We are proud to announce the fifteen outstanding members of the UGA faculty who have been awarded Willson Center Research Fellowships for the next academic year.

We continue our series of profiles on the Willson Center’s Faculty Research Clusters with this month’s spotlight on the Athens Music Project, co-directed by Jean Kidula and Susan Thomas.

Thomas, associate professor of music and women’s studies, and Kidula, associate professor of music and African studies, are ethnomusicologists in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music who formed the research cluster to create a platform for research, creative development, and shared expertise in, about, and for Athens’ diverse musical communities.

The first annual Local Arts and Culture Business Summit will be April 17 at 11:30am in Tate Reception Hall. This public forum will allow local arts and culture business owners to share experiences, best practices, and advice for the best ways to support local arts entrepreneurs in the future.

We return to our series of profiles on the Willson Center’s Faculty Research Clusters with this month’s spotlight on Neuroimaging, Movie Trailers, and Spectator Cognition, co-directed by Tianming Liu, L. Stephen Miller, and Richard Neupert.

The Global Georgia Initiative was founded in 2013, and its inaugural speaker series featured distinguished guests from Athens and around the world. In its second year, Global Georgia will continue to showcase diverse artists, scholars and professionals from the local to the international.

The Willson CenterJosie Dixon and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will sponsor a lecture on research publication at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, April 2 in room Q (second floor) of the Georgia Center for Continuing Education.

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.