William & Mary's World Minded Magazine Summer 2022

2,

2022

1 FROM THE DIRECTOR

2 In Their Own Words: Longo and Tierney GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT

8 University awards author Viet Thanh Nguyen the Hatsuye Yamasaki prize W&M IN THE WORLD

12 Esports at W&M: Making a global impact HUMAN RIGHTS & RESPONSIBILITIES

17 Lebanese Journalist Dr. May Chidiac Keynotes William & Mary Law School’s Human Security Law Center Symposium on Media Freedom & Human Rights

21 Expert panel reflects on Afghanistan’s future at William & Mary Law School event

STUDY ABROAD

‘Position of privilege’: Trip abroad widens perspective on immigration issues RESEARCH: THE WORLD’S OCEANS

Antarctic research links warming to fish decline

International Student Achievement Awards

RESEARCH

Reves Faculty and Drapers’ Fellows

ABROAD

Q&A with Shannon Chance Ph.D.

The Reves Center for International Studies advances the internationalization of teaching, learning and research at William & Mary. Global education, support for international students and scholars, and the enrichment of our global community are at the heart of the Reves Center’s work. Established in 1989, the Reves Center is today one of the premier international centers in higher education.

William & Mary is the number four public university for undergraduate study abroad participation, with more than 55 percent of the university’s undergraduates studying outside the U.S. before graduation. In a typical year, more than 1,200 international students, scholars, and their families from nearly 70 countries come to William & Mary. And the Reves global enhancement team builds and supports international initiatives across the university.

REVES INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY BOARD SUMMER 2022

Stanley “Butch” Barr ’62 Williamsburg, VA

Jane H. Carpenter-Rock ’92 Upper Marlboro, MD

Guillermo S. Christensen Arlington, VA

Susan Corke ‘97 Washington, DC

John Culver ‘80 Silver Spring, MD

John S. Dennis ’78 Switzerland

Scott R. Ebner ’96, Vice Chair Boston, MA

Rodney Faraon Arlington, VA

Jen Herink ‘95 Bellevue, WA

Deborah A. Hewitt ‘75 Williamsburg, VA

Valerie Hopkins ‘09 Moscow, Russia

Donald F. Larson ’76 McLean, VA

Matthew Lentz ‘96 New York, NY

Thomas C. Lillelund ‘95 Luxembourg

Tom McInerney Richmond, VA

Mark Murtagh ‘89 New York, NY

Michael O’Leary P’22 Alexandria, VA

Bruce W. Pflaum ’75 Lake Oswego, OR

Sharon K. Philpott ’85, Chair White Salmon, WA

Ian M. Ralby ‘05 Owings Mills, MD

Young Ju Rhee ’98 Boston, MA

Soh Yeong Roh ‘84 Seoul, Republic of Korea

Aaron Rosenberg ‘99 Washington, DC

Susan Rutherford ’89 Delray Beach, FL

Maya Sapiurka ‘10 Arlington, VA

Corey D. Shull ’06 Baltimore, MD

Patricia Trinler Spalding ’83 San Jose, Costa Rica

Jobila Williams Sy ‘07 Midlothian, VA

Mark Tyndall ‘02 Washington, DC

Nathan Younge Falls Church, VA

This edition of “World Minded“ in cludes articles about a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, a class trip to Gibral tar, a symposium on Afghanistan, and a research expedition to Antarctica. What these pieces have in common is an attentiveness to the moment at hand coupled with an outward look ing point of view. Thus, as you read on, you will likely notice a synchronicity with Vision 2026, William & Mary’s new and exigent strategic plan. Vision 2026 starts with the fundamental as sertion that at William & Mary, we ex cel at understanding the moment we are living in while seeing the possibil ities ahead.

FROM THE DIRECTOR

Teresa Longo

In late April of this year, Viet Thanh Nguyen visited William & Mary to deliver the Reves Center’s McSwainWalker lecture and to accept the Hatsuye Yamasaki Prize, awarded as part of the 2022 Asian Centennial. Nguyen, author of The Committed, The Refugees, and The Sympathizer, spoke to a full room in the expansive Commonwealth Auditorium, helping us better understand the legacies of the U.S.-Vietnam War and the meaning of the term, refugee. Before and after the event, he also spoke to students, and not from a distance. The McSwain-Walker lecture is set up to ensure just this: unfiltered conversations between undergraduate students and notable public figures like Nguyen. In settings both large and small, they learn to understand the moment we are living and see possibilities ahead.

Associate Provost for International Affairs Executive Director, Reves Center for International Studies

Southern Spain. Under the direction of Prof. Francie Cate-Arries and in collaboration with Arantza Gallardo, a professor based in Spain, the students studied current immigration issues in Europe. All borders are not of course the same. And yet, for these students, the up-close understanding of Gibraltar deepened their understanding of borders very close to home.

At the Law School, two international events exemplify the faculty’s efforts to make sense of the current moment. This year, featuring a keynote speaker from Lebanon, the Human Security Law Center symposium highlighted the intersection between media freedom and human rights. During a second symposium, this one hosted by the Center for Comparative Legal Studies, expert panelists from the U.S. and Afghanistan held frank discussions about the last twenty years. Summarizing the event, Prof. Christie Warren, the symposium’s organizer noted that “hard conversations ... unaddressed amidst conflict” are the very concerns we need to take on at the university.

From conversations with public figures to class trips with faculty, the student experience at William & Mary is varied and deep. This spring, a group of undergraduate students traveled to La Línea, Gibraltar, a border town in

In February, scholars at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), in collaboration with their counterparts at the University of Colorado, published a study on the correlation between warming waters, decreased sea ice, the reduction in Antarctic silverfish, and a decrease in the food supply for maritime animals. Their study area focuses on ‘one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth.’ To understand the global impact of their work, please read on, but before you do, take a moment to admire the image of the Adélie penguin on the cover. Turns out, the climate scientist and the photographer are one and the same, and the point of view is decidedly forward facing.

WORLD MINDED STAFF

ON THE COVER

As Adélie penguin chicks grow older, they gradually lose their protective layer of fluffy down feathers. In most cases, the last feathers remain in the hardest to reach places. This results in hundreds of adorable “teenage” penguin hair styles. © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

THEIR OWN WORDS

Teresa Longo & Mike Tierney

Q: Teresa, you’re originally from Montana. How did you come to William & Mary?

Teresa Longo: I was in graduate school [at the University of Wisconsin at Madison] and working on my dissertation on Aztec philosophy.

I went on the job market. It was a really good year for candidates then, unlike now, and I got lots of interviews and a few on-campus invitations, and William & Mary was one of them.

I remember vividly sitting on a bench outside Washington Hall and thinking, “I might get this job, and I don’t know what to do if that happens.”

I’d never been in Virginia. I’d never known much about life in the south. It was really far from Montana. I always thought I would end up somewhere like University of Minnesota or somewhere closer to the west.

But then when I came, the students were amazing, and the colleagues were really serious about

work and also kind people, and the campus was beautiful, and the library was good. Also I felt that at Wisconsin and maybe graduate school generally it was harsh. It was not an easy place to be.

So it was just really welcoming. The story for me is more why stay rather than why come.

Q: So why did you stay?

Teresa: I think it was the freedom.

I was hired in part to teach poetry and something that was then referred to as Latin American cultural history. All of Latin America, which is as you know, too big of a topic honestly. But I remember designing the syllabus and saying to Howard Fraser, who was the department chair and a senior

colleague, “Do you need to see this?”

And he said, “No, you’re the professor.”

It was such a radical change from the very prescriptive sort of way I had been educated.

I wouldn’t have wanted to spend my whole career on a single thing. I don’t study Aztec philosophy anymore. William & Mary has been great; I’ve been able to go in whatever directions that have made sense.

The other piece of all of that was that I had a hard time deciding whether I wanted to go to law school or graduate school. It was almost a flip of a coin. I had been working in a law office that represented migrant farmworkers and the work was so urgent and it mattered to me, and as soon as I got into graduate school there was no life outside of—not just the university, but the books—and that was disturbing. But at William & Mary that wasn’t the case. I could freely make connections

Teresa Longo, Executive Director of the Reves Center, and Mike Tierney, Director of the Global Research Institute, met for coffee and conversation at Illy’s this spring.

with political movements, with history, with civil rights--things that were happening beyond reading. That led me to say, “Yes, this is good for me.”

Mike Tierney: In terms of your research, it sounds like coming out of Wisconsin you were very focused, narrow, doing what your mentors told you; and here you were allowed to be a liberal arts professor, not just a liberal arts student.

Teresa: That’s right. That was a very big freeing up of who I am.

Mike: What was the first deviation from Aztec philosophy? When did you shift and say, “Wow! I’m going to do something totally different”?

Teresa: Well, the Aztec philosophy part was a lot about how Mexican politicians and elites incorporated Aztec philosophy to their ends, so, in some ways, it wasn’t a total deviation to focus on how people use rhetoric, literature and the arts to move politics. That’s still what I do, so I don’t think I ever dropped the way of thinking, just the topic.

Mike: Is most of your work historical in the sense that you are explaining things in a past time, or are you currently looking--or have you ever looked--at contemporary politics through that lens?

Teresa: It’s close to the present. “Visible Dissent” is my book about the early 21st century and about how Latin American culture, literature arts moved north into the United States and became influential in the United States. How does that happen? What is the process that makes it happen? And it has to do with who publishes. Mike: So, is this mostly elite thinking and transmission of ideas to other elites, or does it include the mass public? In most societies, there are not a huge number of people reading higher end literature.

Teresa: In Latin America, people read poetry. I work largely in poetry, although not exclusively. In my study, I looked a lot at how poetry moved north. It didn’t need to be moved north

to become famous; it was famous, just not in the U.S.

Mike: So when you say people read poetry in Latin America, I hear, “People read poetry in Latin America more than they do here.” Do you think that’s accurate?

Teresa: In Medellin, Colombia, ev ery summer, there’s a huge poetry festival. Huge meaning thousands of people from every continent flowing into Medellin for 10 days of poetry. The city fills up with people from all around the world and from Medellin and people read in every language you can think of. It’s very powerful. So, [to answer your question], yeah.

Mike: It sounds neat.

Q: Mike, how did you end up at Wil liam & Mary?

Mike: Well, I’m from everywhere, because my father was a U.S. Marine, so I didn’t grow up in Montana. I grew up in seven or eight different places: San Diego, North Carolina, Colorado, Naples, Italy.

My dad was stationed in different places, and the family went different places, and we landed in Northern Virginia, which is where we were when it was time to go to college. William & Mary’s an in-state school, so I came here in the fall of 1983. I was a tennis player and played on the tennis team from ’83 to ‘87.

I stayed one extra year to do a master’s degree. (Back in those days, the government department had a master’s degree.)

Then I left William & Mary and worked for one year of my life in the real world. I went to Washington, D.C., and worked for the Congressional Research Service and at the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In both places, I was studying national security policy —guns and bombs and war—doing research on arms control agreements, which is similar to what I was doing here at William & Mary as a student. I was interested

in international affairs, but mainly International security and U.S. foreign policy.

I did that for a year and very quickly started talking to all my former professors at William & Mary-Clay Clemens, Joel Schwartz, David Dessler. They all told me, “You should apply to go to graduate school to get a Ph.D. so you can teach at a university. You like to do research. You like to talk about ideas.”

Joel Schwartz told me being a professor is not very different from being a student. You’re basically reading a lot, and you’re writing a lot. You’re talking to people about Ideas, and you’re trying to understand why the world works the way it does.

So I applied to the top ten Ph.D. programs in the country for international relations, and I was only admitted to two: UCLA and UC San Diego. UCLA was the obvious place for me to go, because that’s where they were very strong with arms control, nuclear weapons and national security issues.

I visited there for one day. No one gave me the time of day. It was very smoggy and they would admit about

We are trying to work towards an increasingly open system of how we make knowledge. We can’t really do it by looking at what we have. We have to look up and out and get our people up and out.

90 Ph.D. students per year, which was very different from my experience at William & Mary, where I knew my professors very, very well.

[William & Mary faculty] invited me over to their homes. They taught me how to do research.

They went drinking with me at the Green Leafe. I knew them as human beings. UCLA was very impersonal.

So I drove two hours out of the smog bank and looked at San Diego. I was greeted warmly by really smart young faculty and students, and they convinced me to come to San Diego to study international political economy, foreign aid and international organizations.

My experience in graduate school is very similar to yours, Teresa. UCSD was a major research university, a top ten Ph.D. program. There wasn’t a strong commitment to undergraduate education. I did not like that based on my own experiences as an undergraduate, but I had to keep it a little bit quiet because all my [UCSD] mentors wanted me to become them at a Research 1 (R1) university.

Teresa: Same here.

Mike: Long story short, I was taking way too long to finish my dissertation, and I got a phone call from a former professor, Ron Rapoport, saying, “We’ve just lost someone who was going to teach our introduction to comparative.” And this was very late. This was in June, and they needed somebody to teach in two months.

I think his first question was, “Have you ever taught comparative politics?”

And I said, “No.”

And then he asked, “Could you teach comparative politics?”

And I said, “Absolutely!”

So I came here to William & Mary on a one-year visiting appointment. I taught for five years on a series of continuing one-year appointments until an old professor of mine, Alan Ward, retired, and I applied for a

permanent position, and I was lucky enough to get hired.

Q: A quality I’ve seen in both of you— as faculty and administrator--is that of mentor. Do you see that as a part of your current roles at Reves and GRI?

Teresa: Oh, for sure. Although in my own education, I can’t really say that I had mentors.

Mike: Where did you go as an undergraduate?

Teresa: University of Montana.

Mike: OK. So a big school.

