Supported by a Mark S. Weil/Joan M. Hall Dissertation Grant, PhD candidate Hoyon Mephokee spent July 2025 conducting research in France. His dissertation, titled “On the Hunt for the White Elephant: Visualizing and Materializing Siam in the French Colonial Imaginary, 1861-1900,” explores how France saw conquest of Siam (present-day Thailand) as a means of securing its dominance in Southeast Asia and how, despite its success in conquering Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lao to form French Indochina, it failed to acquire Siam as a colony. Specifically, Hoyon is interested in how the French colonial consciousness used visual and material culture to imaginatively define and understand Siam, as well a show it sought to reconcile its inability to realize its colonial ambitions. Having undertaken research trips in prior years and having written two chapters of his dissertation, the purpose of this visit was to gather the necessary materials for his third and fourth chapters, as well as to find materials to address gaps in his first two chapters. Hoyon's research activities were primarily centered in Paris, where he consulted the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Musée Montmartre, the Musée de l’Armée, the Bibliothèque historique de la ville de Paris, and the Archives Diplomatiques. He also revisited the archives of the Château de Fontainebleau, which he consulted last summer.