2023 D rapers’ Faculty Fellow

A limited number of fellowships are provided through the generosity of the Drapers’ Company. Founded over 600 years ago, the Drapers’ Company is incorporated by Royal Charter and is one of the Twelve Great Livery Companies in the City of London. Supporting education has been one of the primary aims of The Drapers’ Company for centuries and continues to be the main focus of the Company’s grant making today. The Company assists schools, colleges and universities in many ways, from serving on the governing body to providing grants for scholarships, prizes and research. The Drapers’ Faculty Fellowship, administered by the Reves Center, provides support for archival research by the fellows, with the potential involvement of W&M graduate and/or undergraduate students at institutions in the United Kingdom.

Patton Burchett

Religious Studies

The book focuses on the formation and impact of historically specific "modern" notions of (dis) enchantment, scientific rationality, superstition, and authenticity that developed in colonial India and Victorian Britain and that are still playing out in important ways in present-day Hindu religious life as well as present-day Western forms of "spirituality." The study will explore 19th and early 20th century representations of yoga and yogis in different Euro-American and Indian interpretive communities and textual genres. A key aspect of the book will be a study of the way 19th and early 20th century stage magicians regularly invoked the figure of the Indian yogi-fakir in their writings and performances in order to define and advance particular, disenchanted "modern" cognitive modes and ethical sensibilities. At the same time, many in the vibrant subcultures of New Thought and the occult-esoteric invoked the figure of the Indian yogi for altogether different purposes. In order to show this convincingly, this research will explore the archives of literature of conjurers and illusionists, as well as Spiritualists, Mesmerists, paranormal researchers, and Theosophists, to analyze their repeated references to and representations of yogis, fakirs, and other Indian ascetics.

For more information and a list of previous faculty fellows, visit www.wm.edu/offices/revescenter/globalengagement/revesfacultyfellows