Teresa: Yeah, pretty big school. I really liked being an undergraduate there. My eyes were opened just by going to university. People wondered about things that had been rolling around in my head, but I could never have said aloud. Questions like, “Does God exist?” We wouldn’t have asked that in my family or at my Catholic school. I remember the first day of philosophy class hearing that and wanting to stand up and say, “Did everybody hear that?” That was awesome.

I loved everything about it there, but there wasn’t a person who showed me how to navigate. It was much less so in Wisconsin. And so I think I was able to see how much [mentorship] matters with students here. They are very appreciative when you show them some pathways.

I think that it is part of the culture here; it’s what people do at William & Mary. It’s embedded in the way we teach.

Q: You’re both involved in interna tional global activities but you’re do ing different kinds of activities. How do they mesh?

Teresa: I was remembering when I met you Mike. I have a memory of being in the room where the Council of Chairs and Program Directors in arts and sciences (CCPD) meets now.

I don’t know why we both would have been there. I wasn’t the chair of anything, and I don’t think you were

either, but we were in that room, and you were sitting next to me and asked something about my research. And I said, “I’m working on a project on globalization.” And you said something about globalization also, but we had completely different ideas about the value of globalization

At the time I thought that difference was really interesting, so it isn’t exactly an answer to your question but it reminds me that in the intellectual part of our work, we have the potential to be really invested in the same thing but coming at it from different directions, which is awesome.

Q: Teresa, what do you mean by globalization?

Teresa: I’m a bit more nuanced now, but back then, in the ‘90s, I was reading a lot of intellectual thinkers from Latin America who were concerned about globalization as a new form of hegemony. García

Canclini is one of them, and he was saying it’s not whether globalization is about to happen, it’s about how we’re going to intervene in this massive thing that might be coming at us. And I could have misread this entirely, but I remember, your responding Mike, that that wasn’t the way you were looking at it.

Mike: Right. From a political economy perspective, it would be probably very different.

But that’s not my first and strongest memory of you, Teresa. You and I are sitting on a stage in William & Mary Hall. It’s Charter Day, and we’re both about to get a teaching award, and we’re sitting next to each other in our fancy robes and our fancy hats. You said, “I’m so glad that I’m getting this award with you.”

Teresa: Oh, yeah, I do remember saying that. I remember being there. I remember that scene really well.

Mike: Yeah, and I was just like, “Wow. This is great. Why does Teresa like me?”

Teresa: Because you make things happen, and you’re smart and totally into the work.

Q: Well, now you both have moved into a role where you’re not just fac ulty but you’re also administrators. How is that? What are your goals as administrator/manager?

Teresa: Access to education. It’s about being able to understand, critique and move forward the purpose of a university. There’s a responsibility universities have to communities and to the world. We could write about it as scholars, but we couldn’t necessarily influence the university in the way we might be able to in administrative roles.

Mike: That’s true, yeah. I’ll answer your question by going back to your original question about mentorship.

I learned about mentorship when I was a student. I had a different undergraduate experience than Teresa. I remember back in the ‘80s classes would end and the whole campus would go down to Nags Head for Beach Week between final exams and graduation.

The thing that changed my life was after my junior year. I had left a note for Clay Clemens asking, “What is an honors thesis, and will you help me write one?”

Somehow—I still don’t know how he did this, because we didn’t have cellphones—I got a phone call at the beach house where I was staying two days after I arrived, and it was Professor Clemens.

He said, “Mike if you want to talk about writing an honors thesis for next year, meet me in my office tomorrow at 10 am.”

I was two and a half hours south on a beach with my girlfriend. But I got in a car and I drove up. Left at six in the morning. I met with Clay and talked to him for about two hours in his office.

He didn’t have to do this.

He talked to me for two hours about what would be a researchable topic and why would it make a contribution to our understanding of U.S. foreign policy. He convinced me it would be really interesting to understand how European allies shape U.S. foreign policy in the area of strategic defense-remember Star Wars and the Strategic Defense initiative and preventing nuclear missiles from hitting us.

I drove back down to the beach on Cloud 9.

Over the next year I would meet with Clay Clemons once a week. Seeing how he mentored me and taught me how to ask research questions and then how to answer them as a political scientist, was just a real eye opener. There was no Clay Clemens in my department in San Diego. No one was looking out for that 19-year-old kid who was at the beach.

I realized I can do more to get students high quality faculty mentorship, not by doing it all myself, which is what you do as a young faculty member, but by generating the resources and providing opportunities and a model for faculty to mentor the next generation of undergraduates.

I’m the mentor, and then I’m the person who has to try to build an ecosystem that will enable meaningful mentorship.

Some people are able to shift their energy and their tactics from being an outspoken college professor to being a responsible administrator pursuing the same goals. I think Teresa is a great example of that.

I do not have the same diplomatic skills that some other people do, so higher administration is probably not for me. Instead I’m just going to be like a dog with a bone. For me, it’s teaching students through research.

So that’s my passion now as a leader, as an administrator.

Q: What would a successful year ahead look like for you?

Two would be increasing the number and the quality of mentored research experiences for students.

To me, that is the comparative advantage of William & Mary and that is something where we could become the best in the world. In order to do that, people have to focus time and resources and effort on achieving that goal.

And then third, I really think William & Mary in general, but GRI in particular, punches below its weight, meaning the quality of the work we do is better than the recognition that we get.

So when I came back here, I immediately started working with my students on my research and on their research. I mentored a lot of honors theses my first ten years here. I figured out how to integrate students into two different research labs that I’ve been associated with. I was very, very active in co-authoring with students at William & Mary for about 15 years.

And then, as GRI grew and I moved into a more administrative position, I realized I can do more to get students high quality faculty mentorship, not by doing it all myself, which is what you do as a young faculty member, but by generating the resources and providing opportunities and a model for faculty to mentor the next generation of undergraduates.

So for me there’s a three-generation process where I’m the mentee, then

Teresa: I’m very happy to have been able to land at Reves when we’re doing strategic planning in a focused way. I would like to figure out the three things out of 10 that are on the action plan and make them go: creating a human rights focus in who we bring in for our guests; an expansion of the Reves faculty fellows in such a way that it bridges countries; and something around naming the three partner institutions around the world with whom we really want to build and strengthen relationships.

Mike: These are not necessarily in order, but I would say one would be truly broadening the range of research that’s being supported at GRI. We are still very heavy on economics and political science, and we’re very heavy in arts & sciences.

If our mandate from the Provost is to break down silos and reach across the university to develop multidisciplinary collaborations, we have to be doing more with the professional schools—business, law, marine science and education. That means getting more faculty involved with doing student-faculty research outside the narrow range that we’re in now. So that’s one.

We need to communicate in a strategic way to audiences outside of William & Mary and also outside of the ivory tower. What can we actually do in terms of applied research that will shape decisions and outcomes in the world?

Those are three things. If we did better in all of those, I would count it as a success.

Q: So how do you see the two of you working together? How do you see Reves and GRI intersecting or collaborating?

Teresa: Mike and I started off the year having conversations about this very question.

Research has been the central core of the GRI, and that is really important.

Research is also one part of Reves. It’s not the whole, and yet there’s a whole lot of research out there and there can be more among our faculty that Reves can make possible in new ways or by building on some of the foundations that are already there, like Reves Faculty Fellows, for example.

Also, looking at how students are part of the GRI research, it would be great if we can figure out new models where we have people overseas. They’ve just finished study abroad or an internship.

They’re also smart undergrads like Mike was when Clay Clemens made that phone call… Mike: Many years ago…

Teresa: …who could be on a project for somebody who is actually here. So we can figure out some ways to pull together the people we have contacts with all over the world that complement GRI. We don’t want to repeat each other’s work, we want to be complementary, and I would say we’re getting started on that. We have a friendship and an agreement to make that complementary work happen, even though we don’t have the specifics quite nailed down yet.

Mike: You saw yesterday in “Beyond Research” [a live Zoom discussion with a researcher in Ukraine] we’re literally dividing the labor to coordinate on something we think is a public good at William & Mary. We are working together to find ways to continue a conversation about a benchmark event or a world changing event.

Being able to have partners to share the load and, and frankly, to broaden the conversation is crucial. Otherwise, we just stay in our own little silos.

Teresa: And also yesterday we were talking about something very specific around Ukraine, but there will be more things. There will be more big events and we should step in with the urgency that’s required.

Mike: And I was going to say beyond public goods and research where we I think will increasingly collaborate and coordinate, GRI is moving more and more students and faculty, more and more staff abroad. We’re hiring people abroad. We’re moving people abroad.

GRI does not have the expertise or the capacity to make those types of collaborations happen. That is clearly in the in the domain of the Reves Center. The Reves Center is in the lead and then coordinates with HR, Procurement, University Counsel, et cetera.

And so if we’re going to have a world class research institute at William & Mary, and we’re very hopeful that GRI is becoming that—then we need professionals and world class

collaborators that can help us to internationalize the university.

William & Mary is a small university in southeastern Virginia. It doesn’t have all the same policies and pipes and procedures to support world class international research.

If we’re going to do that, we’re going to need Reves to help us to get there.

And in my view Reves would not just be helping GRI, but it will be helping any faculty who want to do that type of international work.

Teresa: And with partnerships, we are trying to work towards an increasingly open system of how we make knowledge. We can’t really do it by looking at what we have. We have to look up and out and get our people up and out.

Mike: That’s what I tell students, especially when advising freshmen. They come in, and I say within the first thirty minutes, “One of your objectives should be to get out of here. You need to go talk to the people at the Reves Center and learn about study abroad and other options to support your learning objectives. The Reves Center

knows how to do that. You need to leave William & Mary.”

Teresa: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve been teaching freshman [spring semester] and have been trying to help them look up, go to events, go to the many things that are around us. They’re very focused on their classes, and they’re very focused on succeeding and getting good grades, which makes a ton of sense. However, there’s a lot more that’s waiting for them.

Mike: Did you study abroad?

Teresa: I studied abroad my sophomore year. I went to Mexico, and it was the definitive moment for me. It’s not like your eyes just open; they explode open. I have very, very vivid memories of going to Morelia, Michoacán in Mexico. I took William & Mary back to that place where I had studied. I created a study abroad program there that included research projects.

Mike: That’s awesome.

2022 McSwain-Walker Lecture

The annual McSwain-Walker lecture brings renowned scholars, artists, analysts and other notable public figures to William & Mary to speak on topics related to how other countries and cultures interact with the United States, and how the United States interacts with them. “We are truly honored to welcome Professor Nguyen to William & Mary as this year’s McSwain-Walker Lecturer,” said Teresa Longo, Executive Director of the Reves Center. “As we continue the work of the Asian Centennial, building on ‘the seeds of inclusion and belonging,’ Professor Ngyugen’s work moves us to recognize the gaps in the stories we tell about our community and to tell more honorable stories.” The Hatsuye Yamasaki ‘37 Prize for Visionary Leadership honors W&M’s first female student of Asian descent (and woman of color) who was a stalwart campus leader during their enrollment in 1933-37. It recognizes exemplary leadership on behalf of the Asian Pacific Islander and South West Asian communities.

University awards author Viet Thanh Nguyen the Hatsuye Yamasaki prize

BY ANNA ARNSBERGER ’25

W ednesday, April 20, the Reves Center for In ternation al Studies and the Asian Cen tennial Committee awarded Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen the Hatsuye Yamasaki ’37 Prize for Visionary Leadership. Nguyen also gave this year’s McSwain-Walker Lec ture titled “Refugees, Language and the Meaning of America.”

Nguyen centered his lecture around the role of language and memory in contexts of war and immigration.

Nguyen is best known for his fiction works, including “The Refugees” and “The Sympathizer,” which won a 2016 Pulitzer Prize. Nguyen is also the Aerol Arnold Chair of English and professor of English, comparative literature and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Much of Nguyen’s writing — both academic and literary — deals with war, memory and diaspora, particularly relating to Vietnam.

For Francis Tanglao Aguas, Asian and Pacific Islander American studies and theater professor and co-chair of the Asian Centennial Committee, the variety of Ngyuen’s works is significant.

“Dr. Nguyen is a shining exemplar of creativity alongside ‘traditional’ academic scholarship, demonstrating to all, especially the new generation of Asian Americans, that there is no need to favor one talent or gift over another,” Tanglao-Aguas said.

“Nguyen’s work sheds light on the Asian American experience and the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam,” Assistant Professor of English and APIA studies Professor R. Benedito Ferrão added. “Importantly, as a public intellectual, he has also commented in op-eds about racism, anti-Asian hate and issues affecting immigrants.”

Ferrão therefore sees Ngyuen as a perfect choice for the Hatsuye Yama saki Prize, which is named after the first woman of Asian descent to attend William & Mary. The award honors exemplary leaders among the Asian

and Pacific Islander and Southwest Asian communities.

The Reves Center also chose Nguyen as the speaker for the 2022 McSwain-Walker Lecture, which invites creative and engaging public figures to discuss the ways in which other cultures and countries interact with the United States.

Nguyen began his lecture by exploring how language shapes the ways refugees are perceived in the United States.

“We, as Americans, like to use language to insulate ourselves from some of the realities of our country and our world for which we’re responsible,” Nguyen said.

To Nguyen, this is exemplified in the stigmatization of the term “refugee.” He spoke about how calling refugees “immigrants” de-emphasizes the impact of the wars that led to their current circumstances. Nguyen resolutely identifies as a refugee, though he recognizes that by definition, he is not one anymore. This

decision is an effort to show solidarity with those who are dehumanized.

“I wanted to embrace refugee experience,” Nguyen said. “I wanted to embrace the unwanted. I wanted to believe that it was possible to extend kinship from our own to others.”

Nguyen specifically pointed out how Vietnamese people have been marginalized as refugees.

