Annual Report2012-2013

University of GeorGia

The Willson Center is the hub of humanities and arts research at the University of Georgia. Our mission is to support and encourage the achievements of our faculty and students in the public community of which we are all part. This academic year has brought many notable improvements in our capacity to enable and showcase those achievements.

The Willson Center is at the heart of the university’s initiatives to pioneer research. The Global Georgia Initiative brought artists, performers and thinkers from around the world to campus. The Spotlight on the Arts and Thinc. festivals offered a platform to show how music, the visual arts, and creative thinking contribute to education and the economy. Through our new Research Clusters we offer support for interdisciplinary groups of faculty organized to address large-scale questions in the humanities and arts.

In partnership with the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, we supported thirteen fellowships on subjects ranging from medieval literary history to modern kinetic sculpture, with fellows drawn from six departments. In addition, the Willson Center sponsored more than forty visiting artists, lecturers, and fellows and over a dozen seminars, conferences, panels, and symposia.

In addition to our collaborative work with on-campus entities such as the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, the George Foster Peabody Awards, and the Georgia Museum of Art, we have built new and productive relationships with Athens community partners like Ciné, ATHICA, and the Whatever It Takes initiative.

This year has brought major change in our structure and programs. Prior to the 2012–2013 academic year we added three new staff members. Dr. Antje Ascheid joined us as Associate Academic Director for Arts and Public Programs and Dr. Stephen Berry as Associate Academic Director for External Grants, while Dave Marr became our communications specialist. As 2013–2014 begins, we have added an Associate Director for Innovation in the Arts, Mark Callahan, and our first Digital Humanities Fellow, Dr. Christopher Lawton. Julie Dingus retires after an outstanding career at the Willson Center and the university, and we welcome Winnie Smith as our new administrative specialist. We will also be moving our offices to a renovated historic two-story building on Lumpkin Street in time for the 2014–2015 academic year.

I am very grateful to the leadership of our faculty advisory board: Nell Andrew of the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Antje Ascheid of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, Stephen Berry of the Department of History, Dana Bultman of the Department of Romance Languages, Rebecca Enghauser of the Department of Dance, Jean Kidula of the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Richard Neupert of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, and Hugh Ruppersburg of the Department of English, our board chair.

Our next step is to establish the Willson Center more fully with its international peers so that new opportunities will arise for the university and the faculty. All of us who work here want the Willson Center to be a place where you can feel confident in sharing your ideas. Due to your support it is, we hope, a place you can be proud of because it represents your creativity and imagination. We look forward to working with you.

Yours truly,

Nicholas Allen

Franklin Professor of English Willson Center Director

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Willson Center Administration

The Willson Center expanded its administrative staff in 2012 – 2013, adding two associate academic directors – for arts and public programs and for external grants – and a communications specialist. As the 2013 – 2014 academic year begins, we have brought in an associate academic director for innovation in the arts and our first digital humanities fellow. These additions have greatly enhanced our ability to support humanities and arts research at the University of Georgia, and to showcase the achievements of our faculty.

Julie Dingus, our administrative specialist since 1999, retires in August 2013 after an outstanding career at UGA. We thank her and welcome Winnie Smith, who joins us in the position as of September.

Nicholas Allen DirectorFranklin Professor of English

Antje Ascheid Associate Academic Director for Arts and Public ProgramsAssociate Professor, Film Studies, Department of Theatre and Film Studies

Lloyd Winstead Associate Director

Stephen Berry Associate Academic Director for External GrantsAmanda and Greg Gregory Chair in Civil War Era Studies, Department of History

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Mark Callahan Associate Academic Director for Innovation in the ArtsArtistic Director, Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE)

Julie Dingus Administrative SpecialistRetired August, 2013

Dave Marr Communications Specialist

Christopher Lawton Digital Humanities Fellow

Winnie Smith Administrative SpecialistBegan September, 2013

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Support for Faculty Research

With support from the Franklin College, the Willson Center funded an additional two fellowships for a total of 13 faculty Research Fellows for 2012-13. Fifteen Research Fellows have been awarded for 2013-2014.

