H 32°, L 7° | Tomorrow: 
H 17°, L 4°The University of Wisconsin announced a new tenure track professor who will focus on Hmong and other Southeast Asian groups has been appointed to the Geography Department.
According to a UW press release, after an international search, Ian Baird, who received his doctorate in geography from the University of British Columbia, was appointed to the position. Baird has 23 years of experience as a development worker and scholar of this part of Asia, the release said.
Dean of the College of Letters and Science Gary Sandefur said the selection process began years ago when then-Chancellor John Wiley had conversations with the Hmong community in response to complaints UW does not have enough courses in Hmong studies. Wiley told students he would attempt to develop more programs in that area, Sandefur said.
The university has a history of unrest among Hmong students and the greater community, with 2007 marking the pinnacle after law professor Leonard Kaplan was accused of making “racist and inappropriate remarks” regarding Hmong people during a lecture.
Sandefur said last summer he went on a fundraising trip and discussed a possible donation from the Henry Luce Foundation in New York. The foundation has a history of supporting programs that highlight Asian studies.
He said after some initial discussion, they invited UW to make a proposal, which they decided to fund.
Sandefur said he is excited to have Baird join the department.
“He’s an outstanding scholar who’s done work [with] the highlands people of Southeast Asia,” he said. “Geography is one of our best departments. … This is an opportunity to hire a great scholar who met the needs that we had.”
He added Baird has had contact with the Hmong community within the United States and is looking forward to learning more about the culture within the Midwest.
In the release, Baird said while he is not a Hmong specialist, he is looking forward to learning about and supporting their culture at UW.
Sandefur acknowledged there were some complaints about the fact Baird would be teaching about Hmong culture in Asia instead of Hmong-American culture. He said the foundation gave the money to fund a professor of Hmong studies in Asia and UW has to follow those stipulations.
In response to more complaints the UW Hmong community was not involved in the hiring process, Sandefur said UW made the effort to educate Southeast Asian students about the hiring process. He said students were invited to many events within the hiring process.
“They were able to sit in on the interviews and the talks that they gave,” Sandefur said.
Sandefur said while UW currently offers Hmong language courses as well as courses on Hmong culture in the U.S. taught by a visiting assistant professor, he hopes to expand the department. Currently, he said, the visiting professor is a two-year position, taught by someone who is not a tenure track professor at UW.
He said when funds are available, the visiting professor courses can hopefully be expanded into regular classes taught by a UW faculty member.
“We’re not quite done yet in terms of the Hmong studies department,” he said.
The Hmong American Student Association did not return calls as of press time.
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when will UW hire a professor to study illegal mexican indians working in wisconsin car washes? oh that’s right they’re just latinos and to call attention to their race would be racist, but apparently not so for Hmong living in public housing in Madison…how inclusive and how Madison
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We’re all in the same boat here regardless of your race. We’re all minorities here. We all have our own issues politically and in the end, we’re all treated the same! But remember that we all have come a long way and changes are happening slowly but surely.
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UW should’ve hired someone knowledgeable in “Hmong Studies” since that was what the qualifications requested. To have had “contact with the Hmong doesn’t qualify you for this job! I have contacts with white people too, does that make me qualify to be an expert on white people?? All in all, I’m really upset with the fact that they hired someone who now has to go research the Hmong people while trying to teach Hmong students about themselves! What a joke!!!
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Please, don’t comment too harshly when you don’t the truth or history behind the Hmong people. Hundreds of thousands of American Vietnam Vets are alive today, living well and having many wonderful children and grandchildren were largely due to the Hmong’s sacrifice during the Vietnam War. Half of the Hmong ethnic population died protecting the American soldiers in the South by blocking the Ho Chi Minh Trail and performed many rescuing missions in the jungle of Laos. Please, look closely at the secret war before criticizing others.