“In the United States, when people say the word Vietnam, what they usually mean is not the country, but the war,” Nguyen said. “And when we talk about the Vietnam War, Vietnamese people are usually dehumanized.”

Nguyen also expressed concern over how many Vietnamese Americans have now fallen victim to the “good” versus “bad” immigrant rhetoric and engage in othering behavior toward different refugee groups. To Nguyen, this thinking is illogical, considering Vietnamese people once faced a persecution similar to the persecution

many Muslim or central American immigrants face today.

“Hopefully we realize how prob lematic that binary of good and bad is,” Nguyen said. “I think about some of these so-called bad refugees and I think, what did they learn their behav ior from?”

Nguyen then reflected on how some of the allegedly “bad” Vietnamese refugees engaged in condemnable actions as a result of the unstable situations in their home country.

Throughout the lecture, Nguyen used personal and often humorous narratives to supplement his broader ideas. From his earliest memories in a refugee camp to experiences in college, Nguyen highlighted the moments in his life when he had to grapple with race and identity.

In one such story, Nguyen recalled internalizing his family’s otherness when a white store owner blamed Nguyen’s parents for putting

Americans out of business. Nguyen connected this incident with a larger pattern of “yellow peril” that has tormented Asian Americans throughout American history, including in the case of Art Matsu at the university.

“Soon after his coming to this campus, the Virginia government state government passed a racial purity act designed to prevent interracial relationships between white people and people of color, instigated specifically by the presence of Art Matsu, the good minority who rapidly became the bad minority,” Nguyen said.

In his book “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War,” Nguyen argues that all wars are fought twice — first on the battlefield, then in memory. Much of Nguyen’s lecture was dedicated to understanding the power of stories and collective memory.

Viet Than Nguyen delivers the 2022 McSwainWalker Lecture in Commonwealth Auditorium. Photo by Tyler Lawrence

He remembered his experiences as a child watching American movies about the Vietnam war, particularly the film “Apocalypse Now.”

“I’m rooting for the American soldiers up until the moment they kill or massacre Vietnamese civilians,” Nguyen said. “And in that moment I feel myself split in two. Am I the American doing the killing or am I the Vietnamese being killed?”

This split was a major theme in Nguyen’s lecture and resonated with Sabrina Gerald ’23, who identifies as half Vietnamese.

“A lot of the points that he made are common in Asian American literature, about like double consciousness,” Gerald said. “I just really enjoyed hearing that.”

This double consciousness and concept of memory helped Nguyen reckon with the significance hidden inside stories. He reflected on how the roles Vietnamese people often have in films — as victims screaming, crying or thanking American soldiers — contribute to the concession of their inhumanity.

“Realizing how powerful stories are, realizing that they could save and destroy, it made me want to be a writer,” Nguyen said.

Now Nguyen hopes his work challenges the way readers think. In particular, he is proud of how “The Sympathizer” angers almost everyone. Nguyen attributes this reaction to the way he portrays both humanity and inhumanity in all his characters.

“The dehumanized among us who have no need to prove our own humanity, we have to understand that being only human is a trap of marginalization,” Nguyen said. “It restricts us to the place of being angels and victims.”

Nguyen expressed that Vietnamese people can’t just be seen as victims — only by embracing the full spectrum

of humanity and inhumanity can their stories truly be centered.

Aguas hopes that Nguyen can encourage students at the university to pursue similar endeavors and bold ideas.

“We need more writers of color from all our communities: Asian Americans, African Americans, Native, Latina/Latino, to tell their stories,” Tanglao-Aguas said. “This is what inspiring writers like Viet Thanh Nguyen have the capacity to influence given their platform and the power of their works.”

That is ultimately what encourages Nguyen to keep writing. For him, it was vital to discover the literature of marginalized communities and stories that could connect to people who looked like him and his parents.

“And that was what helped to heal the split,” Nguyen said: “My belief that we actually could, in fact, forge a country through our activism, through academics, through our art, through our very existence in which we could be whole, in which we could be inhuman and human at the same time.”

Article reprinted from The Flat Hat. Photo by Tyler Lawrence.

Stranger’s Guide, a travel publi cation that explores the power of place-based journalism to break down stereotypes and foster global citizenship, was founded in 2018 by Editor in Chief Kira Brunner Don and Publisher Abby Rapoport.

Based in Texas and California, the magazine commissions stories from local writers and photographers to build authentic portraits of a place.

Stranger’s Guide‘s work has been featured in the Best American Travel Writing collection, and the magazine has won two National Magazine Awards in General Excellence and Photography.

Rapoport is the daughter of W&M Professor Emeritus Ronald Rapoport. Abby spent the first portion of her career as a political reporter, covering Texas politics for the Texas Tribune, the Texas Observer and then The American Prospect. Her work has also appeared in Glamour, The National

Journal and The New Republic.

Prior to founding Stranger’s Guide, she served as Acting Publisher for the Texas Observer and currently chairs the Texas Democracy Foundation.

We look forward to finding ways to collaborate with Rapoport where appropriate, and this guest essay by Viet Thanh Nguyen from a recent issue devoted to Vietnam seemed especially pertinent. - Ed.

Stories from the War

FIRST-PERSON NARRATIVES FROM THE AMERICAN WAR IN VIETNAM

BY VIET THANH NGUYEN

All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory. This is what I teach my students in my course on the American war in Vietnam. I also teach them about the importance of stories. Stories are how we make sense of our memories and our histories. Stories are how we pass on our memories and our histories. Stories are how we make sense of, and struggle over, the meanings of wars and nations.

When it comes to the American war in Vietnam, Americans have produced enormous numbers of stories in the form of movies, novels, speeches and journalistic and historical accounts. Unfortunately, these stories have often excluded or marginalized the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians in whose lands this war was fought. And when it comes to Americans, American stories tend to foreground the experiences of White men and soldiers.

I tell my students that wars are not just about soldiers, generals and men. The wars of the 20th century have killed more civilians than soldiers. War also kills women and children and creates vast refugee populations. The American understanding of war, by focusing on men, soldiers and Americans, is actually only a partial understanding of the nature of war.

To gain a better understanding of this war, I task my students with interviewing survivors, veterans, witnesses, and their descendants. Men and women, soldiers and civilians, American and Southeast Asian, White and Black. Some of the interviewees have never told these stories before. Some of the interviewees are telling their stories for the first time to students who are their children or grandchildren.

Regardless of whether the students have a personal connection to the war, the stories that they collect bring them closer to history and the war’s nuances. They learn, for example, that contrary to stereotype, many American soldiers never fought, but did their service peacefully. They learn that every single Southeast Asian person they interview, whether they were soldiers or civilians, underwent a terrifying journey to get to the United States as refugees.

Ultimately, I hope what my students learn—and what you, the reader, learn as well—is that the telling of stories is necessary, as is the act of listening to them. When we listen to the stories of those who have lived through war, what we discover is that wars do not end simply because we declare them to be over. Wars continue on, radioactive in memory, for years, decades and lives.

Article reprinted from Stranger’s Guide, https://strangersguide.com/articles/stories-from-the-war/.

Esports at William & Mary: Making a Global Impact

BY KATE HOVING

If you are not quite sure either about what es ports is—yes, it’s singular—or why it merits a feature in “World Minded,” it would be total ly understandable. However, William & Mary’s esports initiative and its international connections have taken root and are growing.

MEETING WITH THE PROVOST

At Esports Community Day last fall, Provost Peggy Agouris recalled her first encounter with esports at William & Mary. “One nice day in fall 2019, a group of people walked into my office and gave me the most coordinated and exciting presentation that I had ever heard up to that point at William & Mary. Karen [Connor], Terry [Trojak) and Michele [King] walked in and they sat around the table and said, ‘We have an idea.’”1

Agouris found their idea compelling: to start something new in an area that W&M wasn’t known for, and yet, “combines the spirit of what it is to be a William & Mary student--the excellence, the creativity and the competitive drive to excel.”

The provost’s question to them at the time, was “How can we become pioneers in this?”

PIONEERING AN ESPORTS INFRASTRUCTURE

King feels part of her mission is to make sure W&M is known as not simply a participant player in esports, but a unique one.

And so, King and her colleagues first researched how they wanted to set up the varsity gamers. They decided to join EGF— Electronic Gaming Federation— the Division I governing body for esports. EGFC League states in its mission that it places “an equal emphasis on competition, academics, and the physical and mental well-being of our students. EGFC’s game-agnostic approach to collegiate esports ensures that our programs are sustainable for the long term.”

But mere membership in EFG was not enough.

“We are with 47 other Division I schools, and there were seven Board of Governors members, and I said, ‘Well, William & Mary’s

1

The trio that met with Agouris formed the Esports Advisory Board: Michele King, Speech Professor, Theatre, Speech & Dance and Director of Esports. Karen Conner, Director of Academic Innovation, Raymond A. Mason School of Business; Terry Trojak, Senior Creative Producer, Academic Innovation, Raymond A. Mason School of Business. John Drummond, Technology Space Strategist (EAB), did not attend that specific meeting, but he is a founding member of the EAB.

We need to decide, are we going to stand on the sidelines, or are we going to get in the game to prepare our students for this billion-dollar industry?

GLOBAL ESPORTS 2022

532 million

Total Audience

REGIONAL OUTLOOK

$1.38 billion

China will generate nearly a third of worldwide esports revenues. Southeast Asia, Central Southern Asia, and Lat in America are the fastest-growing regions, with 2020-2025 CAGRs (Compound Annual Growth Rates) of +27.6%, +23.4%, and +19%, respectively. Global esports revenues will exceed $1.86 billion by 2025, representing a healthy CAGR of +13.4%.

Asia-Pacific (APAC), North America, and Europe are the top three esports markets, respectively, in terms of audience and revenue. The rest of the world only accounts for about 15% of total esports revenue, but it contains several regions to watch. One of the fastest-rising regions is Latin America, which is expected to hit $18 million in esports revenue in 2019 before skyrocketing to $42 million by 2023, per PwC estimates.

got to be a pioneer. We’ve got to do this.’” So, she ran for their Board of Governors and was elected.

And as a result of that election, King and William & Mary caught the eye of Zsuzsa James, Team Finland Coordinator for the Video Games & Esports Consulate General of Finland in Los Angeles, who was seeking input on best practices for expanding Finland’s esports industry.

In April 2021, King was invited to be a speaker at a roundtable—“Building a Supportive Esports Ecosystem”— sponsored by Finns & Friends of Esports of the Finland Trade Commission. “They’re not members of EGF, but they know of EGF because of the prestige it has, and they wanted someone from the education realm,” says King.

“They had people from the industry from all over the world, but they had only one person from education, and that was me.”

King’s biggest takeaway from the roundtable?

“We are so far behind. We need to decide, are we going to stand on the sidelines, or are we going to get in the game to prepare our students for this billion-dollar industry?”

As is probably clear by now, ‘standing on the sidelines’ is not in King’s nature.

PREPARING STUDENTS FOR A NEW LANDSCAPE

In March 2019, W&M founded the Esports Training and Research Center (ETARC). It is set up as a collaborative and interdisciplinary program by design.

King understands that among students, there are going to be different levels of involvement in esports, as well as areas of interest. And that’s ok with King.

“Some of [the students] are on the club level, some of them are actually with the varsity level and that’s the beauty of what we’re doing; we’re doing both the academic and applied. The academic is the learning and the classes. The applied is the competitive varsity level. You put those two together, and we have such a beautiful, experiential opportunity for our students.”

The esports industry encompasses multiple roles and opportunities, and ETARC will provide space to develop any and all of the possibilities for students. “Like the NFL, not everyone’s going to be an athlete on the field. But you’ve got producers, casters [similar to play-by-play in sports], event planners, as well as statisticians and data analysts,” King explains. “We can prepare our students. We can get them pipelines into this growing industry and prepare them for this new landscape.”

In addition to career preparation, William & Mary will also focus on wellness and community. “It is a missing piece in the esports industry, so I want W&M to pioneer and be the first premier university to research and to focus on wellness and the flourishing gamer,” King states. “That’s why we’re partnering and working with Dr. Kelly Crace, Director of the W&M CMAX (Center for Mindfulness and Authentic Excellence) and the Wellness Center. We want to make sure that they are flourishing.”

GLOBAL REACH: W&M AND ESPORTS IN THE WORLD

Esports are dynamic creations, becoming cultural phenomena which attract thousands of eager

Opposite page top: Teaching & Learning Symposium

(pictured: Max Simon (‘24) Media & Communication Esports Pioneer; Dr. Michele King, Esports Director; Alondra Burton (‘22) Overwatch Captain; Brooks Murphy (‘24) Wellness Advocate) April 28, 2022.University of Montana) joined remotely by 47 other EGF member universities. May 1, 2022. Courtesy photo.

Opposite page bottom: Rocket League team at the gand opening of the Esports Training & Research Center (ETARC) on March 4, 2021. Courtesy

viewers. Their existence has been international since their inception [in South Korea in the 2000s]. Yet they have also been hugely overlooked, and only now are receiving the acknowledgement that they deserve…2

In 2019 Tyler Brent ’15 hosted an eSports Envoy during his tour at the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou. The program is an initiative of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the U.S. State Department. “We worked with ECA’s Office of Sports Diplomacy to bring both an NBA player and an NBA2k player to China for a week of programming.” Michael “BearDaBeast” Key was the eSports Envoy, joined by NBA Player Bonzi Wells. In an interview after his experience, Key was surprised by his reception in China:

It was actually crazy. I was with a former NBA player, so when I see Bonzi Wells walk into an arena and kids are going crazy and screaming, and then I walk into an esports arena and they are going crazy, for me too it’s amazing to see. The reaction Bonzi got was the same reaction I got and that was pretty cool. Esports is huge over there.

