Meet the Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center Editor - Mark E. Pfeifer, PhD (Updated January 2010)
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.
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. I am still active as an advisor to the Hmong Cultural Center's staff and board.
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. In 2009, I co-edited a compilation of Ah Hmao (Hua Miao) folk songs and folk stories published by Lincom. I am currently working on editing a comprehensive scholarly anthology of articles related to Hmong Americans.
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.
From July 2006 through the present, I have been employed as an Academic Librarian at Texas A and M University in Corpus Christi, Texas, a growing university of 9,500 students in the Gulf Coast region of South Texas. In this position, I work as a Reference Librarian, teach information literacy classes to students, coordinate the library's database and resource guides and serve as a liaison to the Education (Teacher Education, Educational Administration, Kinesiology, Athletic Training, Counseling, Curriculum and Instruction and Special Education) Geography, Geology, GIS and Criminal Justice programs. I am also active in Librarianship as a Reviewer of Ethnic Studies, Geography and Urban Studies books for CHOICE magazine and for Multicultural Review. Both CHOICE and Multicultural Review are affiliated with the American Library Association. At Texas A and M University, Corpus Christi I serve on the University's Faculty Senate.
I strongly welcome your feedback and contributions to the Hmong Studies website or any queries you may have.
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