FROM THE DIRECTOR

This edition of “World Minded“ includes articles about a Pulitzer Prize winning novelist, a class trip to Gibraltar, 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 looking 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 assertion that at William & Mary, we excel at understanding the moment we are living in while seeing the possibilities ahead.

In late April of this year, Viet Thanh Nguyen visited William & Mary to deliver the Reves Center’s McSwain-Walker 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.

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 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 Teresa Longo rights. During a second symposium, this one hosted by the Center for Comparative Associate Provost for International Affairs Legal Studies, expert panelists from

Executive Director, Reves Center for the U.S. and Afghanistan held frank International Studies 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. 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

Editor: Kate Hoving, Public Relations Manager, Reves Center for International Studies Contributing Writers: Anna Arnsberger ‘25; Rachel Sleiman J.D. ‘23; David Malmquist, VIMS; Viet Thanh Nguyen; Nathan Warters, University Communications; W&M Law School 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.