Here we might see singers or actors on posters as advertisements. Over there, they have gamers and controllers on posters and advertisements. It’s so different. I can’t describe how big it is. How we go to an arcade, they have gaming centers and places to game in high schools. 3

Key’s assessment of opportunities in 2019 notwithstanding, today in the U.S. today, gamers have increasing options at universities, let alone high school. In the U.S., the esports industry has been gaining momentum in higher education and is picking up speed. Membership in the two major national organizations—the National Association of Collegiate Esports (NACE) and EGF—tops 200 and universities around the world are also enthusiastic.

CROSSING NATIONAL BORDERS

Barrett Ratzlaff ’22 majored in Chinese language and culture and worked as the peer assistant for international events for ISSP. His game is Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and he received the 2020-2021 Green & Gold Leadership Award from William & Mary’s esports program. The Green & Gold (GG) Leadership Award is bestowed upon the individual who most “inspires others to work creatively and collaboratively by promoting a positive, respectful and supportive environment. The recipient demonstrates initiative to organize events and champion the values, goals and mission of the W&M Academic & Applied Esports program”

Ratzlaff sees the way esports reaches across cultural boundaries. “Apart from the NBA and soccer, I can’t think of many sports that a considerable chunk of American and international

students both enjoy. There are several international students working on the applied side of the esports program, and many more that are fans and players themselves. Different places favor different games, but everyone is experiencing the same growth that comes from competing.”

Why does he think esports is such a global phenomenon? “The barriers to entry are lower than most competitive outlets, and it’s easier to popularize video games than regular sports,” Ratzlaff explains. “A sport is popular in a certain region because over decades or even centuries that sport became synonymous with a culture. A video game doesn’t have that same kind of process. Something can become popular overnight. The Internet is the main reason why it’s global.”

Ratzlaff started playing video games in 2008 with Pokemon Emerald, so although the esports program didn’t exist when he was applying to college, he sees the value of the esports program, “providing a place where people are able to compete in a healthy way and experience growth. Hundreds of people are part of the esports program and can experience that to some degree. As for the international community, it provides yet another way for us to make our campus a global one. For two roommates, it might be a common interest that forms a friendship. For two members of the esports program, it can provide an avenue to push each other to work hard and improve. I think it’s only natural for people to learn more about themselves when they do things like that.”

One of William & Mary’s varsity players is Jacob Karen ’23, a double major in business analytics data science and computer science. He is from Northern Virginia but coaches internationally. Karen plays Rocket League and has developed a name for himself as both a player and a coach of the MENA Saudi Arabian Rocket League Pro Team, WaVii. Their manager contacted Karen on Discord, asking him to try out as their

2 https://hir.harvard.edu/esports-part-1-what-are-esports/ 3 https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianmazique/2019/10/05/nba-2k-league-star-bear-da-beast-talks-globalization-fan-connection-and-leaguegrowth/?sh=5a5ab8e54c84, NBA 2K League Star ‘Bear Da Beast’ Talks Globalization, Fan Connection

Barrett Ratzlaff ‘22 Courtesy photo.

coach. He didn’t think he had a chance, but they hired him, and from there his reputation and skill in playing and coaching has grown.

One thing he has learned is how strategies—or metas-differ in different parts of the world. “Between NA (North America) and MENA (Middle East and North Africa) there’s a huge difference. There is also a difference between NA and the EU. “EU players are generally known to play more of a team-based style, more passing. U.S. players are known to play more aggressively, but with a set and tight rotation compared to the Middle East, which has no rotation and they hit the ball as hard as they can. In a region like the Middle East, the meta of the game is completely different than in other regions, because it’s just developing there. So when you have a coach from the United States go over to the to the Middle East and teach them meta that is played in other countries or United States specifically, they learn and adapt to that meta and end up beating teams in their region with the U.S. meta.”

As their coach, his team’s success reflects on him. “As my team grows and develops and becomes one of the better teams in the region, they start to get a global fan base. The coach is not overlooked, because when a team goes from nothing to the top it’s generally not just the team that did that themselves.”

He also learns ways to improve his own game. “It’s funny because, even as a coach, if I looked at my own replays and didn’t know they were my replays I’d be able to help myself.”

AN ADMISSIONS DRAW

Dirk Go MBA ’22 did not expect to find esports at William & Mary. “I was initially surprised because I thought an esports focus was more implemented by smaller academic institutions and private esports club startups (based on what I’ve heard and seen on news or in social media).” The program factored into his decision to attend W&M. He had narrowed his choices down to three: Olin (Washington University), R.H. Smith (University of Maryland), and Mason (W&M). “After considering value, cost of living, and crime rate, W&M stands out by having an esports program (in development),” Go explains. “Being able to tap into this development stage as well as a networking platform was the deciding factor for me. I plan to utilize the resource once I am ready to start my esports business in the Philippines.”

Originally from Tagum, Philippines, Go is sanguine about the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. “In the United States, there is a low barrier to ‘trial/testing’ gaming skills. Almost everyone can save up and buy a video game console and still have the basic needs (not going hungry, medical insurance taken care of, government assistance, etc.) taken care of. On top of this, one can enjoy the gradual development that comes with participating in esports on a middle school team, high school team, college team, professional clubs, and other avenues. There are also small and semi-pro leagues where you can test your skills. And if you do not want to be a gamer, trying out for esports commentators or ‘casters’ is also possible with the mentioned avenues.

“In the Philippines however, there are no gradual development or professional leagues to try on. There is only ‘rank up as fast as possible until a wealthy sponsor or club notices me and gives me a contract’ way. There are smaller leagues to gain visibility, but the prize money is not high enough to warrant the majority of aspirants to give up their traditional occupations (even if I think they have the talent to

be professional gamers). I aim to create a business platform where the majority of aspirants will be given a fair look and the opportunity to showcase their talents without the feeling of having the need to risk it all.”

Go believes the esports program adds value not just to business students, but also to the university as a whole. “Having an esports program conveys the message that gaming is not simply for leisure anymore. It is a real avenue that can change the world. It needs to be studied, examined intricately, networked vigorously, and developed to its utmost potential to create positive change. Because for me, why study or learn something, if there is no positive change that can be shared and felt along with it?”

Dirk Go MBA ‘22. Courtesy Photo

Jacob Karen’s roster announcement.

Karen agrees that future students will find the esports program appealing, but there needs to be an effort to market it. “If you advertise that you have that, people will come specifically for it, but I think if you just have it and invite current students you’re not going to find too many people to change their major. So I think it would have to be something where you actually say, ‘Look, William & Mary is considering adding this.’”

FROM AVOCATION TO VOCATION

Go entered William & Mary with the expectation of making esports his career, and more and more students, seeing opportunities they didn’t know before existed, are getting internships and jobs from their esports experience.

At Commencement, King met Stephanie Murphy ’00 and learned that Murphy is co-chair of the U.S. Video Games & Esports caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, another new facet of the world of esports.

Karen has recently begun considering the idea of getting into working with esports organizations and tournament management. “I’m not really sure how I would get into it, but being involved with coaching professionally allows me to make some connections in the industry.”

Hannah Smith ’21 majored in business administration (marketing) with a concentration in business analytics, and she is now Employee Engagement Coordinator at Epic Games. (Epic Games is a global company based in North Carolina and known for Fortnite, among other games.) Her work there focuses on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Smith was William & Mary’s first female captain, leading the W&M FIFA team. As a student she had an internship with the Pittsburgh Knights, a major esports team, but didn’t forget her William & Mary esports colleagues. “She connected me with [the Knights’] communications director, and I was able to sit on a roundtable for women in esports,” King says.

It’s that kind of commitment and networking during and after her undergraduate years that earned Smith the first Griffin Spirit Award as “the individual who embodies the W&M Academic & Applied Esports program values and mission of ‘community.’ The recipient exemplifies team spirit through words and actions by encouraging fellow varsity gamers, promoting Tribe Pride and initiative opportunities to bolster the program.”

FLOURISHING: ACCOLADES AND ACTION PLANS

With each class, Michele King anticipates the networking potential will continue, and she shows no signs of resting on her virtual laurels.

In fact, she just garnered new laurels. The National Association of Esports Coaches and Directors (NAECAD)—the primary professional organization for competitive esports coaches and directors at all levels of competitive play (club, high school, college, and professional)—just notified King she has received their 20212022 National Esports Collegiate Director of the Year award.

As for Karen, he is spending his summer in Washington, D.C. He is an intern for Congressman David Trone (D-MD 6th District),

working on various public outreach and legislative issues. “I’ve also just accepted a second internship that starts the end of July with [a global company] called Tunabear Consultants. I’m con tracted independently through them, and I’ll be working on Ce lonis software.” Celonis is a data processing company founded in Munich, Germany, that sells process mining software to im prove business processes. Karen has been coaching a German Nitro League team aand will volunteer as a coach for his old high school’s new esports program. And although he couldn’t mention the team until it’s official, “The end of the spring, early summer, an owner from a European esports organization approached me to help build a team of Rocket Launch players, from recruiting and contract negotiations to coaching. It would be probably a 6-month to one-year contract. They want me to help them com pete at a very high level.”

As King says, “Game on!”

Hannah Smith ‘21. Courtesy photo.

Jacob Karen ‘23 in corporate mode. Courtesy photo.

Lebanese Journalist Dr. May Chidiac Keynotes William & Mary Law School’s Human Security Law Center Symposium on Media Freedom & Human Rights

BY RACHEL SLEIMAN J.D. ‘23 Reprinted from THE COMPARATIVE JURIST

On Friday, January 28, 2022, William & Mary Law School’s Human Security Law Center held its annual symposium on line, with this year’s topic cen tering on Media Freedom and Human Rights. The Symposium hosted experts from around the world to address various issues surrounding freedom of expres sion, hate speech, incitement, and digital media. This article is the first of a three-part series about the Symposium’s featured panel events. 1 The Human Se curity Law Center welcomed re nowned Lebanese journalist Dr. May Chidiac to open the Sympo sium as keynote speaker, which also featured Professor Jenik Radon of Columbia University’s School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA) as moderator.

In her Keynote Address, Dr. May Chidiac shared the inspirational sto ry about her career rise as a televi sion journalist in Lebanon, where she became known across the Middle East for her hard-hitting and outspo ken political broadcasts. Dr. Chid iac shared the details that led up to an assassination attempt that nearly took her life and how she returned to television “with audacity,” remaining

steadfast in her convictions by con tinuing to vocalize her advocacy for the sovereignty of Lebanon. Dr. Chidiac also discussed her life after leaving television journalism, which included a political appointment as Lebanon’s Minister of State for Ad ministrative Development in 2019, and the press freedom she continues to advocate for through her founda tion, the May Chidiac Foundation Media Institute. She ended her ad dress by explaining what continues to inspire and motivate her hope in the face of what often can appear to be insurmountable challenges to freedom of expression.

Despite her legendary career, Dr. Chidiac says she stumbled upon journalism haphazardly––to support her mother and sister after losing her father and brother amid a civil war. She set her interests in architecture and design to the side and enrolled in a university journalism program. Soon after, she started a job as a radio news broadcaster on the Voice of Lebanon Radio Station. That paved the way for her next role as a news anchor with the premiere private television station in Lebanon, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), which was established by the Lebanese Christian-based political party, the Lebanese Forces.2 At LBC, she became a strong female presence on television screens both as a war correspondent and news anchor. Dr. Chidiac achieved notoriety by

reporting in places where no one dared to go. Of the experience, she said:

At the time, I was unable to fight for my people at the front lines, so I did the next best thing–I reported the truth and brought visual proof with me. Usually, that was accomplished by dragging my cameraman with me to places he did not want to venture. While many would hide in fear, I was sleeping next to a photocopy machine, ready for another adventure under the bullet-filled sky. I believe it was this tenacity that took me from a

1 See Allison Lofgren, Comparative Free Speech: An Expert Roundtable Discussion at William & Mary Law School’s Human Security Law Center Symposium on Media Freedom & Human Rights , THE COMPARATIVE JURIST (May 3, 2022), https://comparativejurist.org/2022/05/03/comparative-freespeech ; and Nancy Rosen, The Future of Media & Press Freedom Globally: A Discussion with Professor David Kaye , THE COMPARATIVE JURIST (May 3, 2022), https://comparativejurist.org/2022/05/03/future-media-press-freedom-globally.

2 LBC, founded in August 1985, was the Lebanese Forces’ main channel during the Lebanese Civil War and the first media institution to break the state-owned Télé Liban monopoly over television broadcasting. LBCI, MEDIA OWNERSHIP MONITOR LEBANON, https://lebanon.mom-rsf.org/en/ media/detail/outlet/lbci/ (last visited Mar. 5, 2022).

Dr. May Chidiac. Courtesy photo

neophyte reporter to a seasoned media figure in the country.3

Because of the dangers provoked by the Lebanese Civil War, Dr. Chidiac placed her bourgeoning journalism career on pause at her mother’s behest and left for Switzerland from 1989 through the beginning of 1991, where she served as the press attaché for the Lebanese Ambassador to Switzerland. However, Dr. Chidiac’s commitment to her country drove her to return to Lebanon and resume her journalistic work, critically covering the continued occupation of the Syrian regime4, despite the risks that many Lebanese, particularly journalists, faced for openly voicing opposition to the occupation and advocating for a free and sovereign Lebanon. Dr. Chidiac’s voice even garnered attention beyond Lebanon’s borders, providing an opportunity to leave Lebanon for Dubai and the Al-Arabiya News network. Yet, even with the offer of a significant salary raise and a stable environment, she “refused to trade [her] country for life-long security because [she] was making a difference”5 as a news anchor and political talk show host.