Mark Anderson Romance Languages Writing Nature in Latin America: A Literary History

Cynthia Turner Camp English

Imagining the Holy Past in Fifteenth-Century England

Research Fellows for 2012-2013

Ari Daniel Levine History Dislocated Memories: Urban Space and Diasporic Nostalgia in Song China

Adriane Colburn Lamar Dodd School of ArtHyperspectrics, Exhibition Production

Sujata Iyengar EnglishArtistic and Artisanal Print “Appropriations of Shakespeare in a Supposedly Post-print World”

Dorothea Link Hugh Hodgson School of Music

Arias for Stefano Mandini, Mozart’s First Conte Almaviva

Since I write frequently about unpublished medieval manuscripts, significant time in the archives that hold those manuscripts is essential. The Willson Center Fellowship directly contributed to the completion of my first monograph, two conference papers (and counting), three invited talks, and two peer-reviewed articles that I will be writing in the coming months.

– Cynthia Turner Campco-winner of the Virginia Mary Macagnoni Prize

for Innovative Research

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Akela Reason HistoryPolitics and Memory: Civil War Monuments in Gilded Age New York

Martijn van Wagtendonk Lamar Dodd School of ArtSong of Lift

Peter O’Neill Comparative LiteratureThe Transatlantic Irish and the Racial State

This research leave provided me with the unobstructed time to work on and complete new projects. I created new images using a scanning electron microscope here at UGA’s Center for Advanced Ultrastructural Research and was able to work out a new process that will shorten the labor and time it takes to make my images.

– Michael Oliverico-winner of the Virginia Mary Macagnoni

Prize for Innovative Research

Jennifer L. Palmer HistoryAn Ocean Between Them: Race, Gender, and the Family in France and its Colonies.

Jon Swindler Lamar Dodd School of ArtPressure-Sensitive Project and Artist Residencies

Andrew Zawacki EnglishSee About: “Translating Sébastien Smirou’s Beau voir”

Michael Oliveri Lamar Dodd School of Art

Inner and Outer Space Images from the Micro to

the Macro

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Support for Graduate Research

In response to faculty requests, the Graduate Research Awards were modified for 2012-13 to include two deadlines, one in early fall and one in early spring. Both fall and spring awards provided graduate support for the current academic year. The Willson Center awarded eight Graduate Research Awards in the fall. Ten awards were given in the spring supported by additional funding from the Graduate School.

Rachel Debuque MFA candidate, Sculpture, Lamar Dodd School of Art Major Professor: Larry MillardHome Front

Matthew Hulbert PhD candidate, History Major Professor: John InscoeGhosts of the Guerrilla War: Civil War Memory in Missouri

Joshua Hussey PhD candidate, English Major Professors: Andrew Zawacki, Jed Rasula, Doug AndersonTravel to the Thomas J. Dodd Special Collections at the University of Connecticut

Gabriel Alexander Lovatt PhD candidate, English Major Professor: Jed RasulaFlaming Creatures: Oscar Wilde and the Legacy of American Decadence

Rachel Paparone PhD candidate, Romance Languages Major Professor: Jonathan F. KrellUnderstanding Self and Nature: Reviving the “Bildungsroman” in the works of Jean-Christophe Rufin

Danielle Peters MFA candidate, Printmaking, Lamar Dodd School of Art Major Professor: Jon SwindlerWrithe

David Thomson PhD candidate, History Major Professor: Stephen BerryAugust Belmont and the Struggle for Fiscal Diplomacy

Graduate Research Awardees for 2012-2013

Fall 2012

Kylie Horney PhD candidate, History Major Professor: Peter C. HofferFrom Vigorous & Bold Operations

The materials I uncovered at the Massachusetts Historical Society will be crucial in crafting the main argument of my doctoral dissertation. Without a Willson Center

Graduate Research Award, I would not have been able to travel to the MHS where I found a trove of primary sources. These materials will also provide contextual information for a paper I am writing which will be presented at the McMullen Naval History Symposium in Annapolis, Maryland in September 2013.

