The Consortium for Hmong Studies between the University of Minnesota and the University of Wisconsin-Madison hosted the second Hmong studies conference “Hmong Across Borders,” over three days in October. The conference focused on current, innovative research on the Hmong across different intellectual and national boundaries, by scholars from across the U.S., Thailand, and China.
Department of Family Social Science participants included professors Zha Blong Xiong and Catherine Solheim, and graduate student Kari Smalkoski, who presented twice and co-organized the conference.

Professor Xiong and Smalkoski presented their influential paper “Health Disparities Research in the Hmong American Community: Implications for Practice and Policy,” which was published in the Hmong Studies Journal Census Special Issue. View video of their presentation.
Smalkoski presented her research in “Performing Masculinities: The Impact of Cultural Practices, Violence, and (de)segregation on Hmong Male Youth,” as part of a larger panel on Hmong Gender Productions in a Time of Change.
Professor Solheim moderated the panel “Hmong in Thailand: Dreams and Expressiongs of Ethno-Nationalism.”
Professor Xiong moderated a Hmong Forum “Understanding the Hmong in their Own Contexts.”
He also hosted visiting scholar Dr. Jason Yu-Xiao Long from the Guizhou Institute for Advanced Study in Anthropology and Ethnology. Dr. Long presented “Ways of Tracing Roots Back to China: A Critique of Current Western Writings on Ancient Hmong History” examining how cultural politics are involved in the making of ethnic histories.
The next conference is slated for 2017. In the meantime, videos of all of the 2013 panels and presentations are available for viewing on the Institute for Advanced Studies website: http://ias.umn.edu/2013/10/04/hmong-across-borders-program/