On August 1, 2020, Dr. Mai See Thao will take on her new role as the Director of the Hmong Studies program and Assistant Professor in Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. This new program was heavily advocated by Hmong American students and one which Dr. Thao is excited to lead in collaboration with UWO students, staff, and faculty. The Hmong Studies program will develop an interdisciplinary certificate that examines the historical, political, and socio-cultural experiences of the Hmong in the U.S. and globally. Students will be equipped with critical knowledge in Hmong Studies that engages the refugee as a site of critique and inquiry to colonialization, war, and displacement. In addition, students will become familiar with comparative, intersectional, transnational, and decolonizing methods.
Dr. Thao is a trained medical anthropologist with research interests in historical trauma, displacement, the refugee body, biopolitics, care (long-term care and chronic disease management), and community-based participatory research. Dr. Thao comes to UWO from the Medical College of Wisconsin, where she served as a postdoctoral fellow in Primary Care Research at the Center for Healthy Communities and Research in the Department of Family and Community Medicine. Dr. Thao received her PhD in Socio-Cultural Anthropology from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and her B.A. in Anthropology and a certificate in Asian American Studies from UW-Madison.
