Chia Youyee Vang is an American historian of Hmong descent. A Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, her teaching and research interests include twentieth century U.S. international history, the Cold War, Asian American history, Hmong history, refugee migration and transnational and diasporic communities. Vang’s research is global in scope but intimately informed by her own refugee experiences as a child. She is interested in not only understanding larger political and military transformations, but also, the lived experiences of those who experience wars not of their own making but fought in their environments. Her documentation of Southeast Asian refugee lives and that of their descendants across four continents help us to better understand the lasting impact of one of the most controversial wars of the 20th century. Vang grew up in the Twin Cities (St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota). She earned a B.A. in political science, with an emphasis on international relations, and French from Gustavus Adolphus College in 1994. She completed an M.A. in Public Affairs in 1996 and earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota in 2006.