From 1998 through 2005, Dr. Chidiac managed her morning talk show as a platform to express the opinions of Lebanon’s silent majority; she was one of the few who dared to do so. She hosted guests who fervently opposed the tyranny of the Syrian regime and the Syrian-puppet Lebanese intelligence apparatus in power. Dr. Chidiac faced death threats, yet she was motivated to fight for herself and the Lebanese people and pressure the Syrian regime to end its occupation of Lebanon.

In 2004, then-Prime Minister Rafic al-Hariri decided to step down

in a symbolic repudiation of Syrian pressures to renew the term of proSyrian President Emile Lahoud.6 Less than four months later, on February 14, 2005, Hariri’s motorcade was targeted in a car bomb that killed him and twenty others.7 Hariri’s murder was the first in a rampage of assassinations that rocked the country that year, which resulted in the murders of journalists Samir Kassir and George Hawi; politician and former editor and publisher of daily newspaper An Nahar, and a friend and colleague of Dr. Chidiac, Gebran Tueini; Pierre Gemayel, a notable Lebanese political leader and founder of the Kataeb political party; and many others; as well as the attempted murder of then-Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr.8

In the immediate aftermath of Hariri’s death, Dr. Chidiac described that her work and “passion finally came to fruition”9 when she saw over a million Lebanese people gather on Martyr’s Square. This impressive demonstration–known as the Cedar Revolution–demanded the withdrawal of the Syrian army from Lebanon and the truth behind the assassination on the one-month anniversary of Hariri’s murder on March 14, 2005. 10This show of resistance also attracted the attention and backing of the international community. Inspired, Dr. Chidiac sought to tackle the motives behind the murder of Hariri and others through her own investigation.

On September 25, 2005, six months after the spark of the Cedar Revolution, Dr. Chidiac reported the findings of her investigation live on-air from the desk of her morning talk show, exposing the Syrian Baathist regime’s possible involvement in Hariri’s assassination and the violence that rocked Lebanon

that year. Of her work, Dr. Chidiac expressed that she “might have gone too far in her research” but that she “was doing what she did best, careless of the consequences, exposing the truth.” 11

Later that day, Dr. Chidiac visited Saint Charbel’s Monastery for some peace of mind. She got into her car to leave, and, as she turned toward the backseat to set down her bag filled with her research, leaks, and holy water from the monastery, “the killer pressed the button.”12 Fighting tears, Dr. Chidiac recounted: “Suddenly everything around me shook and exploded. It is very rare for a person to witness their own death. I knew at

3 Dr. May Chidiac, Keynote Address at the William & Mary Law School Human Security Law Center Media Freedom & Human Rights Symposium (Jan. 28, 2022).

4 Led by Hafiz al-Assad, then-President and father of current President Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s involvement in Lebanon began amid tension between the Lebanese government and Palestinian forces in 1969. By June 1976, the Syrian army occupied Lebanon, “dominat[ing] the country and subdu[ing] it to the will of Damascus,” for the next twenty-nine (29) years. Etienne Sakr (Abu Arz), The Politics and Liberation of Lebanon, 9 M.E. REV. INT’L AFF. 86, 86 (2005).

5 Dr. May Chidiac, supra note 3.

6 Lebanese Prime Minister Resigns , CNN (Oct. 20, 2004, 11:10 AM), https://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/10/20/lebanon.pm/.

7 Former PM Killed in Beirut Blast , THE GUARDIAN (Feb. 14, 2005, 1:59 PM), https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/feb/14/lebanon.

8 Timeline: Lebanon Assassinations , AL JAZEERA (Oct. 20, 2012), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2012/10/20/timeline-lebanon-assassinations-2.

9 Dr. May Chidiac, supra note 3.

10 Hundreds of Thousands Jam Beirut in Rally Against Syria , N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 14, 2005), https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/14/international/middleeast/ hundreds-of-thousands-jam-beirut-in-rally-against.html.

11 Dr. May Chidiac, supra note 3.

12 Id.

“S topping my work as a journalist would have meant granting my attackers the satisfaction of silencing me. Resuming work was my own way of standing up to their violent tactics with strength and resolve, so I worked and worked and worked.

the same moment that they had just plotted for my assassination.”13

The attempt on Dr. Chidiac’s life shocked the country, region, and the world. It was the first time a woman was ever targeted for political assassination in Lebanon. Due to the tremendous force of the explosion, Dr. Chidiac lost her left arm and left leg above the knee. She endured over forty surgeries and extensive

rehabilitation. Due to her weakened immune system, she suffered from cancer, where she lost another dear part of herself, her hair. Dr. Chidiac’s fight for her life was not only physical; it was psychological. “It was difficult to reconcile the fact that I lost half of my body . . . especially after being the woman who showed up on screen like a butterfly with a big smile every day

for twenty years.”14 Yet, Dr. Chidiac refused to be silenced:

I never lost hope or strength to be the voice of the Lebanese people. Stopping my work as a journalist would have meant granting my attackers the satisfaction of silencing me. Resuming work was my own way of standing up to their violent tactics with strength and resolve, so I worked and worked and worked.15

Two years after rehabilitation, Dr. Chidiac pursued her doctoral degree and published her autobiography, Le Ciel M’Attendra (“Heaven Can Wait”). She also returned to LBC, and her television career, with a new primetime show Bi Kol Jorra (“With Audacity”), where she brought back her sharp political commentary to television screens across Lebanon and the Middle East. Dr. Chidiac’s critical reporting garnered many accolades for her bravery in journalism.16

However, Dr. Chidiac’s career at LBC would not last. On February 3, 2009, Dr. Chidiac ended her evening segment with a surprise resignation, motivated to leave by opposition she faced at the network. In her address, she criticized her colleagues, who “have waged a relentless war against [her]” and interfered with the guests on her show. 17

With the close of one chapter came the turn of a new page. Dr. Chidiac began to dedicate her time and efforts to social welfare, which included establishing her foundation to promote the upholding of media freedoms, support aspiring journalists, and monitor traditional and media freedom in Lebanon and the world by collaborating with local and international organizations like UNESCO. At the beginning of 2019, Dr. Chidiac was appointed to the Lebanese cabinet under Prime Minister Saad Hariri as Minister of State for Administrative Reform. She

Chidiac

announces-departure-lbc/docview/432547742/se-2.

A Lebanese woman carries a poster of prominent anti-Syrian news anchor May Chidiac during a sit-in at Martyrs square in Beirut September 26, 2005. A large protest was organised on Monday following a car bomb that seriously wounded Chidiac on Sunday. REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir

served in an environment where she faced those associated with a political party that aided in plotting her assassination. Yet, “Lebanon was more important,”18 and Dr. Chidiac ensured that her voice would be heard.

Dr. Chidiac accomplished a lot in the short period she served as Minister of State for Administrative Reform. In her political role, Dr. Chidiac developed the National Anti-Corruption Strategy with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to address Lebanon’s significant economic and financial challenges and combat the corruption that has stymied the country’s growth. She successfully introduced the 1325 Resolution to enhance women’s peace and security in Lebanon. Dr. Chidiac also represented Lebanon on the global stage, in her capacity as both a Lebanese political figure and Lebanese female journalist, by participating in the first Global Media Freedom Conference, which took place in London, England, and signing the Media Freedom Pledge on behalf of Lebanon.

On October 17, 2019, when protests erupted across Beirut against the Lebanese political establishment,19 Dr. Chidiac, along with her fellow ministers, resigned from the cabinet to pave the way for positive change. 20Since then, Dr. Chidiac has devoted her work to the mission of her foundation, the May Chidiac Foundation Media Institute. There, Dr. Chidiac and her team advocate for the freedom of speech and the protection of journalists. The Foundation also serves to educate media professionals on their rights in the face of violence, online threats, and defamation lawsuits––which are now regular occurrences in Lebanon.

18 Dr. May Chidiac, supra note 3.

Dr. Chidiac also maintains a presence supporting her country. After an explosion at Beirut’s port killed over two hundred twenty (220) people and injured over five thousand21, she joined rehabilitation efforts by heading the GROUND-0 Beirut Relief Committee.

Today, Lebanon is still reeling––not only from the devastating Beirut port explosion, for which justice remains glaringly absent twenty-one months later22, but from the economic and political crises that have plunged the country into both literal and figurative darkness.23

Asked what gives her hope in the face of all that she has endured and the current Lebanese climate, Dr. Chidiac expressed that she relies on the resilience of the Lebanese people, her faith in God, and her own inner strength.

There is a mission for me [to] stay alive. . . . I have the choice to be positive, to believe that anything can be done, even if the fight will continue in struggle . . . I believe that I need to support my country. My country gave me a lot; I need to give back.24

With Lebanon’s elections approach ing in mid-May, Dr. Chidiac expressed optimism in a free and democratic electoral process to serve as a catalyst for a new independent government re flective of the tenacity of the Lebanese spirit that ignited the October 17, 2019, revolution.

About the Human Security Law Center

The Human Security Law Center (HSLC) at William & Mary Law School centers on human rights, national security and international

criminal justice and law. Its purpose is to provide students with an understanding of and appreciation for national security and human rights issues, particularly through the interplay between national defense and the protection of civil rights in both the domestic and global spheres. The Director of the HSLC is Ernest W. Goodrich Professor of Law Nancy Combs.

World Press Freedom Day

The Comparative Jurist published this article on World Press Freedom Day, which celebrates its twenty-ninth anniversary on May 3, 2022. Initially declared by the United Nations General Assembly in 1993,25 the day honors the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a statement of press freedom principles drafted by African journalists at a UNESCO seminar in Windhoek, Namibia in 199126. Each year, the day highlights the significance of the freedom of the press, reminds governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression, and commemorates the lives of journalists who have risked or continue to risk their lives to report the truth. Together, UNESCO and the Republic of Uruguay are hosting this year’s World Press Freedom Day Global Conference on May 2-5, 2022. 27This year’s theme, Journalism Under Digital Siege, highlights the “digital era’s impact on freedom of expression, the safety of journalists, and access to information and privacy.”28

19 Sarah Dadouch, ‘The Country is Burning:’ Thousands Fill Lebanon’s Streets to Protest Corruption, Washington Post (Oct. 17, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/ world/lebanese-protesters-burn-bonfires-in-the-heart-of-beirut/2019/10/17/0eb3d19c-f143-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html.

20 Sarah Dadouch, ‘The Country is Burning:’ Thousands Fill Lebanon’s Streets to Protest Corruption, Washington Post (Oct. 17, 2019), https://www.washingtonpost.com/ world/lebanese-protesters-burn-bonfires-in-the-heart-of-beirut/2019/10/17/0eb3d19c-f143-11e9-89eb-ec56cd414732_story.html.

21 Beirut Explosion: Lebanon’s Government ‘to Resign’ as Death Toll Rises, BBC (Aug. 10, 2020), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-53720383.

22 Lebanese ‘Deserve the Truth’ Over Deadly Port Blast: Guterres, U.N. News (Dec. 20, 2021), https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/12/1108492.

23 See, e.g., Kareem Chehayeb, Lebanese Fearful as Fuel and Wheat Shortage Deepens, Al Jazeera (Mar. 8, 2022), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/8/lebanesefearful-as-fuel-and-wheat-shortage-deepens; Julien Ricour-Brasseur, Lyana Alameddine, Souhayb Jawhar, Tales of Fumbling in the Dark, L’Orient-Le Jour (Aug. 30, 2021, 2:50 PM), https://today.lorientlejour.com/article/1273166/blackout-across-lebanon-tales-of-fumbling-in-the-dark.html.

Dr. May Chidiac, supra note 3.

25 Journalism Under Digital Siege: World Press Freedom Day 2022, United Nations, https://www.un.org/en/observances/press-freedom-day (last visited Apr. 10, 2022).

26 Seminar on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic Asian Media, Declaration of Windhoek on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press, U.N. Doc. CII.92/ CONF.002/LD.9, KAZ/92/INF.3 (Aug. 10, 1992).

27 World Press Freedom Day, UNESCO, https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/worldpressfreedomday (last visited Apr. 10, 2022).

Expert panel reflects on Afghanistan’s future at William & Mary Law School event

BY W&M LAW SCHOOL STAFF

H as the international communi ty’s fickle attention span shift ed elsewhere since Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15, 2021?

Were U.S. military, diplomatic and human itarian campaigns over the course of 20 years in Afghanistan in vain? Has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine dimmed the memory of America’s commitment to Afghans who risked their lives to assist our missions?

These were a few of the difficult questions posed by members of a standing-room-only audience and online viewers who attended a symposium on “The Future of Afghanistan” at William & Mary Law School on March 25.

Hosted by the Center for Comparative Legal Studies & Post-Conflict Peacebuilding (CLS/PCP) the Reves Center for International Studies and the National Center for State Courts, the event featured a panel of distinguished military and diplomatic leaders, a senior war correspondent and two former Afghan ministers who offered analyses and candid reflections of their own decisions and actions over the course of what has been called by some a series of 20 one-year wars.

Alissa Johannsen-Rubin, former New York Times bureau chief in Kabul, Baghdad and Paris and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of Afghanistan, provided context to the discussion that followed by

tracing the trajectory of Afghan history. She then asked fellow panelists Gen. David H. Petraeus, Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, Dr. Sima Samar and Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai a series of probing questions about their own decisions.

Petraeus, who commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, called the eventual outcome tragic and heartbreaking, stating that the situation did not have to end the way it did. Citing significant mistakes made along the way and an outcome that paved the way for a return to extremism, his list of errors included the absence of strategic patience, the lack of a cohesive overall plan, a failure to allocate sufficient resources and ignorance of local dynamics and culture. Repeatedly confirming the United States’ intention to leave Afghanistan only empowered the Taliban and eliminated any political and military leverage we might have had, he said.

