Making: The Communist Party of Thailand’s attempt to shape Hmong and Lua narratives." Advances in Southeast Asian Studies, 18(2), B1-B17. The article describes the Community Party of Thailand's work with the Hmong and Lua Communities in Northern Thailand in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Melissa Borja. (2025). "Severing ties: ritual objects and the category of religion in Hmong American families." Religion, 55:2, 507-524. This article assesses two objects at the center of Hmong ritual life – the wrist strings tied during a khi tes ceremony and the meat of ritually sacrificed animals – and analyzes the diverse ways that Hmong American Christians have understood the significance of these objects and the family and community controversies surrounding them.
Lam Minh Chau. (2025). Reluctant Compliance and Collaborative Fiscal Disobedience: How Hmong Consumers Evade Value-Added Tax in Vietnam’s Northern Uplands." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 26:1, 1-18. This article describes a Hmong community's experience with a state implemented value-added tax in Northern Vietnam.
Sophie Fuggle & Alexander M. Greene. (2025). "Colonial chess pieces? Situating ‘Opération Hmong’ in French Guiana within the wider history and legacy of the BUMIDOM, Modern & Contemporary France." 33:3, 335-355. This article situates the installation of the Hmong refugees within the wider history of BUMIDOM (a French governmental agency between 1963 and 1982 in charge of emigration of the inhabitants of French overseas departments to Metropolitan France) and French post-war migration policy.
Mari Kira et al. (2025). Values Informing Former Refugees’ Good Life Experiences and Endeavors. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. 23(4): 559-577. The authors of this article explore the role of personal values in the experiences and endeavors of a good life among Hmong and Somali former refugees who have resettled in the United States.
Jennifer C. Langill. (2025) "‘I shouldn’t have to do this alone’: intersectional livelihoods and single Hmong women in Thailand." Gender, Place & Culture, 32:1, 34-53. In this article, the author presents ethnographic case studies and utilizes a decolonial intersectional livelihood approach 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, with one woman widowed, one divorced, one unmarried, and one’s husband in jail.
Sou Lee. (2025). "`My shot caller was the one who snitched on me': Symbolic interactionism, identity, and motives for gang exit among Hmong gang members." Criminology 63:510–544. The author analyzes ethnographic observations and life-history interviews with 15 former Hmong gang members and introduces a symbolic interactionist framework that leverages identity theory and integrates the cultural and historical context of the Hmong to assess why and how Hmong gang members leave and key factors and motivations involved in this process..
Jessica McKenzie. (2025). "Digital Media as Sites for Cultural Identity Development: The Case of Hmong American Emerging Adults." Journal of Adolescent Research 40(2): 296-330. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2017 in a U.S. Midwest nursing home with a high proportion of Hmong residents and staff, the authors situate CSC as carework that is invisible and racialized labor. This research study assesses how 17 Hmong American emerging adults’ (Mage = 21.94 years) digital media use shapes, and is shaped by, their cultural identity development.
Jean Michaud, Jean-Claude Neveu & Achariya Choowonglert. (2025). "Journeying through margins: social dynamics of roads in Thailand’s northern uplands." Ethnic and Racial Studies. Published Online December 2025. This qualitative research study examines how roads affected remote villages in northern Thailand. The research focuses on one Lahu and one Hmong upland villages and one Tai community in the lowlands. Despite poor road access and strict land conservation policies, villagers have found ways to succeed through cash cropping, such as oranges and cut flowers, and turn a profit.
Seb Rumsby. (2025). "Social Mobility, Competition, Citizenship, and Brokerage on Different Margins of Vietnamese Society." Critical Asian Studies, Published Online December 2025. This article presents an exploratory comparison of two marginalized groups of Vietnamese citizens – Hmong Protestants in Vietnam’s northern highlands and transnational labor migrants to Europe.
Louisa Schein. (2025). "Negotiating Bu Kaifang: Chronicles of Opening and Engagement in Miao Country." Positions: Asia Critique, 33(3): 619-646. In this article, the author describes and discusses fieldwork among Miao in Guizhou province in the 1980s.
Tian Shi. (2025). "Crossing borders, creating boundaries: transborder citizenship and the affiliated agency among Hmong migrant workers in the China–Laos border." Citizenship Studies, 29:5, 374-389. This article examines the transborder citizenship of Hmong migrant workers at the China – Laos border through a discussion of their migration and aspirations.
