The Willson Center will launch its new Faculty Research Clusters initiative at a public reception at 4 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 29 in the Richard B. Russell Building Special Collections Libraries. UGA President Jere Morehead and Vice President David Lee will give remarks at the event, and Willson Center Director Nicholas Allen will introduce the directors of the six clusters.

Tickets are now on sale for “Everyday People: The Film, Television, and Video Work of Jim McKay,” a festival to be presented November 15-18 by the Willson Center in partnership with Whatever It Takes Athens as part of the University of Georgia’s 2013 Spotlight on the Arts.

The opening event will be a gala reception and screening of Tourfilm, McKay’s feature-length concert film documenting R.E.M.’s 1989 world tour for the album Green, co-hosted by David Daley, editor-in chief of Salon.com. The event will benefit Whatever It Takes, an initiative of the local nonprofit Family Connection – Communities in Schools whose mission is to fight poverty in Athens through support for public education and families.

The Willson Center Spotlight on the Arts 2013will sponsor a brimming calendar of events for the 2013 UGA Spotlight on the Arts, the nine-day festival’s second annual installment.

Congratulations are due Ed Pavlić and Andrew Zawacki, both professors in UGA’s English Department and Creative Writing Program.

One of the initiatives aligned with the Willson Center’s Digital Humanities Research Cluster is the Georgia Virtual History Project, a nonprofit organization directed and co-founded by Willson Center Digital Humanities Fellow Christopher Lawton.

Searcy returns to Athens for a fundraising presentation on Project Renew’s efforts at 7 p.m. Friday, September 29 at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave. in downtown Athens.

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.

Check our video page, with highlights from past Willson Center events, including speakers in our inaugural Global Georgia Initiative, such as Bertis Downs, Ntone Edjabe, and others.

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.