Photo credit: Moua Moua (via UCLA CSEAS)

During its secret war in Laos (1961–1975), the United States recruited proxy soldiers among the Hmong people. Following the war, many of these Hmong soldiers and displaced Hmong migrated to the United States with refugee status. This talk examines the experiences of Hmong refugees in the United States to theorize refugee histories and secrecy. The talk shows how Hmong refugees tell their stories in ways that exist separately from other narratives of U.S. empire that cannot be traditionally archived. Highlighting examples of the refugee soldier, Hmong women’s narratives, and Hmong-American literature, the talk outlines a methodology for writing histories that foreground refugee epistemologies despite systematic attempts to silence those histories.

The speaker, Ma Vang, is an Assistant Professor and founding chair of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Merced.

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