The assessment of Crocker, who served six terms as a U.S. Ambassador in the Middle East, was no more positive. Acknowledging that reconciling ideals and interests is often difficult, he stated that relinquishing America’s agency to the Taliban resulted in a betrayal of its own values. He concluded with a warning that Ukraine will turn out to be a temporary distraction for the United States and that greater dangers are percolating in the Middle East as Pakistan, Iran, India and China evaluate their paths forward to fill the vacuum left by the U.S. withdrawal.

Professor Christie Warren introduces expert panelists at the March event: They included (on screen, left to right) Gen. David H. Petraeus, Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai and (seated, left to right) Alissa Johannsen Rubin, Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Dr. Sima Samar. Photos by David F. Morrill

Afghan perspectives provided by Stanekzai, former chief of the National Directorate of Security and former chief peace negotiator for the Islamic Republic, and Samar, former minister of women’s affairs, mirrored those of Petraeus and Crocker. Stanekzai stated that inconsistencies in American strategies created space for corruption and organized crime and that the international community’s mission was flawed from the start when the Bonn talks failed to include all interested parties, including the Taliban. The failure to include women in the peace process led to their later exclusion from the government, Samar said.

The symposium may have raised many more questions than it answered, said Professor Christie S. Warren, director of the Center for Comparative Legal Studies & Post-Conflict Peacebuilding and chair of the symposium.

“These are exactly the types of issues that should be addressed within academic institutions,” she said. “Hard questions that aren’t addressed in the midst of conflict must be discussed afterwards in order to avoid replicating mistakes that risk sending the message that the United States is an unreliable partner and a power in decline.

Photo bottom right: The panel is joined by Mechelle A. King J.D. 21 (far left), Deputy Director, Center for Comparative Legal Studies and Post-Conflict Peacebuilding. All photos by David Morrill.

‘Position of privilege’: Trip abroad widens perspective on immigration issues

BY NATHAN WARTERS

It took a group of 13 William & Mary students less than 10 minutes to cross the border from Spain to Gibraltar during a recent study abroad trip, a detail Giselle Figueroa ’23 found remarkable.

The daughter of Mexican immigrants, Figueroa couldn’t help but think of the troubles her parents and grandparents went through to make it to the United States. And she couldn’t help but think of the number of Africans who died when trying to migrate to Gibraltar via the Strait of Gibraltar or the thousands of Spanish laborers who were kept out of Gibraltar for years by a closed border.

“We’re clearly in a position of privilege because we’re able to cross foreign borders so easily,” Figueroa said. “In retrospect, I think about how ironic it is that, as American citizens, it’s easy for us to cross international borders, yet our borders are so difficult to cross.”

Figueroa was among the students who made the trip to Spain and Gibraltar this past spring break as part of the Embedded Spain and Gibraltar Program sponsored by the Reves Center for International Studies with funding further enhanced by W&M alumni.

She was one of four student travelers who are firstgeneration children of Latin American immigrants raised in the United States.

Another one of those students, Astrid Garcia Giron ’23, was born in El Salvador and was a little girl when she came to the United States with her mother. When she recently became an American citizen, Garcia Giron said she was excited to be rid of the Green Card that categorized her as an “alien.”

“The word alien is very problematic because it others you and demeans your worth as a person,” she said.

Going abroad to the area around the Spain-Gibraltar border fulfilled a desire of Garcia Giron’s for a more upclose exploration of cultures and racial issues in other

countries. And it helped the students see for themselves how other countries regulate their borders.

“An American passport is something that is so coveted by so many,” Garcia Giron said. “We could go anywhere we wanted with no questions asked.”

By talking to natives of Spain, Gibraltar and nearby Morocco, the W&M students learned about the difficulties immigrants faced in those areas.

“We could see a lot of the parallels between that border and the border here in the U.S., how it has separated families, the politics surrounding borders, the deaths around the borders and just how easy it is for us to be able to cross borders,” Garcia Giron said.

AM I ACTUALLY HERE?

Figueroa’s parents and grandparents immigrated to the United States from Mexico looking for work and a better life. To be able to travel so freely and have the experiences she’s had is something she values greatly.

“I pinch myself sometimes and ask, ‘Am I actually here?’” Figueroa said. “Sometimes I feel like my parents are living vicariously through me because I’m accomplishing the dreams that they weren’t able to.”

Garcia Giron and Figueroa are housemates with two other first-generation children of immigrants — Elizabeth Gómez ’23 and Carolina Rivera ’23, fellow classmates and Gibraltar travelers — and they often share their stories, struggles and triumphs with each other.

“We have these conversations often, and we always end up crying,” Figueroa said. “We bond over shared immigrant trauma and these feelings of being guilty and not belonging.”

Garcia Giron, a history and Hispanic studies major who is interested in getting into public policy, said she is motivated to maximize her opportunities because her parents sacrificed so much for her.

W&M’s Embedded Spain and Gibraltar Program gives students, some of whom are first-generation children of Latin American immigrants raised in the U.S., an up-close view of immigration issues in Europe.

“We feel so guilty being here away from home, but at the same time, it’s what our parents want for us,” she said.

Figueroa is an international relations and Hispanic studies double major. She hopes to go to law school to perhaps study immigration law.

“The topic of immigration is prominent in my life, and it’s something I am passionate about,” Figueroa said. “Before this class, my point of view was focused on North America and South America, but we saw essentially the same thing going on in Europe, and I was oblivious to it.”

‘1,000% IMMERSED?”

Gibraltar is a major tourism destination. In addition to the massive Rock of Gibraltar, a monolithic promontory that rises over every corner of the small British Overseas Territory, Gibraltar is known for its wild monkey population.

Garcia Giron was reminded of this almost immediately, as one of the monkeys jumped on her.

“I was 1,000% immersed,” she said. “It felt like we were really engaged with Gibraltar’s culture, not just reading, seeing pictures or videos about it.”

While abroad, the students spent time in the area between the Rock of Gibraltar and several key cities in the

Top left: William & Mary housemates, from left, Carolina Rivera

adjacent, long-contested territory on the Spanish mainland known as Campo de Gibraltar, in the province of Cádiz.

“Tourists go down there to go to Gibraltar and see the Rock of Gibraltar and its wild monkey population, but the Spanish side of the border historically has been very disenfranchised economically,” said program director Francie Cate-Arries, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Modern Languages & Literatures.

“It suffered a lot of repression during the dictatorship (from 1939 to 1975 under Francisco Franco). And it’s just a very complex, culturally and historically rich area that, I have to say, you usually don’t study very much on its own.”

The Embedded Study Away format is an intense six-week, on-campus academic study of a topic that the students then experience first-hand on site. After their return, students have another six weeks to integrate that experience with ongoing research projects. Throughout the week, the group was also led by Arantza Galiardo, a Spain-based coprofessor for the program.

“As a double major, an entire semester abroad would have been hard for me to do,” Figueroa said. “Being able to have that short study abroad experience was perfect because it was during our spring break. I’m surprised we were able to fit so much into just one week.”

and Elizabeth Gomez ’23 are first-generation

A meet-up between the 13 W&M students and 19 high school seniors from the

of Latin American immigrants

the town of Los Barrios (on the Spanish side of the Gibraltar border, known as Campo de Gibraltar.

Escuela Secundaria

Each student explored areas of independent research subsequently showcased in an end-of-semester interactive digital StoryMap platform. The students created these mediarich online portfolios with the assistance of Mike Blum, program manager for faculty engagement in W&M’s Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation.

STRENGTH AND COURAGE

The U.S. The students’ projects cover a wide range of topics. Garcia Giron and Elizabeth Gómez researched Gibraltar’s wild monkey population. Garcia Giron explored the relationship Gibraltar’s residents and tourists have with the monkeys and how that was affected by the pandemic.

Figueroa studied migrant women in the Campo de Gibraltar region as well as Gibraltar, the resources available to these women, or lack thereof, and the sometimes-horrible conditions they are working under.

The group visited Fundación de Solidaridad Amaranta, a center offering assistance for women immigrants and victims of violence, and spoke with Ilargi Mayor Alfoja, a services coordinator who shared the experiences of the migrant women.

“She was just a force of nature,” Cate-Arries said. “Part of her fervor was having the opportunity to tell the story, and she was also just delighted to have a visit from these students. The irony, of course, was we were so deeply grateful to be received with the generosity and time commitment and care that we were.”

Julia Ashworth ’23 is also researching immigration. Her focus is on the ways people in these areas communicate about immigration, particularly the passage from Morocco and the coast of Africa to Gibraltar and Campo de Gibraltar.

Part of her research was visiting the Gibraltar Garrison Library and going through stacks of letters written by immigrants sent home to their families that described their day-to-day lives.

“There is a lot of fear of immigrants in Spain, but a lot of people don’t really see the strength that it takes for these immigrants and the courage that it takes for them, whether it’s crossing the Strait of Gibraltar in rafts that could easily sink or just trying to live daily as an immigrant in a location that doesn’t want you,” Ashworth said.

The group spoke to Sumaya Acheddad, the daughter of a Moroccan immigrant who was one of 5,000 laborers brought in by the Gibraltar government when Franco closed the Spanish border in 1969. Acheddad said the immigrants were there only to fulfill a purpose, and they were always considered second-class citizens.

“She was so eloquent about her father’s personal history,” CateArries said. “It was just spellbinding to sit in her presence.”

Other research topics include the heavily-accented SpanishEnglish language mix of the region called Yanito. Also, some students explored food culture, news media, education, the Muslim community in Gibraltar and the healthcare system.

One of the most memorable experiences for the students—who were traveling and experiencing international encounters for the first time post-COVID, and many of whom had never been abroad

before—was a meet-up with 19 seniors in a Spanish high school, IES Sierra Luna, in Los Barrios, which is known for receiving one of the highest number of immigrant families in southern Spain.

This encounter was featured in a Spanish speaking newspaper/ magazine.

“They had this very romanticized idea of what the United States is and what our life here is like, and going in, we had a very romanticized idea of Spain and Gibraltar, of this kind of tourist Utopia. But, again, things weren’t like that,” Garcia Giron said.

Being able to see the struggles and successes of the Spaniards and Gibraltarians was a valuable experience, Garcia Giron said.

“This is why travel abroad is important because it’s not just about the culture or pretty things you can take pictures of, it’s about learning about the people,” she said. “That’s why I appreciated getting to talk to real people, not just tourists.”

Barbary Macaque monkey, perched on top of a look-out viewer close to the peak of the Rock of Gibraltar. Photo by Francie Cate-Arries. Gibraltar boasts the only wild monkey population in Europe. The monkeys were the topic of two of the students’ research projects, which are available online at https://sites.google. com/email.wm.edu/gibraltar.

Top: A rare blue-sky day in the Neumayer Channel, Antarctica. © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

Above: Researchers in the Palmer Long-Term Ecological Research program conduct a net tow from the fantail of the research icebreaker Laurence M. Gould in the icy waters of the Southern Ocean along the western Antarctic Peninsula. These net tows sample polar zooplankton, including the larvae of Antarctic silverfish. © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

Antarctic research links warming to fish decline

BY DAVID MALMQUIST

Along-term

study in the Southern Ocean reveals a clear correlation be tween warming waters, decreased sea ice, and reduced abundance of Antarctic silverfish. These small, abundant fish are im portant prey for penguins, seals, and other regional marine life, in a role similar to that played by an chovies or sardines in more tem perate waters.

The study was published in the February 3rd issue of Communications Biology, an open-access journal from Nature Portfolio. Lead author Andrew Corso ‘16, a doctoral candidate at William & Mary’s Virginia Institute of Marine Science, says “This is the first statistically significant relationship

reported between sea ice and the long-term abundance of any Antarctic fish species. With continued regional warming, these fish could disappear from the region entirely, triggering major changes in the marine ecosystem.”

Co-authors on the study are Drs. Deborah Steinberg and Eric Hilton of VIMS, along with Dr. Sharon Stammerjohn of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

The study is based on Corso’s analysis of more than 7,000 larval fish specimens collected over 25 years (1993–2017) as part of VIMS’ participation in the NSFfunded Palmer Antarctica LongTerm Ecological Research program. The Palmer LTER is an ongoing

investigation of the effects of climate change on the ocean food web along the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula.

Steinberg, who leads VIMS’ participation in the Palmer LTER program, says “Our study area is one of the most rapidly warming regions on Earth, with increases in air and water temperatures leading to substantial reductions in sea-ice coverage over the last half century.” From 1945 to 2009, the mean winter air temperature in the region rose by 10.8 °F (6 °C), while the annual duration of sea ice has decreased by almost 2 months.

The larval samples are stored in the Nunnally Ichthyology Collection at VIMS, which now holds the world’s second largest—and still growing— assemblage of Antarctic fishes, with

technician T.R. prepare

search

juvenile Antarctic fishes near

Fish

by Anne Schaefer.

A mature Antarctic krill, which is one of the most important components of the Antarctic food web. The green section behind its eyes is its gut, which is full of chlorophyllcontaining marine algae krill consume called phytoplankton.

© Andrew Corso/VIMS.

more than 40,000 individual specimens. Hilton, who curates the Collection, says the research reported in the study is a “great example of the value of curated, cataloged, and archived natural history collections working in synergy with long-term ecological programs.”

SUSCEPTIBILITY TO ICE LOSS

Adaptations that allow Antarctic silverfish to thrive in the region’s frigid waters—they can make up more than 90% of fish biomass in coastal areas of the Southern Ocean—also make them susceptible to ocean warming and loss of sea ice.

“Sea ice plays a unique role in the life history of these fish,” says Corso. “They deposit their eggs within sea ice—which also serves as a nursery area for newly hatched larvae—so a loss of sea ice for them is akin to a loss of milkweed for monarch butterflies.”

