Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt Bio

Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt, journalist, photographer, war-correspondent, historian, human rights advocate, expert on Southeast Asia, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 1998 and again in 2000 for her work on behalf of the Hmong people of Laos.
Her major book Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans, and The Secret Wars for Laos 1942-1992 (Indiana University Press) was published to acclaim and selected as a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award in History. Recently, she and Tragic Mountains were honored at the National Press Club in Washington to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the publishing of this important work.
Dr. Hamilton-Merritt works with Hmong American student organizations on university campuses across the country as this generation of Hmong Americans promotes awareness of Hmong history and of human rights violations against their relatives in Southeast Asia.
Her involvement with the Hmong began many years ago while she was a photo-journalist covering the Vietnam War. During that time, she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of the Vietnam War and the winner of the Inland Daily Press Association’s Grand Prize Trophy for her frontline combat photography.
She has testified numerous times before the U.S. Congress and at Congressional Forums on chemical-biological warfare, genocide, refugee issues, and human rights violations by Asian governments. During the early 1980s, she worked as an Expert Consultant on Highland Lao Refugees to the U.S. State Department.
She is the author of seven books and hundreds of articles. She has written for the Washington Post, The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, Dayton Daily News, Bangkok Post, Reader’s Digest, Saturday Review, Vietnam Magazine, VVA Veteran, Stars and Stripes, Freedom Review, American Spectator, and Asian Fortune. She has appeared on numerous television specials, including an hour feature on Japanese national television.
Other honors include: Yale-Mellon Visiting Faculty Fellow at Yale University, Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame and the Explorer’s Club, Outstanding Woman of Connecticut given by the U.N., Faculty Scholar Award at Southern Connecticut State University, Outstanding Alumnae at Ball State University, and numerous honors and awards given to her by the Hmong and Lao refugee communities in the U.S.
Currently she is at work on her next book and is co-editor of the Vietnam War Era Classics Series at Indiana University Press. The first three books in this series are The Stones Cry Out (Cambodia), In the Jaws of History (Vietnam), and To Bear Any Burden (interviews with Vietnam War participants from all sides and all points of view.) She also continues to lecture on Southeast Asian history and the Vietnam War Era to college and university audiences across the country.