"Diaspora and the Predicament of Origins: Interrogating Hmong Postcolonial History and Identity" - a talk by Gary Yia Lee November 16, 2007

Professor Gary Yia Lee will focus on the origin of the Hmong and re-examine the debate between using "Hmong" or "Miao" as an umbrella term for this ethnic group. He is a Hmong anthropologist who was born in Laos, but moved to Australia as a teenager, where he later received his PhD from the University of Sydney in 1981. He works as a bilingual welfare service coordinator with the Cabramatta Community Centre, Sydney, Australia. He is the editor of the Lao Studies Review for the Lao Studies Society, he has been a referee for the Journal of Asian and Pacific Migration (Quezon City, Philippines) and the International Review of Migration (New York, USA) and is also the author of novels and scholarly articles. Prof. Lee is the first Visiting Professor at Concordia University's newly established Center for Hmong Studies.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu