Willson Center now accepting nominations for 2025-26 Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding

The Willson Center invites nominations from faculty and students for the 2025-26 Delta Visiting Chair. The Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding, established by the Willson Center through the support of The Delta Air Lines Foundation, hosts outstanding artists, writers, musicians, socially engaged thinkers, and cultural innovators. One aim of the program is to foster conversations in our community that engage with global perspectives through the humanities and arts. Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Hua Hsu (pictured) was the last Delta Visiting Chair in 2023-24. The Willson Center will announce the 2024-25 Delta Visiting Chair shortly.

Nomination:

Any UGA faculty member or student (with a faculty sponsor) is eligible to make a nomination. Groups of faculty or students may also submit single nominations. Delta Visiting Chair nominees have included Man Booker and Pulitzer Prize winners, Tate Prize winners, a Poet Laureate of the United States, and holders of Guggenheim and other fellowships as well as individuals with comparable distinctions.

Submission:

Nominations (two-page maximum) should be submitted in Word or PDF form to the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at wcha@uga.edu. Please address any questions to this email.

  • Nominations should include a brief paragraph that speaks to the achievements of the individual being nominated and how that individual’s visit to campus would bring attention to the arts and/or humanities in a global context.
  • Please also include a brief biographical summary of the individual or a link to a biographical statement. Supporting materials can include links to websites, images, or video. Please do not include attachments.
  • Nominations from students should be reviewed by a faculty sponsor in advance. Students should copy their faculty sponsor when submitting their nomination.
  • Nominations will be accepted through February 14, 2025.

 

Selection:

Nominations will be considered by a committee comprised of the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts Faculty Advisory Board for ranking, with final selection in consultation with the Office of Research. The nomination will be submitted to the University System Board of Regents for approval.

The Delta Visiting Chair was originally established as the Delta Prize for Global Understanding in 1997 through the generous support of The Delta Air Lines Foundation, with the purpose of advancing understanding and cooperation among cultures and nations. The Delta Prize for Global Understanding was presented to individuals whose initiatives have helped promote world peace, including Nelson Mandela, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ted Turner, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter. The Delta Prize transitioned to the Delta Visiting Chair for Global Understanding, as approved by the Board of Regents, in 2014. The inaugural Delta Visiting Chair was held by Alice Walker in 2015.