President Morehead, VP David Lee Help Launch Willson Research Clusters
The Willson Center launched its new Faculty Research Clusters initiative at a public reception Aug. 29 in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. The program supports groups of University of Georgia faculty who are organized to address large-scale humanities and arts questions in partnership with colleagues from allied departments, colleges, centers, and institutes.
UGA President Jere Morehead and Vice President David Lee gave remarks at the event, and Willson Center Director Nicholas Allen introduced the directors of the six clusters.
The clusters have been organized around interdisciplinary research initiatives that can serve as bridges between the university and off-campus communities. Some of them have been established for years while others are in the planning stages, but all have been selected for their potential to communicate innovative academic research in the humanities and arts at UGA to the public and peer institutions.
“The Willson Center is the hub and humanities and arts research at the university, and the gateway for our faculty and students to the latest innovations in their fields,” Allen said. “We are delighted to launch these Research Clusters as the next stage in establishing the University of Georgia as a globally competitive and intellectually relevant institution.”
The Research Clusters program is funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research through the University of Georgia Research Foundation. Each cluster is funded for a period of up to 36 months with a maximum 12-month budget of $25,000. Funding is reviewed every 12 months.
The funded research clusters for 2013-14 are:
- Athens Music Project (Susan Thomas, co-director, associate professor, Hugh Hodgson School of Music and Institute for Women’s Studies; Jean Kidula, co-director, associate professor, Hugh Hodgson School of Music and African Studies Institute)
- Digital Humanities Lab (Stephen Berry, co-director, Amanda and Greg Gregory Professor in the Civil War Era, department of history; Bill Kretzschmar, co-director, Harry and Jane Willson Professor in Humanities, department of English; Claudio Saunt, co-director, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, department of history)
- EcoFocus Film Initiative (Sara Beresford, Director)
- Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) (David Z. Saltz, executive director, associate professor and head, department of theatre and film studies; Mark Callahan, artistic director, senior academic professional, Lamar Dodd School of Art, and Willson Center associate academic director for innovation in the arts)
- International Modernism (Jed Rasula, director, Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor, Department of English)
- Neuroimaging, Movie Trailers, and Spectator Cognition (Tianming Liu, co-director; assistant professor, department of computer science; Richard Neupert, Wheatley Professor of the Arts and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor of Theatre and Film Studies; L. Stephen Miller, co-director, professor, department of psychology)