In the Spring of 2025 Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir will be visiting campus to discuss her writing. The event is presented by the Cultural Affairs Program in collaboration with the English, Foreign Languages and English as a Second Language Department.
As our campus’ Every Campus A Refuge (ECAR) coordinator, I couldn’t be more excited about her visit. She is an award wining author who speaks to her family’s escape from war in Laos, their life in a refugee camp in Thailand, her experience resettling in the US and what it means to be Hmong.
New York is one of the top states for refugee resettlement in the US. As such Yang’s visit provides us with the ability to learn more about our own community. Her writing is relevant to much of our curriculum on campus: history, psychology, human services, political science, education, sociology, English and more! We would like to help you learn about this book and develop ideas for how the book and the author visit can be incorporated into your courses in the Spring.
Staff and faculty are welcome!
Liz Allen (English Department) and Catherine Willis (HPSS Department and ECAR coordinator) have scheduled the following three workshops to help you learn about the author and book:
Monday Nov. 4th, 2-3 pm, MRV 014 (library conference room). This workshop and discussion is targeted towards all disciplines in the college.
Tuesday November 12, 3-4 pm ZOOM. Here is the meeting link.
Copies of her book will be available at these workshops or by reaching out to me. RSVP is helpful, but not required: c.willis@hvcc.edu.
If you are interested but can’t make it to the scheduled meetings, or would like a copy of the book, let me know. We are happy to arrange Zoom workshops, additional in-person workshops or informal conversations to meet your needs.
Thank-you,
Catherine Willis (c.willis@hvcc.edu)