– Kylie HorneyJanelle Padgett Knight Graduate Award Winner

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Jaime Bull MFA candidate, Painting and Drawing, Lamar Dodd School of Art Major Professor: Christopher Hocking

Lady Beasts: An investigation of womanliness

Dillon Carroll PhD candidate, History Major Professor: Stephen Berry

The Scourge of War: PTSD, TBI, and the American Civil War

Laura Davis PhD candidate, History Major Professor: Stephen Berry

A Brotherhood Adrift: Boat Burners, Naval Guerrillas, and the Brown Water Confederate Navy

Karla Nicole Evans MA candidate, Religion Major Professor: Carolyn Medine

Feeling Muslim

Ximena Gonzalez-Parada PhD candidate, Romance Languages Major Professor: Lorgia García-Peña

Afro Ecuadorian National Identity: a Re-examination of Foundational Narratives

Tifany Lee MFA candidate, Theatre and Film Studies Major Professor: David Zucker Saltz

Trash: A Love Story

Spring 2013 David Meek PhD candidate, Anthropology Major Professor: Peter BrosiusLearning and Landscape Change in the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement

Youngmi Moon DMA candidate, Hugh Hodgson School of Music Major Professor: Martha Thomas, Hugh Hodgson School of Music. Faculty Advisor: Lisa Fusillo, DanceResearch on accompaniment for ballet class

Chantell Smith PhD candidate, Department of Romance Languages Major Professor: Lesley FerachoDiasporic Links: African-Americans and Afro-Cubans in Transnational Dialogue

Kai Riedl PhD candidate, Hugh Hodgson

School of Music) Major Professor: Jean Kidula

“Our New Silence” – Performance

The Willson Center Graduate Research Award was vital in realizing the later stages of my research in ethnomusicology, translocal music practices, and cultural diplomacy within the arts. The award enabled a rare performance that consisted of over a dozen musicians in the Athens area interpreting and reimagining traditional music from the island of Java, where I have done extensive recording of music.

– Kai RiedlJanelle Padgett Knight Graduate Award Winner

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Valerie Babb Professor of English and of African American Studies, Director, Institute for African American Studies, University of Georgia

Valerie Babb gave a talk entitled “In the Footfalls of Diaspora: Reflections on the Wanderer.” Babb’s expertise includes African American literature and culture and American literature and culture, with particular interests in constructions of race and gender. Her publications include Whiteness

Visible: The Meaning of Whiteness in American Literature and Culture and Black Georgetown Remembered.

The Wanderer was a converted luxury vessel that, in 1858, brought 409 Africans from the region of present-day Angola to the Georgia coast to be sold into slavery. The voyage took place nearly 50 years after the passage of the federal Slave Importation Act, which made the foreign slave trade illegal in the United States. Babb’s talk reflected upon the many reconsiderations of diaspora’s significance brought about by her trying to discover who those enslaved might have been and the ways they attempted to pass on their story.

James C. Cobb B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor in the History of the American South, University of Georgia

James C. Cobb, widely recognized as one of the foremost scholars of Southern history and culture—and among the first to write broadly about the South in a global context, spoke on “De-Mystifying Dixie: Southern History and Culture in Global Perspective.”

Cobb has written extensively about the impact of changing economic conditions on the South including The New America:

The South and the Nation Since World War II, Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity and The Most Southern Place on Earth, his book about the Mississippi Delta. Committed to reaching beyond the scholarly community, Cobb has written pieces for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, The Times Literary Supplement, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Bertis Downs Entertainment lawyer and adjunct professor, R.E.M. advisor

Bertis Downs participated in a public conversation with Willson Center Director Nicholas Allen entitled “Don’t Get Me Started – on Athens, music lessons, and of course, good schools for all kids.”

Since graduating from Davidson College in 1978, Bertis Downs has lived in Athens, Georgia, where

he received his law degree in 1981 from the University of Georgia’s School of Law. He represented the band R.E.M. throughout the band’s thirty-year career and remains an advisor to the group’s various business endeavors even after its disbandment in 2011. Throughout his career, he has lectured widely at universities and law schools including William and Mary, the University of Chicago, Harvard, Duke, Emory, Vanderbilt, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Emory, the University of Milan, the University of British Columbia and University College Dublin.

Downs has long been an advocate for public education. His main academic and professional focus is the changing legal and business landscape in the digital age. Downs is active in various organizations and has served on the boards of People for the American Way, Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, Georgia Conservation Voters, Georgia Appleseed, First Presbyterian Church of Athens, Georgia and the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation.

Global Georgia Initiative

The Global Georgia Initiative brings world-class thinkers to Georgia. It presents global problems in local context by addressing pressing contemporary questions, including the economy, society, and the environment, with a focus on how the arts and humanities can intervene. Global Georgia combines the best in contemporary thinking

and practice in the arts and humanities with related advances in the sciences and other areas.

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Ntone Edjabe Writer, critic, journalist, and DJ

Ntone Edjabe, the founder and editor of Chimurenga magazine, a pan-African publication of writing, art and politics based in Cape Town, South Africa, spoke on “Diagnosing the Chimurenga Chronic.”

Edjabe, a Cameroonian émigré, has published 16 issues of Chimurenga since 2002. The magazine includes fiction, reporting, commentary, criticism and art. Its subjects range from music and sports to

technology and politics. The most recent issue is “The Chimurenga Chronic,” an imaginary newspaper set during the week of May 18-24 when dozens of people were killed as anti-immigrant riots spread from Johannesburg through other South African cities and provinces.

In addition to his work as a publisher and writer, Edjabe is one of the leading disc jockeys in the clubs of Cape Town. He curates the Pan African Space Station, a Web-based radio station that streams a constant variety of genres of African music. Following his lecture, Edjabe performed a DJ session at the legendary 40 Watt Club in downtown Athens.

Ambassador James A. Joseph Professor of the Practice of Public Policy Studies at Duke University, Executive Director, United States-Southern Africa Center for Leadership and Public Values at Duke and the University of Cape Town

Ambassador James A. Joseph spoke on “Leadership as a Way of Being: Reflections on Nelson Mandela, Servant Leadership and Personal Renewal.” Ambassador Joseph has served in the administrations of four U.S. Presidents. He was

U.S. Ambassador to South Africa from 1995–1999, the only holder of that office to present his credentials to President Nelson Mandela. In 1999, President Thabo Mbeki awarded Joseph the Order of Good Hope, the highest honor the Republic of South Africa bestows on a citizen of another country.

Ambassador Joseph’s talk was presented in partnership with the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, which organized his visit to UGA.

John Lowe Barbara Lester Methvin Distinguished Professor of English, University of Georgia

John Lowe, recipient of the MELUS Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Ethnic American Literatures, spoke on “The Tropical Sublime in the 19th Century CircumCaribbean.”

Lowe has authored and edited numerous books in Ethnic American and Southern literature, published dozens of essays, and presented over 80 papers in North America, Europe, and Asia, including invited lectures at the Sorbonne, the University of Paris VI, Venice, Kiel, Munich, Dresden, Budapest, and Hyderabad.

Barry C. Smith Director, Institute of Philosophy, School of Advanced Study, University of London

Barry C. Smith, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Institute of Philosophy in the School of Advanced Study, University of London, and co-director of the Centre for the Study of the Senses, spoke on “Coming to Our Senses, Anew.” He has written on the philosophy of mind and language, on the topics of self-knowledge and our

knowledge of language. He co-edited The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Language (2006) with Ernest Lepore.