Mai See Thao et al. (2026). "The invisible and racialized labor of culturally sensitive care: A Hmong nursing home case study." Social Science and Medicine 388. This case study applies an intersectional examination of Culturally Sensitive Care (CSC) as practiced by racially/ethnically minoritized careworkers caring for racial/ethnically concordant nursinghome residents.
Rican Vue (2025). "Lifting the veil of hyperinvisibility: HMoob American student (en)counters with the white colonial gaze." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Published Online April 2025. From the abstract: "To understand the hyperinvisible encounter as a contested site where both reproduction and countering of white racial meaning take place, the current analysis answers the following research questions: How do HMoob American students expose and resist white colonial gazes? And how does the (en)counter both reproduce whiteness and reveal how white people have been damaged by white coloniality?"
Meiqing Yang et al. (2025). "Refining the genetic structure and admixture history of Hmong‑Mien populations." BMC Biology. 23:192. This study focuses on the genetic formation and admixture events that significantly shape the genomic diversity of present-day Hmong-Mien speakers in southwest China.
Zha Blong Xiong, Pubudu Senaratne, Lilly Lee & Zang Vang-Lee. (2025). "Motivations and challenges of Hmong family, friend, and neighbour caregivers." Journal of Family Studies. Published Online August 2025. According to the abstract, "family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care has been practised for generations, yet little is known about Hmong FFN care. The purpose of this study was to understand the FFN care’s context, motivations, challenges, and resources. The study included 19 Hmong FFN caregivers who live in Minnesota, U.S.A."
Books
Kong Pheng Pha. Queering the Hmong Diaspora: Racial Subjectivity and the Myth of Hyperheterosexuality. Seattle: University of Washington Press. In this monograph, the author critically examines how Hmong Americans are positioned within racial, gendered, and sexual discourses in the United States.
Academic Journal Articles/Other
Ian Baird. (2025). "History-Making: The Communist Party of Thailand’s attempt to shape Hmong and Lua narratives." Advances in Southeast Asian Studies, 18(2), B1-B17. The article describes the Community Party of Thailand's work with the Hmong and Lua Communities in Northern Thailand in the late 1960s and 1970s.
Melissa Borja. (2025). "Severing ties: ritual objects and the category of religion in Hmong American families." Religion, 55:2, 507-524. This article assesses two objects at the center of Hmong ritual life – the wrist strings tied during a khi tes ceremony and the meat of ritually sacrificed animals – and analyzes the diverse ways that Hmong American Christians have understood the significance of these objects and the family and community controversies surrounding them.
Lam Minh Chau. (2025). Reluctant Compliance and Collaborative Fiscal Disobedience: How Hmong Consumers Evade Value-Added Tax in Vietnam’s Northern Uplands." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, 26:1, 1-18. This article describes a Hmong community's experience with a state implemented value-added tax in Northern Vietnam.
Sophie Fuggle & Alexander M. Greene. (2025). "Colonial chess pieces? Situating ‘Opération Hmong’ in French Guiana within the wider history and legacy of the BUMIDOM, Modern & Contemporary France." 33:3, 335-355. This article situates the installation of the Hmong refugees within the wider history of BUMIDOM (a French governmental agency between 1963 and 1982 in charge of emigration of the inhabitants of French overseas departments to Metropolitan France) and French post-war migration policy.
Mari Kira et al. (2025). Values Informing Former Refugees’ Good Life Experiences and Endeavors. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies. 23(4): 559-577. The authors of this article explore the role of personal values in the experiences and endeavors of a good life among Hmong and Somali former refugees who have resettled in the United States.
Jennifer C. Langill. (2025) "‘I shouldn’t have to do this alone’: intersectional livelihoods and single Hmong women in Thailand." Gender, Place & Culture, 32:1, 34-53. In this article, the author presents ethnographic case studies and utilizes a decolonial intersectional livelihood approach 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, with one woman widowed, one divorced, one unmarried, and one’s husband in jail.
Sou Lee. (2025). "`My shot caller was the one who snitched on me': Symbolic interactionism, identity, and motives for gang exit among Hmong gang members." Criminology 63:510–544. The author analyzes ethnographic observations and life-history interviews with 15 former Hmong gang members and introduces a symbolic interactionist framework that leverages identity theory and integrates the cultural and historical context of the Hmong to assess why and how Hmong gang members leave and key factors and motivations involved in this process..
