The following story originally appeared on the website for the Reves Center for International Studies. – Ed.

The Reves Center for International Studies has awarded the 2025 Reves and Drapers’ Faculty Fellowships to five William & Mary professors.

A committee of faculty and Reves staff awards the fellowships annually 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, but projects must include an international, global and/or trans-national focus or context and involve W&M undergraduate or graduate students. With rare exceptions, the project must also include an overseas research component. 

Preference for the Drapers’ Fellowship is given to early career scholars conducting archival research in proximity to London or at institutions with established links to the Drapers’ Company.

This year’s fellows represent a diversity of fields of research and locations, capitalizing on new as well as existing multinational collaborations.

“Supporting faculty research has been at the core of the Reves Center’s mission since we began. Often the projects we fund are in the early stages of development, and we serve as an incubator,” said Teresa Longo, associate provost for international affairs and executive director of the Reves Center. “We are especially proud of our emphasis on team research and the idea that students are at the ground floor of exciting faculty-led projects.”

The 2025 awardees are (in alphabetical order and with their project descriptions below):

Reves Faculty Fellows

• Calvin Hui, Associate Professor of Chinese Studies; Chinese Studies Program Director; Freeman Internships in East Asia Faculty Director
• Jess Paga, Associate Professor, Classical Studies
• Kevin Weng, Associate Professor, W&M’s Batten School & VIMS

Drapers’ Faculty Fellows

• Fernando Galeana Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, Sociology & Integrative Conservation
• Eric J. Hilton, Chair, Natural Resources; and Professor, W&M’s Batten School & VIMS

2025 Reves Faculty Fellows 

Calvin Hui: “The People’s Republic of Copycats: Shanzhai Cultures in Globalizing China”

A key phenomenon of contemporary Chinese culture is the production, circulation and consumption of shanzhai (copycat) western commodities. From imitations of European towns to reproductions of Van Gogh’s paintings, and from knockoff Louis Vuitton handbags to counterfeit Apple iPhones, contemporary China’s copycat cultures have drawn attention from the world.

While western business corporations condemn the copycat as a violation of intellectual property rights, the Chinese government is worried that China can only copy but not innovate. While some journalists consider the copycat as expressing popular resistance to official power, other critics regard it as epitomizing the confusion of Chinese people’s values.

In this project, Hui and his students will engage with 21st century China’s copycat cultures – architecture, digital technologies, art and fashion — in the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area” in southern China. Their aim is to produce a concept of the shanzhai that captures the complexity of China’s copycat cultures within a cross-cultural setting. They argue the intellectual property rights discourse (copyright, trademark and patent) is insufficient to investigate China’s copycat cultures. Instead, this legal discourse should be supplemented with the cultural studies discussions of imitation and representation.

Also, they contend the debates of mimesis — original versus copy and real versus fake — in postcolonial/transnational theory is unequipped to examine China’s copycat cultures. To update this theory, Hui and his students will engage with political-economic analysis, social critique, new media theory and China’s revolutionary history. Engaging with the rapid development of the city of Shenzhen, the project will also survey how China is upgrading its economy from copycat to innovation.

The team will travel to different research sites in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area (formerly called the Pearl River Delta) in southern China. To research architectural mimicry, they will conduct ethnography in Huawei’s European-themed Ox Horn Campus in Dongguan, the Austrian-themed Hallstatt in Huizhou, the Swiss-themed “Interlaken” in Shenzhen and “Windows of the World” park in Shenzhen. To research copycat digital technologies (e.g., cell phones, computers), they will visit the electronics market Huaqiangbei and its official museum in Shenzhen. To research copycat art, they will visit the Dafen Oil Painting Village in Shenzhen.

Jess Paga: “Naxos Quarry Project: Monolith Study”

Naxos, the largest island in the interconnected Cycladic archipelago in Greece, was famous in antiquity for its exceptionally brilliant white marble. The sculptural products from its ancient quarries have been the subject of intensive examination, but the quarries themselves remain understudied.

The principal goal of the Naxos Quarry Project (NQP), on which Paga serves as Architecture and Quarry Specialist, is to bring greater focus to the quarries as areas of manufacture, in order to illuminate the processes of ancient quarrying and consider the long-lasting impact of extractive technologies on the landscape.

For summer 2025, the international and multidisciplinary NQP team will prioritize analysis of “the monolith” — a large-scale abandoned architectural block in the island’s Melanes quarry, situating it within the greater dialogue of Naxian marble facture, quarry processes, and transport of massive stone blocks. This study aims to present the first full publication of this block through the use of traditional scale drawing and on-site autopsy, alongside newer technologies and methods, including photogrammetric imaging and digital modeling, while situating the block within its rich historical contextualization. The researchers will spend 10-12 days on Naxos, followed by data processing and archival research in Athens for an additional 7-10 days.

Students will be involved in all aspects of the project and will be exposed to a wide variety of field methodologies, thus gaining hands-on experience and fulfilling applied learning goals within an international environment. Students will also assist in preparing the materials for publication and will be credited as co-authors and co-illustrators. 

The project is inherently international: It involves on-site analysis and documentation of archaeological remains and will entail travel to a foreign country and hands-on experience working with an international team of researchers (drawn from the US, UK, Belgium, and Denmark) alongside direct collaboration with the Greek archaeological service and local community of the island. Students will additionally experience the international scholarly community of Athens by working at the American School for Classical Studies and the German Archaeological Institute. Such cross-cultural interactions will create networking opportunities with scholars from across the world, as well as expose students to high-level international research.

