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Current Program
The Emerging Scholars Series is a partnership between the Graduate Center at William & Mary and the Williamsburg Regional Library. The series features W&M graduate students in talks hosted by the WRL intended to bring cutting-edge research to the local community. Visit the WRL's Events Calendar.
Abigail Johnson, Anthropology: "Pits and Pots: Archaeology Collections in Derry, Northern Ireland"
October 15, 2025, 2 p.m., Stryker Center
The city of Derry has occupied a central role in the sectarian conflicts of Northern Ireland. During the 1970s-80s, bombing associated with the “Troubles" exposed archaeological history of the city, which has been salvaged and studied. In this talk, Abigail Johnson, doctoral candidate in Anthropology at William & Mary, will describe the archaeology of Derry and explain what it tells us about several generations of Irish, English, and Scottish people who have made the city their home.
Jack Green, History: "The River of Gold and the English trade to West Africa in the Seventeenth Century"
November 6, 2025, 2 p.m., Stryker Center
In this talk, Jack Green, doctoral student in history at William & Mary, will tell the story of how a seventeenth-century art dealer helped convince the English to send a voyage in search of a West African "El Dorado." Learn how this failed treasure hunt and the trans-Saharan gold trade connects with the later rise of the Atlantic slave trade, and the formation of what would become the Royal African Company.
Tim Case, History: "Citizenship, Race, and Memory at the Hampton Institute, 1887-1923"
December 4, 2025, 2 p.m., Stryker Center
Learn about late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century debates about race and citizenship through the history of the Hampton Institute, precursor to Hampton University. In this talk by Tim Case, doctoral candidate in history at William & Mary, hear how a Black industrial school built by white reformers invented a tradition celebrating Native citizenship and the Dawes Act as an Indian emancipation, and how Black and Native students and the local Black community leveraged this tradition for their own ends.
Emmanuel Opoku, Biology: “Understanding Plant Microbiomes and Mulching”
February 12, 2026, 2 p.m., Stryker Center
Just as gut microbes support human health, microorganisms play a vital role in plant fitness and productivity. In this talk by Emmanuel Opoku, master’s student in biology, learn about research to discover more about plant microbes and determine the farming techniques that provide the best conditions to support them. This study of taro crops in French Polynesia will help reveal the right combination of mulching and microbial fertilizer to improve crop yields and lead to better farming.
Thalia Chrysanthis, History: "'Romance of the War': Female Soldiers during the Civil War"
March 26, 2026, 2 p.m., Stryker Center
Although Civil War era law and customs dictated that armies were male-only spaces, hundreds of female soldiers joined up and fought in both the Union and Confederate armies by presenting as men. In this talk by Thalia Chrysanthis, doctoral candidate in history at William & Mary, learn what the public knew about female soldiers from contemporary newspaper accounts, and what these accounts and public perception of them reveal about nineteenth-century attitudes toward gender.
Morgan Brittain, American Studies: “Pipelines: Oil and American Art History”
April 9, 2026, 2 p.m., Stryker Center
How can art history contend with environmental issues that go unseen? Petroleum has long shaped American art—a fact largely overlooked in scholarship and in popular understandings of U.S. visual culture. In this talk by Morgan Brittain, doctoral candidate in American Studies at William & Mary, learn to re-examine paintings by influential artists like Grant Wood as visual expressions of the global intertwinement of the oil industry with economic and political systems.