Jessica McKenzie. (2025). "Digital Media as Sites for Cultural Identity Development: The Case of Hmong American Emerging Adults." Journal of Adolescent Research 40(2): 296-330. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted in 2017 in a U.S. Midwest nursing home with a high proportion of Hmong residents and staff, the authors situate CSC as carework that is invisible and racialized labor. This research study assesses how 17 Hmong American emerging adults’ (Mage = 21.94 years) digital media use shapes, and is shaped by, their cultural identity development.
Jean Michaud, Jean-Claude Neveu & Achariya Choowonglert. (2025). "Journeying through margins: social dynamics of roads in Thailand’s northern uplands." Ethnic and Racial Studies. Published Online December 2025. This qualitative research study examines how roads affected remote villages in northern Thailand. The research focuses on one Lahu and one Hmong upland villages and one Tai community in the lowlands. Despite poor road access and strict land conservation policies, villagers have found ways to succeed through cash cropping, such as oranges and cut flowers, and turn a profit.
Seb Rumsby. (2025). "Social Mobility, Competition, Citizenship, and Brokerage on Different Margins of Vietnamese Society." Critical Asian Studies, Published Online December 2025. This article presents an exploratory comparison of two marginalized groups of Vietnamese citizens – Hmong Protestants in Vietnam’s northern highlands and transnational labor migrants to Europe.
Louisa Schein. (2025). "Negotiating Bu Kaifang: Chronicles of Opening and Engagement in Miao Country." Positions: Asia Critique, 33(3): 619-646. In this article, the author describes and discusses fieldwork among Miao in Guizhou province in the 1980s.
Tian Shi. (2025). "Crossing borders, creating boundaries: transborder citizenship and the affiliated agency among Hmong migrant workers in the China–Laos border." Citizenship Studies, 29:5, 374-389. This article examines the transborder citizenship of Hmong migrant workers at the China – Laos border through a discussion of their migration and aspirations.
Mai See Thao et al. (2026). "The invisible and racialized labor of culturally sensitive care: A Hmong nursing home case study." Social Science and Medicine 388. This case study applies an intersectional examination of Culturally Sensitive Care (CSC) as practiced by racially/ethnically minoritized careworkers caring for racial/ethnically concordant nursinghome residents.
Rican Vue (2025). "Lifting the veil of hyperinvisibility: HMoob American student (en)counters with the white colonial gaze." International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. Published Online April 2025. From the abstract: "To understand the hyperinvisible encounter as a contested site where both reproduction and countering of white racial meaning take place, the current analysis answers the following research questions: How do HMoob American students expose and resist white colonial gazes? And how does the (en)counter both reproduce whiteness and reveal how white people have been damaged by white coloniality?"
Meiqing Yang et al. (2025). "Refining the genetic structure and admixture history of Hmong‑Mien populations." BMC Biology. 23:192. This study focuses on the genetic formation and admixture events that significantly shape the genomic diversity of present-day Hmong-Mien speakers in southwest China.
Zha Blong Xiong, Pubudu Senaratne, Lilly Lee & Zang Vang-Lee. (2025). "Motivations and challenges of Hmong family, friend, and neighbour caregivers." Journal of Family Studies. Published Online August 2025. According to the abstract, "family, friend, and neighbor (FFN) care has been practised for generations, yet little is known about Hmong FFN care. The purpose of this study was to understand the FFN care’s context, motivations, challenges, and resources. The study included 19 Hmong FFN caregivers who live in Minnesota, U.S.A."
VOLUME 27 OF HMONG STUDIES JOURNAL IS PUBLISHED AT www.hmongstudiesjournal.org
The Saint Paul-based Hmong Studies Journal is pleased to announce the publication of Volume 27. An internet-based journal, the Hmong Studies Journal is the only peer-reviewed academic publication devoted to the scholarly discussion of Hmong history, Hmong culture, Hmong people, and other facets of the Hmong experience in the U.S., Asia and around the world. The Hmong Studies Journal has now published 30 online issues in 27 volumes with more than 200 scholarly articles since 1996.
Dr. Mark Pfeifer, Editor of the Hmong Studies Journal stated. “This newly published set of articles provides significant additions to contemporary Hmong American and Hmong Diaspora Studies with research from scholars working in such fields as Education, Asian American Studies, Social Work and Public Health. This scholarly research will be widely disseminated through the Hmong Studies Journal’s website, the journal’s social media pages and to thousands of academic and public libraries through dissemination agreements with major scholarly database aggregators including EBSCO, ProQuest, Gale/Cengage, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Asia-Studies Full-Text.”
