Ian Baird took his new job, as a geographer specializing in the upland peoples of Southeast Asia, knowing that members of one of those groups, the Hmong, were disappointed with the scope of his assignment. Some Hmong in Madison, Wis., had hoped that the new position at the University of Wisconsin there would focus on how their ethnic group was faring in the United States. After all, some 40,000 to 50,000 Hmong live in Wisconsin, and more than 300 are enrolled at Madison.
But the grant that backs Mr. Baird's assistant professorship specified a broader research focus.
And Mr. Baird, 44, says it's helpful to see the Hmong as part of the ethnic mosaic in Southeast Asia. Their plight, since the Communist takeover of Laos, in 1975, is sometimes portrayed as a singular one. But other hill tribes, too, were caught up in civil conflicts during the Vietnam War and fought on one side or another, and many have been dispersed, he says, whether through relocation within their countries or as refugees.
He may not be a Hmong specialist, but Mr. Baird says he is "very keen to work with Hmong people." By the time he arrived in Madison, in August, he had named a Hmong Ph.D. student, Pao Vue, as his research assistant. Mr. Vue hopes to join Mr. Baird on a trip to Laos next summer to study conservation and agricultural change.
The geography professor, who grew up in western Canada, is also organizing a conference, "Hmong in Comparative Contexts," to be held in Madison in March. The meeting is a project of the Hmong Studies Consortium that the Universities of Wisconsin and Minnesota established with a $500,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation. The money also supports the first three years of Mr. Baird's position.
Mr. Baird's first trip to Southeast Asia, in 1986, led to a long detour from his undergraduate studies, in accounting. "Once you're there for a while, then you want to get involved in something," he says.
He taught English in northern Thailand, became interested in Buddhism, and married a Thai woman of Lao ethnicity. His subsequent work on causes including dolphin-safe tuna evolved into community work.
For several years, he lived on an island on the Mekong River in Laos, helping villagers manage wild fisheries and protect freshwater dolphins. But his conservation work always focused much more on social justice than fish biology, he says, with the goal of "protecting the resource for the people."
As Mr. Baird moved from one village project in Southeast Asia to the next, fulfilling assignments from various nongovernmental organizations and the Canadian government, he considered what he had left undone. Because he and his wife, Monsiri, were living in remote villages without health clinics or running water or electricity, they put off having children. Then there was the matter of his interrupted education.
He returned to Canada and earned a bachelor's degree in geography from the University of Victoria in 2000, at age 33, and a master's in 2003. That year he also began a Ph.D. program in geography at the University of British Columbia, and he and his wife had the first of their two children. They lived in Southeast Asia during its dry seasons as he worked on his dissertation, which he completed in 2008.
Mr. Baird's research record made him stand out in a field of 19 applicants, said Michael Cullinane, associate director of Wisconsin's Center for Southeast Asian Studies. "He's a bundle of energy. ... He's going to shake things up here." The appointment is Mr. Baird's first in academe.
The geographer's early papers, some of them published in peer-reviewed journals before he had even earned his bachelor's degree, were about fish ecology and resource management. His dissertation is on the Brao, a hill tribe in northeastern Cambodia and southern Laos whose unwritten language he learned to speak, along with Lao, Thai, and basic Khmer. Mr. Baird has worked with the Brao on a Lao script for their language.
Among the subjects of Mr. Baird's other research papers are the social, economic, and spiritual impact of hill tribes' relocation, and land loss resulting from the establishment of rubber plantations and large dams. "I'm very much interested in supporting disadvantaged poor people wherever they may live in Southeast Asia," he says.
The Lao government has moved some members of hill tribes from the mountains to lower elevations so they can cultivate rice in a way thought to be less destructive to the environment, as well as get better access to government services. But, Mr. Baird notes in his papers, the moves come at a cost to the well-being of the intended beneficiaries; the Hmong in particular suffer unfairly from "negative racialized stereotypes" in their new regions, he writes, and are sometimes suspected of being antigovernment rebels.
To take his new job, Mr. Baird stepped down as executive director of the Global Association for People and the Environment, a group he helped found in Laos, but he is still chair of its board.
He says he wants to make the shift from being a community worker with academic interests to an academic with community interests. One way he can serve the Hmong of Madison, he hopes, is by answering some of their questions about what is happening to their ethnic group and to other upland peoples in Laos.
Comments
1. timpatterson - October 25, 2010 at 09:01 am
Wondering which island in Laos Mr. Baird lived on? Don Daeng or Si Phan Don?
2. ruthhammond - October 25, 2010 at 08:52 pm
Mr. Baird says he lived in the Siphandone (meaning "4,000 islands") area of Laos, in Hang Khone Village, right on the border with Cambodia, on the southern end of Khone Island.
Ruth Hammond
3. lakemendota - October 26, 2010 at 09:42 am
A good addition to the University. The local Hmong community's view on this hire, on which they wanted to have substanial impute, was unrealistic but understandable. There are some interesting ciulture clashes going on within that community between first and second generations. It will be interesting to see how the third generation does.
4. rachaelski - October 26, 2010 at 11:22 am
Stacy Lee wrote an interesting book, _Up Against Whiteness_, comparing Hmong high school students in Wisconsin- "Americanized" vs. "Traditional." It's very interesting. I think it is important to note that the Hmong are found throughout SE Asia and Southern China. Lee's work, as well as this piece, fails to make that clear. The Hmong people have an extended history of persecution beginning in China, which resulted in their migration to SEA.
