Empowering Generations
Pasts, Present, and Futures
Explore how our collective efforts are reshaping education, scholarship, and community engagement through a Critical HMoob Studies lens.
If you have a project you want to feature, please reach out to us at criticalhmoobstudies@gmail.com
Lub zej Zog Writing Fellow
Lub Zej Zog Critical and Indigenizing Hmong Education Studies Writing Fellow Program started in 2022 to bring together emerging HMoob (Hmong/Mong) scholars who are working towards publications. These works included unpublished manuscripts, unfinished manuscripts, public scholarship, dissertations in progress, or dissertations that have not been converted. The goal of this project is to support and increase publication for public knowledge, dissemination, and content material.
Plhis: Poetry Reimagined
“Plhis: Poetry Reimagined” is a collaborative exhibit between literary artist Pa N. Vue and multimedia artist Maivzeb Lauj. This project explores how poetic works can “plhis” or “be transformed” from their original textual and aural form and emerge reimagined through multimedia and multimodal visual expressions. “Plhis” evokes the essence of transformation and rebirth, reflecting how meaning shifts, evolves, and finds new life when moving between artistic languages. Maivzeb will select poems from Pa’s collection Sawv Tsees Rov Hlo Los and re-present them as immersive multimodal artforms using multiple forms of media, including digital, textile, and paper. This multimedia and multimodal exhibit will show May 7 to June 21, 2026 at the Museum of Northern California Art in Chico, California, after which it will be traveling to other parts of the United States.
Hmong Community Literacy Events in California
Community literacy events are partnerships with local organizations and public libraries to support Hmong language and literacy practices. Children’s book author, Pa N. Vue, reads her children’s books and gives away copies to families in the area. The goal is to give Hmong-speaking children and families children’s books written in their language.
Cultural Bearer Fellowship
The Cultural Bearer Fellowship is an intergenerational fellowship program supports women and queer creators in Wisconsin to learn HMoob art forms and cultural practices. Fellows participate in a series of workshops that provide them with cultural knowledge.
Los Tsev: A poetic Gathering
This six weeks of writing, learning, and healing through poetic expression, Dr. Pa N. Vue and Dr. Caroline Paaj Zaub Thao lead a workshop call Los Tsev. This is a generative workshop series where participants reflect upon the words “los” (return) and “tsev” (home) through their lived experiences, memories, and desires. They experiment with Western forms of poetry and traditional Hmoob paj huam and kwv txhiaj/lug txaj.
HMoob College Paj Ntaub
This participatory action research (PAR) team explores the experiences of Hmong American undergraduate students across the University of Wisconsin System (UW-Oshkosh, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Madison, and UW-Milwaukee). This project examines identified several factors, such as advising, gatekeeping mechanisms, and racial climate, that affectively redirected and/or pushed out Hmong-identified students from competitive STEM majors.
