John Duffy, assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, will lead a discussion on Hmong-American culture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, in the fifth floor atrium of the Schurz Library, Indiana University South Bend.

Duffy is the author of the forthcoming book, Writing from These Roots: The Historical Development of Literacy in a Hmong-American Community.

Duffy’s book examines the development of Hmong-American literacy in the past 40 years and the role of governments, missionary Christians, the United States CIA in shaping Hmong literacy development and practices.

Most of the Hmongs’ ancestors were Laotian farmers. The Hmongs were recruited to fight the Communist Chinese in the 1960s and 1970s and after the war they fled to the U.S. Roughly 180,000 Hmong people fled to the U.S. with large concentrates in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and California.

Duffy’s area of expertise is the historical development of literacy and rhetoric in cross-cultural contexts. He is co-editor of The Rhetoric of Everyday Life. He teaches literacy, rhetoric and literature and is the acting director of the university’s writing program.

From 1983 to 1988, Duffy lived in Southeast Asia working in refugee camps with Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians and Hmong refugees. From 1990 to 1993, he lived in Wausau, Wisc., working as an educational advocate for the Wausau Area Hmong Mutual Association.

The One Book, One Campus book, “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down” also examines the Hmong community, the misconceptions and misunderstandings. The book follows the story of a Hmong child who has epilepsy. The doctors and parents cannot communicate with each other. The author, Anne Fadiman, presents both sides of the story as the child’s condition worsens.

The Duffy talk is part of the library’s Schurz Library Speaker Series which aims to provide speakers of intellectual interest to the campus and community related to the campus theme. The event is free and open to the public.