St. Kate’s to host 5th annual Hmong Studies Conference

Pictured Above: Student organization SHE Pab works to create a space for Hmong women's voices on campus. Pictured about are the club's officers for the 2019-2020 academic year.

St. Catherine University will host the fifth annual Hmong Student Consortium International Conference on October 24-26. The Hmong Studies Consortium includes scholars from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of Minnesota, Chiang Mai University, and St. Kate’s, all bringing expertise on the traditions and experiences of Hmong community members living in the United States and Asia. 

“The vision of the Hmong Studies Consortium,” according to St. Catherine University’s event webpage, “is to bring together well established and newly emerging scholars who have an interest in Hmong transnational connections, broadly defined.”

The conference will take place in the Coeur de Catherine, with a performance in the Jeanne d’Arc Auditorium titled, “Threads of my Cloth.” The event’s three-day schedule includes multiple keynote speakers and breakout sessions, as well as a dinner banquet. 

Social work professor Dr. Pa Der Vang is the lead organizer of the Hmong Studies Conference to be held at St. Kate's October 24-26.

Conference organizer and St. Kate’s Social Work professor Dr. Pa Der Vang said: “This conference is a platform for students, scholars, and community members to come together and engage in discourse about many topics in Hmong Studies. These include [studies of] Hmong identity, language, gender, mental health and disability, as well as highlights of Hmong in arts and media, healing, and transnational topics such as Hmong Chao fa, Hmong in Thailand, Laos, and China. Scholars will be presenting their papers and engaging participants in discourse, critical analysis, and the bringing together of ideas to further the field of Hmong studies.”

The other universities participating in the Hmong Studies Consortium held the four previous conferences. “We decided to have it at St. Kate’s because the university offers a Hmong Studies Minor and Hmong language courses,” said Dr. Pa Der Vang. “We also serve many Hmong students [at St. Kate’s] and have a Hmong student club on campus called SHE Pab.” 

The Hmong Studies Minor is new to St. Kate’s as of 2012. The 24 credit minor includes courses such as “Critical Hmong Studies,” “Asian American Identities,” and “The Immigrant Perspective in Literature.”

Professor and Chair of Sociology Nancy A. Heitzeg said in a 2012 interview with Pauline Oo for the St. Kate’s Newswire that “[The] minor can be an incredible supplement to any major and to the liberal arts and health sciences. Certainly, we are very unique in this respect. Our Critical Hmong Studies minor is the only one in the ACTC [Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities].”

Students of the minor and members of the Hmong community on campus are welcome to engage in extra-curricular and leadership opportunities offered through SHE Pab, a student organization at St. Kate’s. SHE Pab was established in 2012 to “strive to create sisterhood by providing a space for Hmong Women voices,” according to their website. The organization has a strong presence on campus, hosting monthly meetings and storytelling nights and performing at cultural events. 

The Twin Cities has the highest urban concentration of Hmong people in America, with nearly 66,000 Hmong people in the entire state according to the Minnesota Historical Society. “With St. Paul as the epicenter of Hmong people in the United States,” said Vang, “it only makes sense that we would host the conference here in St. Paul. We are all very excited to be holding space for, creating space for, and welcoming our Hmong community members.” 

For more information regarding the Hmong Studies conference or minor, contact Dr. Pa Der Vang at pdvang@stkate.edu. To learn more about SHE Pab and their work on campus, check out their Facebook Page titled “SHE Pab: Voices of Hmong Women” or email the organization at shepab@stkate.edu.