Chia Youyee Vang

Last updated
Chia Youyee Van
Born (1971-06-05) June 5, 1971 (age 51)
Xiengkhouang, Laos
Occupation Professor
Years active2006-Present
Employer University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Notable workHmong America : reconstructing community in diaspora
SpouseTong Yang

Chia Youyee Vang is a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research and writing deals with the Hmong diaspora, other Southeast Asian diasporas and refugees and on community-building efforts among Hmong people in the United States. [1] [2]

Contents

Vang is the author of the books Hmong in Minnesota [3] and Hmong America : reconstructing community in diaspora. [4] She is also the co-editor of Claiming Place: On the Agency of Hmong Women. [5] Hmong in America has been described as "the first scholarly examination of the Hmong experience in the U.S." [6] : 214 

Biography

Vang was born in Laos on June 5, 1971. [7] She was displaced by the Vietnam War and resettled in Saint Paul, Minnesota as a child. [2] [8] [9] Her parents were farmers, both in Laos and in Minnesota. As a child, she and her siblings spent summers harvesting vegetables and selling crops alongside her parents. [10] She received a bachelor's degree from Gustavus Adolphus College (1994), a master's degree (1996) and Ph.D. (2006) from the University of Minnesota. She began teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2006 where she became the first Hmong tenure-track faculty member. [7] There, she established an interdisciplinary Hmong Diaspora Studies program, of which she is the director. [11] The program was developed in response to growing demands from Asian-American students calling for coursework that reflected their life experiences; the Hmong were the largest Asian ethnic group on campus, representing 2% of the student body. [12]

Vang is now a full professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the university's associate vice chancellor for global inclusion and engagement. [13]

Vang is married to Tong Yang. Together they have one daughter and two sons. [9]

Scholarship

Vang is best known for her book 2010 Hmong America: reconstructing community in diaspora. Described as "both ethnography and an insider's account", [6] : 214  the book's methods include "archival research, oral history interviews, and observations of community gatherings." [14] The book describes the migration of 130,000 Hmong from Southeast Asia to the United States following the Vietnam War, and the evolution of Hmong communities in the United States, starting with early networks based on kinship ties, and evolving into formal organizations and churches. [14] It focuses on people who entered the United States as "refugees" rather than as "immigrants". [15] It argues that the timing of the Hmong migration, coming after the societal shifts of the Civil Rights Era, gave Hmong people greater opportunity for social, economic, and cultural success in the United States than many waves of immigrants before them. [16] [6] : 213  Credit also goes to community leaders among the Hmong who used their loyalty to Americans and their opposition to communism during the Laotian Civil War to build social and political capital for their people. [15] [16] The book has been recognized for documenting the role of Hmong Christianity in the United States, in contrast to previous studies that focused on religion as a site of difference between non-Christian Hmong and a majority-Christian population in the United States. [14] The book has been criticized for excessive focus on Hmong in Minnesota (the focus of Vang's first book) and in the upper Midwest to the exclusion of some other areas of Hmong resettlement such as Arkansas. [6] : 213  [14]

In 2016, Vang co-edited and contributed a chapter to the book Claiming Place: On the Agency of Hmong Women, which argues that women's empowerment can occur within the Hmong cultural context, despite assumptions that Hmong culture oppresses women. Drawing on the fields of Gender studies and Postcolonial studies, the authors contend that Hmong women have evinced their agency in education, professional, entrepreneurial, spiritual, and domestic spheres. [17]

Awards received

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong people</span> Ethnic group in Southwest China and Southeast Asia

The Hmong people are an indigenous group in East and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. The modern Hmong reside mainly in Southwest China and countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. There is also a very large diasporic community in the United States, comprising more than 300,000 Hmong. The Hmong diaspora also has smaller communities in Australia and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vang Pao</span> Laotian-American soldier

Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. He was a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. He was also known as General Vang Pao to the people in the Hmong community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong Americans</span> Americans of Hmong birth or descent

Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the Laotian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ka Vang</span>

Ka Vang is a Hmong-American writer in the United States. Vang was born on a CIA military base, Long Cheng, Laos, at the end of the Vietnam War, and immigrated to the United States in 1980. A fiction writer, poet, playwright, and former journalist, Vang has devoted much of her professional life to capturing Hmong folktales on paper. She is a recipient of the Archibald Bush Artist Fellowship and several other artistic and leadership awards. She is the author of the children's book, Shoua and the Northern Lights Dragon, a finalist for the 23rd Annual Midwest Book Awards in 2012.

Mai Neng Moua is a Hmong-American writer and a founder of the Paj Ntaub Voice, a Hmong literary magazine. She is also the editor of the first anthology of Hmong American writers, Bamboo Among the Oaks.

Dia Cha is a notable Laotian American author and academic who has written books for both children and adults.

Houa Vue Moua, along with co-author Barbara J. Rolland, wrote the book, Trail Through The Mists, which tells the story of Moua's early life in Laos during the Secret War and her harrowing escape to Thailand during the subsequent Hmong diaspora.

The alleged 2007 Laotian coup d'état plan was a conspiracy allegation by the United States Department of Justice that Lt. Col. Harrison Jack (Ret.) and former Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao, among others conspired in June 2007 to obtain large amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to overthrow the Communist government of Laos in violation of the Neutrality Act. The charges were ultimately dropped and the case helped serve to further highlight, instead, major human rights violations by the Lao government against the Hmong ethnic minority, Laotian refugees, and political dissidents.

