Geography professor hired to study Hmong and other Southeast Asian uplands groups

3/03/2010
by Stacy Forster

Ian Baird will join the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department of Geography this fall as a tenure-track professor specializing in Hmong and other highland groups of mainland Southeast Asia.

Baird, who received his doctorate in geography from the University of British Columbia in 2008, was selected after an international search.

The initial funding for this position originated from a $500,000 grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which requires the focus of the position to be on research in Asia. The grant also supports the establishment of a Consortium in Hmong Studies between UW-Madison and the University of Minnesota, which will develop research, teaching and library resources for the study of one of the globe's great cultural and ecological zones. The highland region of mainland Southeast Asia and southern China is home to some eight million Hmong and numerous other ethnic groups whose lives have been undergoing significant transformations over the past century.

With 23 years of experience as a scholar and development worker in this part of Southeast Asia, Baird is one of the world's leading authorities on this region and its diverse populations and will contribute significantly to UW-Madison's ability to establish a strong program of study on Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

In addition, his research and teaching will also strengthen the Geography Department and its ongoing links with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Baird has expressed his excitement about coming to UW-Madison, where he looks forward to working with faculty and students to develop Southeast Asia studies on this campus.

"I'm very excited to have been appointed to this position and I very much look forward to academic life at UW-Madison," Baird says. "Although I am not strictly a Hmong studies specialist, I very much look forward to working closely with the Hmong community in Wisconsin and supporting Hmong and non-Hmong students at the university."

Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters & Science at UW-Madison, says he's pleased that Baird has accepted the university's offer.

"He is an outstanding scholar who will help us to continue to develop our Hmong Studies programming," Sandefur says.