| Meet the Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center Editor - Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD |
Thank you for visiting my site - the Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center.
I became interested in the adaptation of Southeast Asian-origin immigrants and
refugees while working on my MA degree in Urban Studies at Temple University in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My MA thesis looked at Vietnamese institutions,
businesses, and residential settlement in the Argyle Street neighborhood of
Chicago, Illinois as well as several Philadelphia neighborhoods including South
Philadelphia, Kensington, Olney, Logan, West Philadelphia, Mount Moriah, and
Upper Darby. At the time of my MA research I also began tutoring Vietnamese
immigrant adults as a volunteer for an ESL program run at a Vietnamese Catholic
Church in South Philadelphia. This engaging experience further sharpened my
interest in Vietnamese-American culture and the adaptation of Vietnamese people
to life in North America.
A few years later I moved on to Canada to pursue a PhD in Geography at the
University of Toronto. For my PhD dissertation, I broadly studied Vietnamese
adaptation in the Toronto metropolitan area and Southern Ontario. During my time
in Canada, I lived for 2 years with a Vietnamese family in the Downsview section
of Toronto. I also became very active tutoring Vietnamese youth who belonged to
a Vietnamese Catholic congregation. These terrific experiences informed my
writing and analysis in many ways.
After graduating with my PhD in 1999, I spent a year with the Americorps program
in St. Paul, MN. My work with Americorps involved tutoring Hmong (from Laos)
children and youth at an elementary school and after school program. This work
was very challenging but also rewarding.
From 2000-2006 I was proud to serve as the Director of the Hmong Resource
Center Library at the Hmong Cultural Center located in St. Paul, MN. In this
position, endowed with extremely limited financial resources, I was gifted to be
able to build an institution which is now the largest centralized collection of
Hmong-related academic materials in the United States.
In the Summer of 2006, I started a position as an Academic Librarian at Texas A
and M University in Corpus Christi, Texas.
My current research interests are centered upon Hmong, Vietnamese, Cambodian,
and Lao demography, socioeconomic incorporation and institution-building in North
America. I serve as editor of the Hmong Studies Journal and a Hmong Studies
newsletter and am a bibliographer of Hmong Studies research.
Scarecrow/Rowman Littlefield published my Hmong Studies bibliography in the Fall
of 2007.
I have also built a Vietnamese-Studies related website which includes census data,
extensive bibliographies, and an online research library and academic journal. The
Vietnamese Studies site may be visited by clicking on the link below.
I strongly welcome your feedback and contributions to the Hmong Studies website.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD
View Mark's Curriculum Vitae
View some newspaper articles (old and more recent) about Mark's work
View Some of Mark's Research Publications
View 7 years of issues of Mark's Hmong Studies Research Newsletter
Visit the Hmong Cultural Center Website
Visit Mark's Hmong Studies Site (including the Hmong Studies Journal)
Visit the LearnaboutHmong Website of which Mark is the Editor
Visit the WWW Hmong Homepage of which Mark is the Editor
Visit Mark's Vietnamese Studies Website
View Mark's Hmong Studies Research Message Board
Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD
Bell Library
Texas A and M University
6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5702
Corpus Christi, TX 78412-5702
361-825-3392 (Office)
editor@hmongstudies.org
I became interested in the adaptation of Southeast Asian-origin immigrants and
refugees while working on my MA degree in Urban Studies at Temple University in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My MA thesis looked at Vietnamese institutions,
businesses, and residential settlement in the Argyle Street neighborhood of
Chicago, Illinois as well as several Philadelphia neighborhoods including South
Philadelphia, Kensington, Olney, Logan, West Philadelphia, Mount Moriah, and
Upper Darby. At the time of my MA research I also began tutoring Vietnamese
immigrant adults as a volunteer for an ESL program run at a Vietnamese Catholic
Church in South Philadelphia. This engaging experience further sharpened my
interest in Vietnamese-American culture and the adaptation of Vietnamese people
to life in North America.
A few years later I moved on to Canada to pursue a PhD in Geography at the
University of Toronto. For my PhD dissertation, I broadly studied Vietnamese
adaptation in the Toronto metropolitan area and Southern Ontario. During my time
in Canada, I lived for 2 years with a Vietnamese family in the Downsview section
of Toronto. I also became very active tutoring Vietnamese youth who belonged to
a Vietnamese Catholic congregation. These terrific experiences informed my
writing and analysis in many ways.
After graduating with my PhD in 1999, I spent a year with the Americorps program
in St. Paul, MN. My work with Americorps involved tutoring Hmong (from Laos)
children and youth at an elementary school and after school program. This work
was very challenging but also rewarding.
From 2000-2006 I was proud to serve as the Director of the Hmong Resource
Center Library at the Hmong Cultural Center located in St. Paul, MN. In this
position, endowed with extremely limited financial resources, I was gifted to be
able to build an institution which is now the largest centralized collection of
Hmong-related academic materials in the United States.
In the Summer of 2006, I started a position as an Academic Librarian at Texas A
and M University in Corpus Christi, Texas.
My current research interests are centered upon Hmong, Vietnamese, Cambodian,
and Lao demography, socioeconomic incorporation and institution-building in North
America. I serve as editor of the Hmong Studies Journal and a Hmong Studies
newsletter and am a bibliographer of Hmong Studies research.
Scarecrow/Rowman Littlefield published my Hmong Studies bibliography in the Fall
of 2007.
I have also built a Vietnamese-Studies related website which includes census data,
extensive bibliographies, and an online research library and academic journal. The
Vietnamese Studies site may be visited by clicking on the link below.
I strongly welcome your feedback and contributions to the Hmong Studies website.
Yours Sincerely,
Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD
View Mark's Curriculum Vitae
View some newspaper articles (old and more recent) about Mark's work
View Some of Mark's Research Publications
View 7 years of issues of Mark's Hmong Studies Research Newsletter
Visit the Hmong Cultural Center Website
Visit Mark's Hmong Studies Site (including the Hmong Studies Journal)
Visit the LearnaboutHmong Website of which Mark is the Editor
Visit the WWW Hmong Homepage of which Mark is the Editor
Visit Mark's Vietnamese Studies Website
View Mark's Hmong Studies Research Message Board
Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD
Bell Library
Texas A and M University
6300 Ocean Drive, Unit 5702
Corpus Christi, TX 78412-5702
361-825-3392 (Office)
editor@hmongstudies.org
In this picture taken in early June 2006 in the Hmong Resource Center Library at the Hmong Cultural
Center in Saint Paul, MN, I am on the right. To my left are veteran students in my advanced Adult
ESL group - Nor Bee Xiong, Her Xiong, and Her Pao Chang. All 3 students are Hmong who moved to
St. Paul from Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand in 2004-05 as part of the refugee resettlement of 15,000
Hmong to the U.S. from the Wat in the 2004-06 period.
Center in Saint Paul, MN, I am on the right. To my left are veteran students in my advanced Adult
ESL group - Nor Bee Xiong, Her Xiong, and Her Pao Chang. All 3 students are Hmong who moved to
St. Paul from Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand in 2004-05 as part of the refugee resettlement of 15,000
Hmong to the U.S. from the Wat in the 2004-06 period.