5. hmong - October 27, 2010 at 10:39 am
How was it "unrealistic" to expect that an actual Hmong Studies specialist would be hired for a "Hmong Studies" position? Mr. Baird is a Lao Studies specialist. There is a difference. If the UW wanted to hire a Lao Studies specialist or a Southeast Asian Studies generalist it should have advertised for one. Mr. Baird has an impressive track record, but he literally has only published one or two papers that even remotely touch upon the Hmong situation. There is a long history of UW-Madison refusing to commit the resources to build a substantial Hmong Studies program despite the large Hmong population in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. I believe alot of this has to do with internal politics at UW-Madison and the lack of interest in Hmong Studies among many of those associated with the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UW-Madison. It is sort of treated as an unwanted step child at the center. The decision to hire a non-Hmong Studies specialist for a "Hmong Studies" position is but the latest example. I hope the situation at UW-Madison will improve as a result of its ongoing public relations disasters.
6. anonymous2010 - October 28, 2010 at 11:03 am
It was certainly not unrealistic to hire a strictly Hmong Studies specialist, but that is not what the University of Wisconsin advertised for. There is fundamental misunderstanding about this. The following was the job advertisement for the position:
"The University of Wisconsin-Madison seeks candidates for an assistant professor (tenure-track) position with a specialization in Hmong studies or related highland societies in Southeast Asia and/or adjacent regions.
Appointment to begin August 2010. Ph.D. required. Previous teaching experience at the college/university level desirable but not required. Duties include teaching at the undergraduate and graduate level, conduct scholarly research in area of expertise, and perform university and professional service as appropriate. The successful candidate will be expected to do collaborative work in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and participate in program activities."
Note above that the job advertisement stated:
"Hmong studies or related highland societies in Southeast Asia and/or adjacent regions"
While Ian Baird does know a considerable amount about Lao Studies, he actually did both his Masters and Ph.D degrees with the ethnic Brao people, so his qualifications do fit with what was requested in the job advertisement. It appears that some people have failed to read the job advertisement.
Furthermore, Ian Baird does know a considerable amount about the Hmong, and his present research is largely focused on the Hmong. He has written quite a bit about the Hmong and their circumstances, including about resettlement issues in Laos that are affecting the Hmong greatly, and more recently about how the Hmong are being excluded from moving to southern Laos. His only Ph.D student at present is Hmong.
Finally, it must be understood that the Luce Foundation grant for this position required that the focus of the position be in Southeast Asia, not in the USA. Again, it appears that some people have failed to grasp this point.
However, it is true that the position probably should not have been labeled as 'Hmong Studies Position', as the job description clearly indicates that the search committee was looking for more than that.
7. weblarm - October 28, 2010 at 02:04 pm
I don't think there was any misunderstanding. As even the article states, the position was funded as part of the "Hmong Studies Consortia" between UW Madison and the University of Minnesota. It wasn't funded as part of the "Ethnic Minorities of Southeast Asian Consortia." The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, however apparently did not want to hire someone who was a specialist with a long track record of Hmong Studies research even in Southeast Asia. Mr. Baird seems like a great addition to the Center of Southeast Asian Studies at UW-Madison but he should have been brought in under some other source of funding. It really seems that the center has used funds intended for a "Hmong Studies" position for something else.
8. anonymous2010 - October 30, 2010 at 09:48 pm
It seems strange to me that some people seem to think that someone who is focused on ethnic minorities in mainland Southeast Asia, including the Hmong, is not appropriate for working with the Hmong Studies Consortia between UW-Madison and University of Minnesota. It is this sort of narrow-minded thinking that needs to be avoided, I think. The Hmong in Southeast Asia do not live in isolation, but rather interact with people from many other ethnic groups as well. Only considering the Hmong without considering other groups doesn't make sense.
9. hmong2 - November 01, 2010 at 11:18 am
The position funded under a "Hmong Studies" grant was clearly cynically used by some in the Center for Southeast Asian Studies to meet other needs or further other interests. This is why there was so much surprise and dismay in the department's decision among the local Hmong community and among numerous scholars who specialize in Hmong Studies. The "Hmong Studies Consortia" was promoted as an initiative by the host institutions to build up Hmong Studies resources given the large Hmong student populations and Hmong communities at their respective institutions. There was every reason to believe that the focus of funded activities would be on the development of Hmong Studies at the respective universities involved. It should be noted that Ian Baird appears to be a fine scholar. This particular position should have been used however to bring someone in with a substantial track record of research focusing on the Hmong in Southeast Asia.
10. anonymous2010 - November 02, 2010 at 08:31 am
It seems to me that the problem was not with the way the position was framed, or who was hired, but there were clearly some problems with the way everything was communicated with the Hmong community. I doubt that anyone was intending to treat the Hmong poorly, but in the end communications could have been better.
11. hmoob - November 02, 2010 at 10:53 am
Regardless of how communications were conducted, I don't think the local Hmong community, or Hmong Studies scholars would have been very pleased with the hire of a non-Hmong Studies professor with funding intended for a "Hmong Studies Consortia." This is especially the case since UW-Madison still doesn't have a full-time professor with a true focus on Hmong Studies either in the U.S. or Southeast Asia unlike UW-Milwaukee and some other schools in the system.