HMONG STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 27 CONTENT
Migration and Identity: A Comparative Study of Funeral Ritual Cultures among the Hmong and Miao in the Sichuan–Yunnan–Guizhou Border Region, China by CAI Wei
Self-reported Dental Health of Hmong Adults and Children in a Thai Village: a Descriptive Cohort Study by Kathleen A Culhane-Pera, Kassandra Thao, Teelek Lungta, Nutcha Vimolsutjarit, Sandy Lor and Chairsiri Angkurawaranon
“Because I am a woman. Being a woman, you have to do most!”: A Qualitative Study of Hmong Women’s Nutrition Experiences and Health Outcomes In Rural Northern Thailand by Lee Lor, Susi Keefe, Connie Vang, Gao Sheng Yang
Community social work practice and ethnic minority professional coalitions: Addressing the needs of Hmong American social work students and professionals by K.L. Moua and P.D. Vang
Perceived factors influencing health-related behaviors among Hmong American youth aged 14−25 years in the Sacramento, California Region by Urvashi Mulasi, Lisa Franzen-Castle, Mical Shilts, Houa Lee Lo, KongPeng Moua
Predicting satisfaction with advising among Hmong undergraduate students by Soua Xiong
Community Defined Evidence Practice in Fresno, CA: The Hmong Helping Hands Intervention Project by Ghia Xiong, Melanie Vang, Yang Sao Xiong, Susan Tracz, and Toni Knott
“No Matter What Goodness Women Do, Women Are Not Their Husband’s People”: A Qualitative Analysis of Hmong Women’s Reproductive Health in Rural Northern Thailand by Gao Sheng Yang, Susi Keefe, Connie Vang and Lee Lor
Read Volume 27 of the Hmong Studies Journal here: https:/www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hsj-volume-272025.htm/
The Saint Paul-based Hmong Studies Journal is pleased to announce the publication of Volume 27. An internet-based journal, the Hmong Studies Journal is the only peer-reviewed academic publication devoted to the scholarly discussion of Hmong history, Hmong culture, Hmong people, and other facets of the Hmong experience in the U.S., Asia and around the world. The Hmong Studies Journal has now published 30 online issues in 27 volumes with more than 200 scholarly articles since 1996.
Dr. Mark Pfeifer, Editor of the Hmong Studies Journal stated. “This newly published set of articles provides significant additions to contemporary Hmong American and Hmong Diaspora Studies with research from scholars working in such fields as Education, Asian American Studies, Social Work and Public Health. This scholarly research will be widely disseminated through the Hmong Studies Journal’s website, the journal’s social media pages and to thousands of academic and public libraries through dissemination agreements with major scholarly database aggregators including EBSCO, ProQuest, Gale/Cengage, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and Asia-Studies Full-Text.”
HMONG STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 27 CONTENT
Migration and Identity: A Comparative Study of Funeral Ritual Cultures among the Hmong and Miao in the Sichuan–Yunnan–Guizhou Border Region, China by CAI Wei
Self-reported Dental Health of Hmong Adults and Children in a Thai Village: a Descriptive Cohort Study by Kathleen A Culhane-Pera, Kassandra Thao, Teelek Lungta, Nutcha Vimolsutjarit, Sandy Lor and Chairsiri Angkurawaranon
“Because I am a woman. Being a woman, you have to do most!”: A Qualitative Study of Hmong Women’s Nutrition Experiences and Health Outcomes In Rural Northern Thailand by Lee Lor, Susi Keefe, Connie Vang, Gao Sheng Yang
Community social work practice and ethnic minority professional coalitions: Addressing the needs of Hmong American social work students and professionals by K.L. Moua and P.D. Vang
Perceived factors influencing health-related behaviors among Hmong American youth aged 14−25 years in the Sacramento, California Region by Urvashi Mulasi, Lisa Franzen-Castle, Mical Shilts, Houa Lee Lo, KongPeng Moua
Predicting satisfaction with advising among Hmong undergraduate students by Soua Xiong
Community Defined Evidence Practice in Fresno, CA: The Hmong Helping Hands Intervention Project by Ghia Xiong, Melanie Vang, Yang Sao Xiong, Susan Tracz, and Toni Knott
“No Matter What Goodness Women Do, Women Are Not Their Husband’s People”: A Qualitative Analysis of Hmong Women’s Reproductive Health in Rural Northern Thailand by Gao Sheng Yang, Susi Keefe, Connie Vang and Lee Lor
Read Volume 27 of the Hmong Studies Journal here: https:/www.hmongstudiesjournal.org/hsj-volume-272025.htm/
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