The health of these fish, both larvae and adults, is also likely to be impaired by warmer water temperatures. Previous experiments with closely related Antarctic fishes have shown that a 9 °F (5 °C) increase in water temperature can kill some species outright, and also reduce the rate at which these fishes assimilate their food.

Corso collecting specimens.© Laura Patrick/VIMS

A larval specimen of the Antarctic silverfish Pleuragramma antarctica . © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

Top: Corso and Kharis Schrage ‘17. Photo by Anne Schaefer.

Above: The ARSV Laurence M. Gould photographed from Port Lockroy, Antarctica. © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

Top: Adélie penguins cautiously evaluating scientists as they research their colony. © Andrew Corso/VIMS. Above: A crabeater seal checking out the ARSV Laurence M. Gould as it drives by. © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

Top: Two gentoo penguin chicks chase their parent near Port Lockroy, Antarctica. © Andrew Corso/VIMS. Above: Icebergs can resemble floating gemstones, with the many blue tones of this berg reflecting from below the ocean. © Andrew Corso/VIMS.

“We show that warmer sea surface temperature and decreased sea ice are associated with reduced larval abundance,” says Corso. Other studies in the region support and extend this discovery, having recorded a lower abundance of adult silverfish in the northern section of the western Antarctic Peninsula for several decades.

“Our findings support a narrow sea-ice and temperature tolerance for adult and larval silverfish, and show that they require sufficient sea ice coverage to spawn successfully,” says Corso. “With precipitous climate change impacting the western Antarctic Peninsula, this species could disappear from the region entirely, triggering changes both up and down the food web.”

Those changes may have already begun. Other scientists involved in the Palmer LTER program have linked a substantial decline of Adélie penguins in the region with a long-term decrease of silverfish in their diet. The same researchers have also found that silverfish are important to the fledging and survival of Adélie chicks.

Corso, A.D., Steinberg, D.K., Stammerjohn, S.E. et al. Climate drives long-term change in Antarctic Silverfish along the western Antarctic Peninsula. Communications Biology

104 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-

Above: A jar of larval Antarctic silverfish. Corso prepares to analyze a vial of Antarctic silverfish from the Nunnally Ichthyology Collection at VIMS. © Laura Patrick/VIMS

Reves Center’s 2022 International Student Achievement Awards

EACH YEAR, THE REVES CENTER BESTOWS INTERNATIONAL STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS OF $500 EACH ON W&M AND VIMS INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS WHO HAVE BEEN NOMINATED BY FACULTY OR STAFF AS HAVING DISTINGUISHED THEMSELVES AS EXEMPLARY IN THEIR ACADEMICS, LEADERSHIP, AND SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY. ALL FACULTY AND STAFF ARE ELIGIBLE TO NOMINATE AN INTERNATIONAL STUDENT. EVA WONG, DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS, SCHOLARS AND PROGRAMS (ISSP) AT THE REVES CENTER, PRESENTED THE AWARDS AT WILLIAM & MARY’S EVENING OF EXCELLENCE EVENT APRIL 24.

Fei (Krystal) Jiang ‘22 (China)

Field of study: Biology

Fei (Krystal) Jiang ‘22 (China)

Field of study: Biology

“Fei is the most mature, independent, scholarly, kindest and well-rounded student that I’ve ever had In my lab. She joined my research program as a freshman through a competitive Howard Hughes Medical Institute Freshman Research Scholarship. Throughout the pandemic Fei remained committed to her project. She preferred to return home, obtain a job and return the following year, fall 2021. While at home, she continued to pursue her project. She is a great lab citizen and excellent team player.”--Shantá D. Hinton, Associate Professor of Biology

Yuhua (Laura) Luo ‘22 (China)

Field of study: Art History

“I’ve known Laura three years, first as professor and then as director of independent studies and honors thesis. Laura has a double major in art history and economics and excels in all her courses. She has been awarded a summer research grant. Laura has also won internships at the National Museum of Asian Art, and her paper was selected by the competitive SUNY New Paltz Undergraduate Art History Symposium. She has completed her honors thesis successfully and will graduate with honors. “--Xin Conan-Wu, Associate Chair, Margaret Hamilton Associate Professor of Art History

Aman Kohli PhD ‘22 (India)

Field of study: Aquatic Health

“Aman has developed an exciting research dissertation, which has contributed to improved management of an important keystone species and fisheries resource, the American eel. Furthermore, Aman has been heavily engaged in outreach, education, and leadership, broadening the knowledge base of students and the community at large. Her numerous successes were achieved as a result of her commitment, perseverance, keen intellect, innovative outreach, and strong leadership. She has overcome numerous obstacles during her degree and demonstrated a true sense of perseverance and dedication. Aman is highly deserving of this award, and the honor and recognition by the William & Mary international community it exemplifies.”--Andrew Wargo, Associate Professor, Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)

Sunil Manandhar PhD ‘22 (Nepal) Field of study: Computer Science

“I have been Sunil’s research advisor for the past 5 years. Sunil’s research lies in the area of security and privacy. Sunil is a highly motivated student who has made significant contributions to multiple research projects both as a project lead as well as a co-author, and moreover, has mentored several undergraduate students, for which he was recently recognized with W&M’s S. Laurie Sanderson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Mentoring. I have been consistently impressed with his discipline, persistence, the ability to pursue a research question with a one-track mind and his bandwidth, which enables him to contribute to several projects at once.”--Adwait Nadkarni, Assistant Professor, Computer Science

Ruba Qadi MBA ‘22 (Palestine)

Field of study: Business

“Ruba is a Fulbright Scholar. She has an engineering background and was able to overcome the challenges of coming from Palestine to the U.S. for studies. Ruba has totally thrown herself into the leadership of the MBA program, especially with the international students in our program, which is critical, since about 30% of our traditional MBA classes are international. She has also been involved with various service projects, such as a Red Cross blood drive in Miller Hall. She made a strong initial impression and has only lived up to or exceeded my expectations since arriving. I believe that these types of awards can be an important acknowledgement to students such as Ruba that she is not only valued, but that she has helped make W&M a better place.”-- Brent Allred, Larry Ring Executive MBA Professor of Business

2022 Reves Faculty Fellows

Each year, a committee of faculty and Reves staff awards Reves Faculty Fellowships to support faculty-student research and collaboration on internationally-focused, engaged scholarship. The initiative is open to full-time William & Mary faculty in all academic units. Proposals are invited from faculty with significant experience in the international arena as well as those seeking to expand the focus of their work to include international, global, and/or trans-national approaches.

LESLIE W. GRANT & JAMES H. STRONGE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

“Qualities of Effective Teachers in East Asian International Schools: A Mixed Methods Study”

Understanding the behaviors, skills, and dispositions of effective teachers is crucial to helping improve schools and student success. Research in the United States provides evidence that teachers have a tremendous impact on student achievement. Such studies do not exist for teachers who work in independent international schools – including research that reflects the importance of understanding both the context of working in intercultural settings and the skills that allow teachers to flourish in these settings. With consideration for the unique opportunities and challenges presented by independent schools located in a range of host countries, this project focuses on the discovery of beliefs and practices (including planning and instructional skills) of effective teachers that can cross the international/cultural contexts that exist in international schools.

SHARAN GREWAL GOVERNMENT

“Public Opinion Poll in Tunisia”

Tunisia’s young democracy, the only one to emerge from the Arab Spring, has recently been rocked by a power grab by the president, which threatens to undo the country’s democratic gains. Surprisingly, the president’s coup has been met with considerable public approval. The proposed survey would therefore examine the sources of this public support, and thus contribute more generally to research on the popular foundations of democratic backsliding. Populist politicians from Hungary to Turkey, the United States to the Philippines, have attempted to draw upon their public support to undermine democracy from within. Yet, scholars have only begun to explore the sources of public support for such actions.

DANIEL MALINIAK

GOVERNMENT

Georgia sent soldiers to support the two U.S.-led conflicts largely in an effort to curry favor with Americans: politicians, policymakers, bureaucrats, the public, and American servicemen and women. The U.S.-Georgian relationship has evolved over the past 20 years. U.S. policymakers have expressed gratitude for Georgian military involvement. Many Georgians have expressed the importance and intentionality of sending troops to support the American military missions as part of a strategy to align politically with the U.S. and the West. There has not been research, however, into the thoughts and feelings of the soldiers—or their families—who served alongside the Americans, or those of their American counterparts. The research team will address two questions: (1) How do Georgian veterans reflect on their time serving and how do they view current affairs?, and (2) How do American veterans view the soldiers and countries who supported those soldiers’ time abroad?

JENNIFER STEVENS

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES

“Intercultural Understanding Through Art” The proposed project, “Intercultural Understanding Through Art”, involves work by a faculty-led student team that seeks to evaluate a six factor model in the experience of art in terms of how we understand others and how we understand ourselves. This crosscultural examination will include interviews, surveys, and observations at the Louvre (Paris, France) and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.). The sociotheoretical basis for this work rests on the question of whether art is culturally specific or if it offers a universal language. The outcomes from this work, while based in art, are anticipated to provide a model toward intercultural understanding, broadly defined.

IYABO OBASANJO

KINESIOLOGY AND HEALTH SCIENCES AND THE AFRICA RESEARCH CENTER

“Comparing the Role of Community Health Workers serving in Black Low-Income communities in South Africa and the U.S.”

In both South Africa and the United States, the effect of long-term social barriers on health outcomes is profound, with the Black population having significant negative impact on their health outcomes from both chronic non-communicable diseases and infectious diseases. South Africa has a history of using Community Health Workers (CHWs) in low-income Black communities for improvement in health outcomes. While use of CHWs started in low- and middle-income countries around the world, their use in minority populations in the U.S. has increased over the last 20 years as a means of reaching low-income populations with health access and health education that is culturally appropriate and low cost. The researchers have interviewed Community Health Workers working in low-income housing in the Richmond/Henrico Health district on their perceptions and motivations for the work they do. The project will enable them to include an international comparison, by interviewing CHWs in the Eastern Cape Region of South Africa. This is a new collaboration with colleagues at Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.

“Veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq Conflicts in both the United States and the Republic of Georgia”

2022 D rapers’ Faculty Fellows

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 to 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.

JONATHAN GLASSER ANTHROPOLOGY

“Judeo-Arabic Sources for Algerian CulturalHistory at the Bodleian Library, Oxford”

This project seeks to makewidelyavailablea trove of Arabic-language poems from seventeenth-century Algeria found in a set of manuscripts at the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. The unpublished poems, which were part of the popular music repertoire of early modern North Africa, are found ina multi-volume collection prayerbook associated with the Jewish community of Oran, Algeria. This community was expelled from Oran to Tuscany by the city’s Spanish rulers in 1669, who until then had made a local exception totheir 1492 ban on Jews in an effort to maintain theempire’snewstrongholds on the North Africancoast. The roughly one hundred Arabic poems found in these manuscripts are testament to the importance of Arabic literary and musical forms to Jewish liturgical practice in this borderland, as well as to the astonishing range (sacred and profane, classical and colloquial) of Arabic popular poetry in the early modern Maghrib. In a literary field that has left few remains of everyday artistic life for this place and time, the Bodleian manuscripts vastly expand our knowledge of what Arabic-speakers were speaking, writing, singing, and hearing.

MARCUS HOLMES

GOVERNMENT

“Social Bonding in International Relations”

This book puts forward a novel and highly important claim, namely, that the interpersonal interactions of state leaders can transform adversarial relationships into cooperative ones in world politics. While leaders, diplomats, and decision-makers in international politics have long argued that personal chemistry and social bonding matter for outcomes, such arguments have largely been shunned as either inconsequential or naïve by scholars and analysts alike. Drawing on interdisciplinary insights from sociology, psychology, and cognitive science, this book is the first to delineate both the conditions under which social bonding is expected to develop and the causal effects of such bonds in diplomacy. Utilizing qualitative case studies of critical historical cases and elite interviews, this project seeks to demystify interpersonal chemistry at the international level and provide concrete and practical recommendations and advice for policymakers on how to engender it in order to promote new possibilities for conflict resolution.

For more information

faculty fellows,

Jonathan Glasser Photo by Stephen Salpukas

Alumna Abroad

Where were you born? What do you consider your hometown?

I was born in Virginia and my hometown is Blacksburg, where I lived for 26 years. I completed my first two degrees at Virginia Tech (a bachelors and a master’s in architecture).

Where is home for you now?

Home is a nebulous concept for me. I live in Dublin, Ireland, and am seeking citizenship here, but I also still feel Virginian, deep down.

Mostly, however, I feel like part of a global community. Every day I work with other engineering education researchers from around the globe—I aim for diversity in my collaborations, but I also know that my network overrepresents the English-speaking world. I feel I represent U.S. and European perspectives within this community.

Why did you choose to pursue a Ph.D. at W&M’s School of Education?

I wanted to learn social science research methods somewhere near Hampton University, where I was teaching as an Associate Professor of Architecture. In fact, I developed interest in pedagog ical studies by being part of HU, be cause the University holds mandatory pedagogical training for faculty mem bers at three points each year, where the provost and selected faculty mem bers showcase and describe innovative teaching pedagogies.

I always enjoyed learning new ap proaches and implementing them in my own classrooms and design studios. I’d also really enjoyed learning by serving on Hampton University’s committee on promotion and tenure (even as a junior

faculty member elected by my peers, a great thing HU allows).

I’d also enjoyed serving on visiting teams of the National Architectural Ac crediting Board and getting to see how many different architecture programs run and meeting with top academic leaders in many different universities. These activities linked quite naturally to the Ph.D. course in Educational Poli cy, Planning and Leadership.

