Research Clusters

Willson Center Research ClustersThe Willson Center Faculty Research Cluster (FRC) program supports groups of faculty who are organized to address large-scale humanities and arts questions in partnership with colleagues from allied departments, colleges, centers, and institutes. The program is designed to build research capacity in the humanities and arts and increase the profile and competitiveness of faculty for grants and support. Faculty Research Clusters are funded primarily by the Office of Research through the University of Georgia Research Foundation.

The Willson Center Research 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.

Funding support is not currently available for new cluster proposals.

Funded research clusters for FY 2025:

21st Century Studies (Isabelle Wallace, director, associate professor of art history, Lamar Dodd School of Art)

DIGI: eHistory (Stephen Berry, co-director, Amanda and Greg Gregory Professor in the Civil War Era, department of history; Scott Nesbit, co-director, assistant professor of digital humanities, College of Environment and Design; Claudio Saunt, co-director, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, department of history)

UGA Arts Collaborative / Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) (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)

Interdisciplinary Solutions to Modern Challenges: Ecological Science, Environmental Law, and the Environmental Humanities: (Mark D. Hunter, Odum Chair of Ecology and Dean, Odum School of Ecology; and Adam D. Orford, assistant professor, School of Law)

Interdisciplinary Modernisms Workshop (Nell Andrew, co-director, professor of art history, Lamar Dodd School of Art; Rielle Navitski, co-director, associate professor, department of theatre and film studies, LACSI; Susan Rosenbaum, co-director, associate professor, department of English)

 

Previously funded Faculty Research Clusters

Funded research clusters for FY 2023-24:

21st Century Studies (Isabelle Wallace, director, associate professor of art history, Lamar Dodd School of Art)

DIGI: Complex Systems and the Humanities (Bill Kretzschmar, director, Harry and Jane Willson Professor in Humanities, Department of English)

DIGI: eHistory (Stephen Berry, co-director, Amanda and Greg Gregory Professor in the Civil War Era, Department of History; Scott Nesbit, co-director, Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, College of Environment and Design; Claudio Saunt, co-director, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, Department of History)

DIGI: DigiLab (Katherine Ireland, interim director, Digital Humanities Lab, Main Library)

UGA Arts Collaborative / Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) (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)

Interdisciplinary Modernism Workshop (Nell Andrew, co-director, associate professor, art history, Lamar Dodd School of Art; Susan Rosenbaum, co-director, associate professor, department of English)

 

Funded research clusters for FY 2020-22:

21st Century Studies (Isabelle Wallace, director, associate professor of Art History, Lamar Dodd School of Art)

DIGI: Complex Systems and the Humanities (Bill Kretzschmar, director, Harry and Jane Willson Professor in Humanities, Department of English)

DIGI: eHistory (Stephen Berry, co-director, Amanda and Greg Gregory Professor in the Civil War Era, Department of History; Scott Nesbit, co-director, Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, College of Environment and Design; Claudio Saunt, co-director, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, Department of History)

DIGI: DigiLab (Emily McGinn, director, Head of Digital Humanities, Digital Humanities Lab, Main Library)

Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) / Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) (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)

Interdisciplinary Modernism Workshop (Nell Andrew, co-director, associate professor, art history, Lamar Dodd School of Art; Susan Rosenbaum, co-director, associate professor, department of English)

 

Funded research clusters for FY 2017-19:

Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities (a2ru) (Isabelle Wallace, director, Associate Professor of Art History, Lamar Dodd School of Art)

DIGI: Complex Systems and the Humanities (Bill Kretzschmar, director, Harry and Jane Willson Professor in Humanities, Department of English)

DIGI: eHistory (Stephen Berry, co-director, Amanda and Greg Gregory Professor in the Civil War Era, Department of History; Scott Nesbit, co-director, Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, College of Environment and Design; Claudio Saunt, co-director, Richard B. Russell Professor in American History, Department of History)

DIGI: DigiLab (Stephen Berry, co-director, Amanda and Greg Gregory Professor in the Civil War Era, Department of History; Emily McGinn, co-director, Digital Humanities Coordinator, Digital Humanities Lab, Main Library)

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)

Interdisciplinary Modernism Workshop (Nell Andrew, co-director, associate professor, art history, Lamar Dodd School of Art; Susan Rosenbaum, co-director, associate professor, department of English)

Funded research clusters for FY 2014-16:

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)

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)

The Office of the Provost funded the following clusters for 2014-15:

Digital Arts (Jonathan Baillehache, director, Assistant Professor, Department of Romance Languages)

The Global Capitalism Initiative (Allan Kulikoff, director, Professor and Abraham Baldwin Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Department of History)

Indigenous Foods & Fibers (Fausto O. Sarmiento, director, Professor, Department of Geography)

m.Sens – Studio for Multisensory Information Communication (Juan B. Gutierrez, director, assistant professor, department of mathematics and Institute of Bioinformatics)