Vang, Nengher

Nengher N. Vang is an Associate Professor in the History Department and an affiliated faculty in the Race & Ethnic Studies Program. He received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Twin Cities and an M.A. in Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame.  He teaches courses in American history and Race & Ethnic Studies, including the Vietnam War, American foreign relations and empire, Hmong Americans, Asian American history, Introduction to Race & Ethnic Studies, and U.S. immigration history.  His research interests include US-Asia relations, American imperialism, comparative race/ethnicity, immigration, social movements, and the politics of diasporic communities in the U.S. with an emphasis on the politics of the Hmong who came to the United States as refugees from Laos after the Vietnam War.  His teaching and research interests are grounded in his experience fleeing from persecution after the Communist takeover in Laos and living in two refugee camps in Thailand before coming to the United States in the late 1980s. 

Selected publications:

• Nengher N. Vang, "Beyond the Peace Accords: Legacies of America's Secret War in Laos," in Beyond the Quagmire: New Interpretations of the Vietnam War, edited by Geoffrey W. Jensen and Matthew M. Stith (Denton, Texas: University of Texas Press, 2019), 47-82.
• Nengher N. Vang, "Unlawful or Not? Re-assessing the Value and Impact of Hmong American Transnational Politics,” Amerasia Journal 44, no. 2(2018): 43-64.
• Yang Sao Xiong, Nengher N. Vang, Chia Youyee Vang, “Charting New Paths for Critical Hmong American and Diaspora Studies,” Amerasia Journal 44, no. 2 (2018): ix-xxviii. 
• Nengher N. Vang and Jeremy Hein, “From Kwvtxhiaj and Pajntaub to Theater and Literature:  The Role of Generation, Gender, and Human Rights in the Expansion of Hmong American Art.”  Hmong Studies Journal 18 (2017): 1-18. 
• Nengher N. Vang and Jeremy Hein, “Hmong American Leadership and Unity in the Post-Vang Pao Era.”  Hmong Studies Journal 16 (2015): 1-18.
• Jeremy Hein and Nengher N. Vang, “Politicians and Social Movements: Impact of Electoral Victory on Local, National, and Transnational Activism by Hmong Americans in Minneapolis-St. Paul.” Social Movements Studies 14:2 (2015): 164-179.
• Nengher N. Vang and Jeremy Hein, "Hmong American Leadership & Unity in Post-Vang Pao Era." Hmong Studies Journal 16 (2015): 1-18.
• Nengher N. Vang, “Peace-Makers or Peace-Wreckers: The Hmong in the Conflicts in Laos during and after the Cold War.” Journal of North Carolina Association of Historians 22 (2014): 57-82.
• Nengher N. Vang, “Political Transmigrants: Rethinking Hmong Political Activism in America.” Hmong Studies Journal 12 (2011): 1-46.