Willson Center Announces Faculty Fellowships for 2013–2014 Academic Year
The Willson Center’s primary function is to support research in the humanities and arts through the awarding of fellowships to outstanding faculty at the University of Georgia. We offer our sincerest congratulations to our Faculty Fellows for 2013–2014.
Please see our 2013–2014 Faculty Fellows page for detailed information about each of them and for descriptions of their research projects.
Willson Director on Past Year’s Achievements, Next Year’s Expectations
At the close of spring semester 2013, Director Nicholas Allen reflects on the Willson Center’s growth during the past year and looks forward to continuing progress and innovation in the fall. Be sure to check back with us regularly this summer as we update our site with new features and exciting announcements for the 2013-2014 academic year.
Be sure to check our video page, which is being updated this summer with more highlights from the past year’s Willson Center events, including speakers in our inaugural Global Georgia Initiative such as Bertis Downs, Ntone Edjabe, and others.
You can now see highlights from Downs’ talk (below), as well as from Valerie Babb’s Global Georgia presentation, our November 2012 roundtable discussion on “Creativity in the Research University,” and earlier events. Stay tuned for more.
James A. Joseph, Former U.S. Ambassador to South Africa, to Speak at Chapel
James A. Joseph, U.S. ambassador to South Africa from 1995 to 1999, will speak at the UGA Chapel May 16 at 4 p.m. in a special installment of the Willson Center’s Global Georgia Initiative. The event is in partnership with the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, which has organized the ambassador’s visit to UGA. Joseph’s talk is entitled “Leadership as a Way of Being: Reflections on Nelson Mandela, Servant Leadership and Personal Renewal.”
Willson Center Co-hosts Symposium on “Futures of the Book” April 27
“Futures of the Book” takes place Saturday, April 27 from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. in the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Libraries Building. Brian Croxall, emerging technologies librarian and CLIR Postdoctoral Fellow in the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University, will deliver a plenary talk titled ”Harder Better Faster Stronger: Books from the Future.”
Author & Journalist Melissa Fay Greene to Deliver 20th Ferdinand Phinizy Lecture
Acclaimed author and journalist Melissa Fay Greene will deliver the 20th Ferdinand Phinizy Lecture April 19 at 1:30 p.m. in the University of Georgia Chapel. Greene’s lecture on “The Literature of Fact and Why Good Writing Still Matters” is free and open to the public. A brief reception will follow.
The Ferdinand Phinizy Lectureship was established and endowed by Phinizy Calhoun, UGA class of 1900, as a memorial to his grandfather, Ferdinand Phinizy, who was a graduate of the UGA class of 1838. From economist John Kenneth Galbraith to novelists Walker Percy and Richard Ford, the Phinizy Lectures have featured some of the nation’s most distinguished writers and thinkers over their nearly 60-year span.
Scott Russell Sanders, Renowned Conservationist Author, to Give Earth Day Lecture
Scott Russell Sanders, a respected author and environmental activist, will give a lecture entitled “Near and Distant Bears” at 7 p.m. April 22 in the Day Chapel at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. The lecture is part of The Georgia Review’s Earth Day celebration, co-sponsored by the Willson Center, the Botanical Garden, and the UGA Environmental Ethics Certificate Program.
The renowned Cuban-American author Achy Obejas will lecture and read from her work Monday, April 22 at 11 a.m. in the UGA Chapel. Obejas is the author of the critically acclaimed novels “Ruins,” “Days of Awe” and three other books of fiction. Her poetry chapbook, “This is What Happened in Our Other Life,” was both a critical favorite and a best-seller. She is a founding member of the creative writing faculty at the University of Chicago.
Songs @ Ciné Features Rare Solo Performance by R.E.M.’s Mills
A Willson Center-organized performance by Athens songwriters at local nonprofit cinema and arts venue Ciné will feature a rare solo appearance by Mike Mills, formerly of the Grammy Award-winning rock band R.E.M.
“Songs @ Ciné” is sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research as part of the Thinc. at UGA Entrepreneurial Week. The event will take place March 29 at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave., with a 7 p.m. reception in the CinéLab preceding the 8:30 performance.
Atlantic Archipelagos Research Project 2013 State of the Art Conference
The Atlantic Archipelagos Research Project (AARP) is a forum to think about identities, cartographies and cultural ecologies. First conceived of in context of the islands of Britain and Ireland, this conference offers the first opportunity to expand the idea into North America. In doing so it coincides with established interests at UGA in the environment, ecology, art and creative writing.
The welcome reception to the 2013 AARP conference will feature a performance of music and poetry by the famed Irish poet and novelist Ciaran Carson, accompanied by his wife, Deirdre.