When I discovered that William & Mary had doctoral level offerings in higher education, it seemed a natural fit. And fortunately, the program was offered in the evenings, so I could continue working full time and pay out of pocket. That said, Hampton University and the Christopher Wren Association did, together, cover the cost for the full-time year of study that was required while I was in the program.

Have you found that having the Ph.D. has enhanced your career and/or per sonal and professional development? If so, how?

I started the Ph.D. in 2006, because (1) I’d written a couple of chapters for a textbook and realized I’d like to learn better strategies for conducting research, (2) in 2003, I’d set a goal to earn a Fulbright fellowship to Ireland, and I knew I’d need a Ph.D. to have a competitive application, and (3) my mom earned a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech the same day I earned my Bachelor of Architecture degree and that reassured me it was possible.

With a stroke of fabulous luck, Pro fessor Pamela Eddy joined William & Mary when I was halfway through my

Ph.D., and her first semester with W&M was spent in Dublin, as a Fulbright in the Core Scholars program, and based at the same institution I’d selected in 2003 as my goal Dubln Institute of Technology (DIT), now called Techno logical University Dublin or TU Dublin. I picked this institution because archi tecture was offered there, and because it was located in the center of the city.

Pam is an incredible and vibrant role model, and she provided helpful advice and connected me to people she knew in Dublin. My first application to Fulbright was not successful, but I persevered, and my subsequent application was! Pam has been here, cheering me on, every step of the way and I could not be more grateful for her caring and astute support. Still today, 12 years after I graduated, she is one of my top supporters.

Your thesis earned the Outstanding Dissertation Award from the Interna tional Society for Educational Plan ning and you graduated with the sole 2010 Dean’s Award for Ph.D. students at W&M. What was the subject of your thesis?

I am an architect and I love to teach students about design and sustainability. For the dissertation, I investigated the ways universities had been using green building rating systems (like LEED).

I wanted to know if they were using LEED a genuine way—to generate new knowledge and help innovate and push new approaches forward—or if they were primarily motivated by earning an award.

Overall, I found that the council that runs the LEED program was using effective strategies and could be seen as a “learning organization,” and that the council had established effective ways of upgrading the expectations and raising the bar over time as new knowledge and technologies moved into widespread, mainstream use. EPPL’s Dr. Pam Eddy, Dr. Brenda Williams, Dr. David Leslie, and others had instilled such values in me, and I was able to recognize effective organizational learning in the USGBC (United States Green Building Council).

I also found that K-12 organizations were very actively using the LEED Green Building Rating system to help with creating and defining new strategies for innovation, and for using the overall site and building design to help teach students and instill environmental values in them. They earned many LEED credits for innovative design.

Based on the data I analyzed, about which categories and credits LEED applications had used to earn their ratings up until the start of 2010, postsecondary institutions were seemingly less sincere of less holistic in their approaches to earning certification. The council had put new regulations in place that required applicants to invest in earning at least some credits in “energy and atmosphere,” the category that most affects climate change, and this new rule had helped encourage universities to earn credits in this category. As it turned out, how many credits an institution earned in “energy and atmosphere” was the top predictor of earning the highest levels of certification. This new requirement meant that university applicants had more incentive to support the main goal of LEED, to provide leadership in energy and

environmental design. They had to start putting their money where their mouth was!

Did you know going into W&M what your dissertation topic would be or is it something that evolved from your time at W&M?

The selection of the specific dissertation topic evolved across the first half of my four-year enrollment in the course. I found solid support in the program for researching this topic and knew it would be of help to my future students as well. In fact, I earned the credential of LEEDAccredited Professional as one step toward completing the dissertation and this is a very good credential to hold for an architect and teach within Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC).

I also have intense interest in theories on student development and have been developing a line of research on this topic after graduating.

Overall, I loved investigating the topics of each EPPL course, and I had a lot of fun tying ideas together across courses. We had a two-day, on-site Comprehensive Examination, and finishing this successfully gave me a huge sense of accomplishment!

What are you currently doing profes sionally?

I hold a permanent academic position at TU Dublin (equivalent of tenured Associate Professor), where I teach and chair a program in Building Information Modelling. Also, I currently have a contract that provides buyout of teaching hours to develop curriculum materials for a new course in architectural engineering at Newgiza University, just outside Cairo.

I don’t have any job obligations to conduct research, but this is actually where I am most active! I’m involved with engineering education research centers at TU Dublin and University College London (I got Marie Curie grants from the EU to work in each of

these research centers for two years each).

I’d say that editing journals and handbooks is my forte. I’ll soon be Deputy Editor for the European Journal of Engineering Education and was previously Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Education. I’m an associate editor on an international handbook of engineering education and a lead editor on another on engineering ethics education. I’ve also spearheaded the development of three special focus journal articles with one more underway. The topics of these special issues were social-cultural diversity, students’ epistemological and identity development, engineering ethics, and— upcoming—on conceptual learning and how students come to terms with new abstract concepts.

Of course, I have multiple manuscripts underway—it takes a lot of time getting them ready for publication and I am very slow. Looking it us, I see that I’ve published 17 journal articles, 10 book chapters, and 69 peer-reviewed conference papers. I’ve personally secured grants and contracts totaling $1.2 million. I’m proud of this because grants to conduct education research are very rare in Europe.

Can you tell us more about your ex periences as a Marie Curie Research Fellow?

I had that one-year Fulbright fellowship to Dublin Institute of Technology (20122013), and one of the other Irish Ful bright fellows at the time recommended I apply for a Marie Curie grant. I returned to Hampton University after my Ful bright sabbatical but soon got news that my Marie Curie proposal was in the 9% of applications that were funded that year.

The focus of that Marie Curie fellowship to Ireland (2014-2016) was interviewing female engineering students in Ireland, Poland, and Portugal to better understand their experiences. I was learning to use phenomenographic methods for data

collection and research. I’ve expanded that data set over time, and I currently have a Ph.D. student, a sociologist from Mexico City, who is analyzing the expanded longitudinal dataset I collected.

Immediately following that Marie Curie fellowship, I got a permanent, fulltime teaching post at DIT.

But while I was looking for that job, I submitted a second application to the Marie Curie program. Low and behold, I won a second Marie Curie fellowship! DIT granted me a Career Break (unpaid sabbatical) so I could spend two years working at University College London (UCL), in one of the most vibrant cities in the world and learning new things at one of the world’s top ranked organizations for research. That was a truly amazing experience. I’m still closely aligned with the Centre for Engineering Education there and I have a formal position as Visiting Professor there at University College London (UCL).

Do you have any current projects/ passions you would like to tell us about?

I’ve got seven or eight papers under development that I dearly love and would like to give more attention to. But my biggest joy right now is mentoring others, in research and publishing.

I just finished a very rewarding term as Chair of the Global Research on

Engineering Education Network (REEN) and go to put so much of what I learned in W&M’s EPPL program to work! I’m the outgoing chair now, and I find mentoring the new Chair to be great fun. Dr. Leslie’s lessons on exit strategy and being a background source of support have been front and center in my mind.

I have two Ph.D. students and colleagues all around the world with whom I collaborate. They are all younger than me, but I consider them all colleagues and peers. I just have a bit more life experience under my belt, and I am happy to share it with others! In this regard, Pam Eddy is my brightest role model.

These days, I feel like I am “playing tag” with the global community of engineer ing education researchers—a project idea comes along, and I look around to see which colleagues would be fun to work with on the new endeavor.

Just last night, I was welcoming students into a course on Research Methods and telling them about the joy of collaborating with others on research projects. A new project comes along, and I ask myself, “Who have I been looking or an opportunity to collaborate with?” I email those people and form a team. I’m currently coauthoring with people from the UK, Portugal, Rwanda, Ireland, Belgium,

USA, Mexico, Canada, and South Africa.

It’s been amazing to live at a time when we can reach out with such ease and to all corners of the globe. I aim to keep building programs—like the capacity building programs our REEN network has developed in Africa. A major professional goal of mine is to advocate for greater diversity and actively promote anti-racism. I did this across my 15 years at Hampton University, and I continue these efforts today.

Do you know your next professional “step” or project?

Contributing to the EER community via books and journals is my main professional goal, but my professional goals come second to my life goal of living and ultimately retiring in Europe with health and happiness.

My institution is evolving quickly and is currently re-structuring so that paths to promotion will become more obvious. For now, I am quite content with the possibilities I have via my joint appointment with TU Dublin and University College London. I’ve got interesting new activities on the schedule—a Ph.D. viva (i.e., defense) in Denmark, delivering a keynote in Spain —to look forward to.

I also aim to get back into teaching architecture (balanced with the Building Information Modelling and engineering graphics courses I currently teach). I feel so energetic and alive when I’m teaching and, although teaching architecture also takes loads of energy, it’s just so rewarding on a personal and intellectual level.

Did you have a favorite course or professor while you were at W&M?

I had so many great advisors at William & Mary: Dr. Brenda Williams who served as co-author for my first journal article, Dr. David Leslie who agreed to serve on my dissertation committee even after he had retired, and Dr. Pam

Eddy for her boundless knowledge, energy, and support. There were many others, but I hold these three close to my heart.

Do you have a favorite memory or memories of your time at W&M?

Absolutely. The first EPPL module I took was “Student Development Theory.” I loved the topic, devoured the books, and thoroughly enjoyed discussing the readings with some of the other students, including Nathan Alleman. The way these students articulate ideas impressed me and convinced me that this program was the one for me.

I also have great memories:

» of fruitful collaborations with teachers Brenda Williams, Pam Eddy, and Jim Barber;

» of the many field trips that we took during the summer-time elective courses I offered on sustainability in higher education and of the highly engaged and inquisitive students who completed that course, including Luanna Martins, Laura Sorenson, Daniel Hoover, Amy Sykes, Justine Okerson, Juliana Wait, Kristina Neuhart, Michelle Mitchell, Michael Mullin and Dimelza Gonzales-Flores;

» of engaging conversations with teachers Michael DiPoala, Tom Ward, Dot Finnegan and David Leslie;

» of an eye-opening elective on educational advancement that I took with Karlene Jennings who brought flowers to my dissertation defense since it was next to her office in Swem Library;

» of meaningful research collabora tions with students like Joe Lowder, Christen Cullum Hairston and Ben Boone;

» of students I learned with, like Randy Williams, Jobila Williams Sy, Lisa Heuval and Sean Heuval.

You’ve studied and taught at several distinguished institutions of higher

education. Were there any aspects of your experience at W&M that struck you as unique or of special value to you?

The EPPL staff at William & Mary was exceptionally supportive. I found the teachers to be mentors, dedicated to drawing out the best—and going above and beyond to support students like me. I experienced exceptionally high collegiality, particularly from Pam Eddy, Brenda Williams, David Leslie, Karlene Jennings, and Jim Barber. They and others—like Michael DiPaola and Dot Finnegan—allowed leeway in their assignments for highly motivated students like me to align with our own interests to complement the content of the course. This let me grow my knowledge in ways very relevant to me. Moreover,PamEddyandTomWardmade it possible for me to teach that elective course three different summers – and working with the students at William & Mary in that way was a tremendous joy!

Do you think international experience as a student is helpful in future life and career?

I do find international experience as helpful in future life and career! The day after I earned my Bachelor of Architecture, I boarded a plane for my first study aboard to Europe. A couple years later I did a halfyear exchange program and lived with six different farm families in Switzerland. These two experiences changed my life! Since then, I have lived and worked in the USA, Switzerland, Ireland, and the UK.

In my years at Hampton University, I organized and conducted more than a dozen international study abroad programs. I brought HU students to Italy, Tanzania, South Africa, Tunisia, Spain, Czech Republic, and France. I found grants to help cover the costs to allow lowerincome students to travel.

Anything else you would like to add or tell us?

I’m happy to offer advice to anyone who wants to apply for fellowships in Europe. You can find me at the blog IrelandByChance.com.

Your Gift Matters.

With the support of private donors, the Reves Center awards a number of scholarships each year. These scholarships help alleviate financial hardship, make educational opportunities possible, recognize achievement and allow W&M to attract and engage top students from around the world.

We believe that a lack of resources should not limit any William & Mary student from the kinds of transformative experiences that only a global education can enable. With your support, our university will continue to be a leader among global universities.

To learn about ways you can support international initiatives at William & Mary, contact Kate Barney ‘11 at kabarney@wm.edu or 757-221-7870.

South

VA, 23185

757-221-3590

757-221-3597

WMREVESCENTER

STUDY ABROAD PROGRAMS offered by the GLOBAL EDUCATION OFFICE (GEO)

Summer Faculty-Led Programs

Australia: Adelaide Bhutan: Taktse

Brazil: Salvador China: Beijing Czech Republic: Prague Ecuador: Quito England: Cambridge France: Montpellier Germany: Potsdam Greece: Athens/Nafplio India: Bengaluru/Goa Ireland: Galway Italy: Florence Italy: Rome/Pompeii

Lithuania: Vilnius Netherlands: The Hague Scotland: St Andrews South Africa: Cape Town Spain: Cádiz Spain: Santiago de Compostela

Winter Programs

Auckland, New Zealand Geneva, Switzerland Heidelberg, Germany Kigali, Rwanda

Muscat, Oman La Plata, Argentina

W&M-Sponsored Semester Programs

Argentina: Universidad Nacional de La Plata England: Hertford College, University of Oxford Spain: Universidad Pablo de Olavide

Undergraduate Exchange Programs

Australia: University of Adelaide Austria: Vienna University of Economics & Business Canada: McGill University China: Tsinghua University England: University of Exeter England: University of Nottingham France: L’institut d’Études Politiques de Lille

France: Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier III Japan: Akita International University Japan: Keio University Netherlands: Leiden University Scotland: University of St Andrews Singapore: National University of Singapore South Korea: Yonsei University Wales: Cardiff University

WWW.WM.EDU/STUDYABROAD