Who we are
Critical HMoob Studies (CHMS) was officially named in January 2024, but its roots run deep. For years, individual scholars, educators, and cultural bearers have been shaping this field through research, teaching, and community work.
CHMS brings those efforts together—centering HMoob voices, challenging dominant narratives, and building a future rooted in equity, relationality, and healing.
Mission
The mission of CHMS is to cultivate a transdisciplinary field grounded in decolonial, antiracist, and anti-oppression frameworks that center HMoob communities in education—broadly defined. Through research, public scholarship, and intergenerational collaboration, we aim to build a network of scholars, educators, and organizers dedicated to transforming how HMoob histories, knowledge, and futures are studied, taught, and shared.
vision
As a transdisciplinary field grounded in decolonial, antiracist, and anti-oppression genealogy, CHMS envisions an expansive and evolving field where HMoob stories, knowledge systems, and lived experiences inform the past, cultivate the present, and shape the future of scholarship and knowledge production.
We imagine a world where inter- and multi-generational learning, cultural sustainability, and transformative justice are foundational—not exceptional. Through sustained collaboration, critical inquiry, and community-rooted care, we strive to foster spaces where HMoob people not only belong, but lead and thrive.
Our Community
We aim to reach a broad and diverse community: elders, cultural bearers, PreK–16 educators, students, artists, and researchers affiliated or unaffiliated with institutions. You are all SCHOLARS, and your work is what will sustain and revitalize our community both within and beyond academia.
Our foreseeable future
This site serves as a hub to connect scholars within the field of Critical HMoob Studies (CHMS) and to amplify the research, writing, and creative work shaping it. In the coming years, we envision a growing network of scholars, educators, and community members contributing to and expanding the reach of CHMS through ongoing research, collaboration, and public scholarship.
Spelling
matters.
Why write "HMoob"?
* Not all of the scholars in our network spell this ethnic group in this way. That is OK -- differences are important!
* We spell it this way to take a stance to politically represent in text both the Hmoob Dawb and Moob Leeg/Ntsuab dialect. We utilize the Romanized Phonetic/Popular Alphabet to also indicate a high tone pronunciation.
* We welcome and encourage everyone to write this ethnic group in anyway you feel empowered to.
* We recognize that there are much more discussions regarding the history of colonialism, racism, and linguistic hierarchies that cannot be discussed on the website.