Terrorists or Victims? US-Lao Relations and Hmong Transnational Politics April 5, 2011

Her Vang will examine U.S.-Lao relations from the early 1960s to the end of the first decade of the new millennium and their impact on U.S.-Hmong relations, looking particularly at the formation and evolution of Hmong transnational politics in America during this period of recent history.

Her Vang received his Ph.D in U.S. History from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2010. His dissertation, “Dreaming of Home, Dreaming of Land: Hmong Displacements and Transnational Politics” is based on ethnographic fieldwork and archival research done in Laos, Thailand, and the United States between 2006 and 2009. His work explores the evolution of Hmong transnational politics in Thailand and the United States after the Vietnam War. During the 2010-11 school year, Her Vang is in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study as a postdoctoral fellow in Hmong Studies, a position generously funded by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.

Official Website: http://www.ias.umn.edu/thursdayscals11.php