Kevin Weng: “The Endangered Dragon Shark: Building U.S.-Taiwan Partnerships in Conservation”

This project studies critically endangered “Dragon Sharks,” the Taiwanese vernacular name for wedgefishes (Rhinopristiformes), and is a collaboration between William & Mary and multiple Taiwan institutions.

Wedgefishes are among the most threatened vertebrates globally and are vulnerable to bycatch in commercial fisheries. This work has already yielded the first-ever behavioral data for the bowmouth guitarfish (Rhina ancylostoma), revealing unexpected vertical movement patterns that inform conservation strategies. The established partnerships with Taiwan’s Fisheries Research Institute, National Taiwan Ocean University and commercial fishing industry enable access to live specimens of these rare species.

Weng and his team work closely with fishers who provide specimens and with aquaculture facilities that enable temporary holding for research. These partnerships create opportunities for cultural exchange while advancing conservation science. Reves’ support will allow W&M students to travel to Taiwan and engage in international marine conservation research alongside Taiwanese students and faculty. Building on two years of electronic tagging and genetic sampling, this project will expand student involvement in both field and laboratory components to understand movement patterns and habitat use. The hands-on exposure to international collaborative research will prepare them for careers in marine science and conservation.

This project strengthens U.S.-Taiwan scientific partnerships at a critical time in Indo-Pacific relations. Taiwan, despite its complex international status and exclusion from many global frameworks including CITES, maintains world-class marine science capabilities and is a key partner for understanding western Pacific marine ecosystems. The research brings together scientists, students, fishers and aquaculture specialists, building relationships that extend beyond science. These collaborations demonstrate the value of maintaining strong U.S.-Taiwan academic and research partnerships in an increasingly contested region.

2025 Drapers’ Faculty Fellows

Fernando Galeana Rodriguez: “Indigenous Diplomacy in Britain’s Shadow: The 1843 Honduras-Miskitu Treaty and State Formation in Post-Independence Central America”

Treaty-making between European powers and Indigenous nations in the Americas was a transformative process that shaped fundamental concepts of sovereignty and political authority. Through diplomatic encounters, different traditions of conceiving and practicing political power merged and evolved. While diplomatic historians have extensively examined these dynamics in North America, far less attention has been paid to similar processes in Latin America in the post-independence period, where treaty-making between Indigenous polities and emerging states can offer crucial insights into state formation.

The Mosquito Kingdom, an Indigenous political entity active in the Caribbean Coast of Central America from the 17th to the 19th centuries, developed diplomatic practices through engagement with the British and Spanish, producing distinct protocols for negotiating political relationships. When Honduras sought to annex the western half of the kingdom after independence in 1838, it had to navigate this established diplomatic culture. The Honduran government pursued a treaty with the Miskitu general who controlled the Black River region, aiming to create an alliance against both British interests and the British-backed Miskitu King.

The little-known 1843 Treaty between General Robinson and Honduras illuminates diplomatic practices with Indigenous nations in postcolonial Latin America, opening new perspectives on the role of Indigenous peoples in processes of state formation. Fellowship support will go towards archival research in the UK to reconstruct the British perspective on these diplomatic negotiations, particularly examining how British observers interpreted and responded to this attempt to establish direct relations between their Indigenous allies and a newly independent Latin American state.

This project examines 19th-century diplomatic relations between British colonial officials, Miskitu leaders and Honduran officials. Drawing on Indigenous studies and new diplomacy studies, the research applies a historical sociological approach that centers cultural traditions of treaty-making. The project requires a visit to the UK to examine diplomatic correspondence (1838-1845) at the National Archives during the summer of 2025, particularly the papers of Alexander MacDonald, British Superintendent in Belize, who closely monitored relations with the Mosquito Kingdom. Galeana Rodriguez will present findings at academic conference in 2025-2026, engaging with other scholars studying Indigenous diplomacy within the British Empire.

Eric J. Hilton: “Study of type specimens housed at the Natural History Museum, London”

Natural history museums provide a global network for biodiversity research. In addition to maintaining a rich specimen base for study, historically important collections such as the Natural History Museum (NHM), London house type specimens – those specimens that were used in the original scientific description of species. Historical descriptions (i.e., those from the 18th and 19th centuries) often lack sufficient detail for modern comparative studies and therefore examination of the actual specimens is necessary to confirm the proper identity of a species.

Requested funds will support the examination of type specimens at the NHM by Hilton and two graduate students, representing a critical step in their research and their academic growth.

At the NHM, Miguel Montalvo (Ph.D. student), whose research is focused on the evolution of fossil and living billfishes (swordfish and marlins), will examine specimens of the fossil family Palaeorhynchidae. NHM’s collection includes many of the originally described specimens from that family and therefore are critical for him to examine for his comprehensive study of the billfishes.

Anya Roopa Gajanur (Ph.D. student) is studying the biodiversity of cephalopods (squids and octopuses) of southeast Asia. She has identified specimens of an octopus from Singapore as Octopus favonian. However, due to the lack of detailed descriptions the true identity of these specimens is unclear; examination of the type specimens of O. favonia and the closely related O. vulgaris and O. rugosus (all of which are at the NHM) is required to provide an accurate understanding of the cephalopod diversity from this region.

This study is based at the Natural History Museum in London. The specimens to be examined are unique in that they are the original specimens that were used to describe the species being studied and therefore exist nowhere else in the world. Because of their unique nature it is not possible to receive them on loan, necessitating international travel. This project will provide the opportunity for two students to examine specimens that are critical to their research in an international institution. I have established contacts in the zoological and paleontological departments at the NHM, thereby facilitating access to the collections.

Previous Reves Faculty Fellows and their projects are listed online.