Sun Ny Vang belongs to Moob Lees Moob Xai(s) Nyab (Blue Hmong people of Sainyabuli province, Laos) but was born and raised on Lands of Dakota people (currently occupied by the city of St. Paul, MN). His academic journey has routed him through his B.A. and teaching credentials on Lands of Anishinaabeg people (currently occupied by The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN). There he was a McNair Scholar, learning about kwv txhiaj and lug txaj (Hmong oral vocal genres of poetry and storytelling) under the mentorship of cultural anthropologist and ethnomusicologist Elyse Carter-Vosen.

Vang earned his M.A. on Lands of Patwin people (currently occupied by UC Davis), and is a PhD student with a designated emphasis in Native American Studies under the advisorship of Indigenous musicologist Jessica Bissett Perea (from Dena’ina Ełnena, ancestral homelands in southcentral Alaska). His current interests include: Hmong musics and sound studies; knowledges and epistemologies; and Indigeneity, diasporas, and identities.