Yang Sao Xiong is the nation’s first tenure-track Hmong Studies professor, reports Isthmus.
The story of Xiong, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in a state with almost 50,000 Hmong Americans, is a familiar one. His father was a sergeant in the CIA’s special guerilla unit in Northern Laos. After the war, his family along with a million other refugees fled into Thailand. There his family took classes in English and American culture to prepare them for life in California.
He entered the first grade at a school in Marysville.
“Like many other families, we struggled with poverty, we had to apply for public assistance for a time. My parents were struggling economically, socially, culturally.”
One of the focuses of Xiong’s research will be the difficulties Hmong Americans face in the classroom.
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The story of how Xiong’s position was created is filled with stories of struggle and racism. You can read about that in Isthmus.
RE: Meet the nation’s first tenure track Hmong Studies Professor: Great, at least it’s a start, hope to see this guy in Chicago for AAAS in April.. wonder what he has to say about the Hmong grandfather hunter who was beaten up recently….