Vang Pobzeb was a Hmong American dedicated to Lao and Hmong human rights. For over 25 years, he was an outspoken critic of the Marxist governments of the Pathet Lao in Laos and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) and their human rights violations, religious freedom violations, and persecution of the Lao and Hmong people.

The Hmong are a major ethnic group residing in Merced, California. As of 1997, Merced had a high concentration of Hmong residents relative to its population. The Hmong community settled in Merced after Dang Moua, a Hmong community leader, had promoted Merced to the Hmong communities scattered across the United States. As of 2010, there were 4,741 people of Hmong descent living in Merced, comprising 6% of Merced's population.

May Song Vang was an American Hmong community leader and activist. She was the widow of General Vang Pao, a former member of the Royal Lao Army and prominent Hmong American leader, who died in 2011. May Song Vang became a more prominent symbol of the Hmong American community in California and the rest of the United States after the death of her husband.

Hmong Americans are the largest Asian ethnic group in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Allies of the United States in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War and later stages of the Laotian Civil War, they started seeking asylum as political refugees after the communist takeover in both nations in 1975. Hmong in Vietnam and Laos were subjected to targeted attacks in both countries, and tens of thousands were killed, imprisoned or forcibly relocated following the war.

Cherzong Vang was an American community leader from St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an elder of the Hmong people in Laos and the Lao-American community in the Twin Cities of the United States.

Katie Ka Vang is a Hmong American performance artist, poet and playwright. She has created and written several performance pieces and plays. These include wtf, Hmong Bollywood, Meaning of Freedom; Use of Sharpening, Youth In Session, and Myth of Xee.

Jane Hamilton-Merritt is a retired college professor, photojournalist, author, and animal rights and animal husbandry advocate. She resides in Redding, Connecticut. In 1999, she was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame. Some of her work has focused on breeding and raising Llamas and Alpaca.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mai Der Vang</span> American poet

Mai Der Vang is a Hmong American poet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William A. Smalley</span> American linguist

William Allen Smalley was an American linguist. He is best known for his role in the development of the Romanized Popular Alphabet for the Hmong language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kaohly Her</span> American politician

Kaohly Her is a Hmong-American politician serving in the Minnesota House of Representatives since 2019. A member of the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party (DFL), Her represents District 64A, which includes parts of Saint Paul in Ramsey County, Minnesota.

References

  1. ↑ "Chia Youyee Vang Studies The Hmong Diaspora - Hmong Times". Hmong Times. 2018-04-19. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  2. 1 2 Lum, Lydia (2008-08-07). "Getting to Know: Chia Youyee Vang". Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. 25 (13): 6.
  3. ↑ Vang, Chia Youyee (2008). Hmong in Minnesota. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN   9780873515986. OCLC   164570608.
  4. ↑ Vang, Chia Youyee (2010). Hmong America : reconstructing community in diaspora. Urbana, Ill.: University of Illinois Press. ISBN   9780252035685. OCLC   601331518.
  5. ↑ Claiming place : on the agency of Hmong women. Vang, Chia Youyee; Nibbs, Faith G.; and Vang, Ma. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2016. ISBN   9781452950068. OCLC   944346999.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. 1 2 3 4 Riffel, Brent E. (2011). "Review of Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora". The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. 70 (2): 212–214. JSTOR   23046169.
  7. 1 2 Xiong, Maly A. (2017-08-08). "Vang, Chia Y. b. 1971 | Wisconsin Historical Society". Dictionary of Wisconsin History - Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  8. ↑ "Wisconsin Women Making History Chia Youyee Vang - Wisconsin Women Making History". 2016-06-21. Archived from the original on 2016-06-21. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  9. 1 2 3 Pabst, Georgia (2010-12-11). "Milwaukee Hmong community celebrates local leaders". Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal-Sentinel. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  10. ↑ Harvey, Kay (1998-11-22). "A Job and a Family: Appreciating the Distance Traveled". Saint Paul Pioneer Press. p. 6A.
  11. ↑ "Winners of Regents' Diversity Awards announced". News. 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  12. ↑ Lum, Lydia (2010-05-13). "Lost in Transition". Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Vol. 27, no. 7. pp. 12–13.
  13. ↑ "Chia Youyee Vang | Global Inclusion & Engagement". uwm.edu. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Lor, Yang (2012-03-03). "Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora (review)". Journal of Asian American Studies. 15 (1): 137–139. doi:10.1353/jaas.2012.0008. ISSN   1096-8598.
  15. 1 2 Lee, Shelley S. (June 2012). "Chia Youyee Vang . Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora . (The Asian American Experience.) Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. 2010. Pp. xxii, 200. Cloth $75.00, paper $25.00". The American Historical Review. 117 (3): 896–897. doi:10.1086/ahr.117.3.896. ISSN   0002-8762.
  16. 1 2 Dodson, Angela (2011-05-31). "Book Review: Examining the Hmong in America". Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. Vol. 28, no. 7. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
  17. ↑ Lopez, Lori Kido (2017-02-01). "Claiming Place: On the Agency of Hmong Women ed. by Chia Youyee Vang, Faith Nibbs, Ma Vang (review)". Journal of Asian American Studies. 20 (1): 130–132. doi:10.1353/jaas.2017.0010. ISSN   1096-8598.
  18. ↑ "Regents name UWM's Vang as 2016 Diversity Award winner". UWM REPORT. 2016-01-27. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
  19. ↑ "University of Wisconsin Outstanding Women of Color in Education Award Recipients". Grants & Awards. 2018-04-27. Retrieved 2018-11-14.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.