Following his 2007 collection, Questions of Taste – The Philosophy of Wine (Oxford University Press), he began working with psychologists, neurologists and neuroscientists on flavor perception and is now the co-organizer of an international research project on the Nature of Taste, jointly run by the University of London and NYU. He has been a Visiting Professor at the University of California at Berkeley and at the Ecole Normale Supèriere, and was the writer and presenter of the BBC World Service radio series, “The Mysteries of the Brain.”

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Athens Premiere Screening of Somebodies

The Willson Center hosted a screening of the 2006 film Somebodies at Ciné Nov. 7 in partnership with the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. It was the Athens premiere of the locally produced film, which was purchased by the BET cable television network after its debut at the Sundance Film Festival but never received theatrical distribution. The screening was the Willson Center’s keynote event in the University of Georgia’s 2012 Spotlight on the Arts festival.

Somebodies was written and directed by Grady College alumnus Hadjii (ABJ ’98), who also starred in the film,

and produced by Nate Kohn and Pam Kohn. Nate Kohn is Professor of Telecommunications in the Grady College and associate director of the George Foster Peabody Awards. The film, which was shot entirely in Athens with many local cast and crew members, is a dramatic comedy about a young African-American man caught between the religious priorities of his family and the partying lifestyle of his college-age friends.

Hadjii and his co-star in the film, Kaira Akita, introduced the film and took part in an audience question-and-answer session after the screening. The two now live and work in Los Angeles.

Spotlight on the Arts

The inaugural Spotlight on the Arts Festival at the University of Georgia took place November 3 – 11, drawing some 15,000 attendees to more than 50 events on and off the UGA campus. Spotlight on the

Arts showcases the university’s arts programs and venues with a slate of public events that includes concerts, theater and dance performances, art exhibitions, poetry readings, film festivals, and discussions

on the arts and creativity.

The university-wide festival included a number of events sponsored by the Willson Center, including film screenings, roundtable discussions and lectures on various aspects of arts and creativity. The Willson Center will contribute significant programming to Spotlight on the Arts in November 2013, including a multi-venue festival showcasing the film, television, and video work of director and former Athenian Jim McKay.

Somebodies

Kaira Akita and Hadjii

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Willson Center-Peabody Awards Screening Series

American Masters: Eames: The Architect and the Painter

On November 6, Eames: The Architect and the Painter opened the Willson Center-Peabody Awards Series. In this acclaimed documentary, filmmakers Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey show and contextualize the amazing breadth of the work of “the first couple of American design,” Charles and Ray Eames. Janice Simon, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Associate Professor of Art History in the Lamar Dodd School of Art, introduced the screening.

American Masters: LennoNYC

LennoNYC, a Peabody Award-winning documentary by director Michael Epstein, was screened on November 8 at Ciné. The film chronicles the former Beatle John Lennon’s residence in New York City during the final decade of his life. David Barbe, director of the Music Business Certificate Program in the Terry College of Business, introduced the screening.

“New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts” with Leonard Bernstein

A 1969 episode of Leonard Bernstein’s long-running CBS “New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts” television series entitled “Bach Transmogrified” was screened November 10. Horace Newcomb, professor of telecommunications in the Grady College and director of the Peabody Awards, and David Haas, professor of musicology in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, hosted the screening.

“Creativity in the Research University” Roundtable

On November 7, Willson Center Director and Franklin Professor of English Nicholas Allen moderated a panel discussion on “Creativity in the Research University.” Mark Callahan, artistic director of Ideas for Creative Exploration; David Saltz, associate professor and department head, department of theatre and film studies; Martijn van Wagtendonk, associate professor of art, Art X, Lamar Dodd School of Art; and Susan Thomas, associate professor of musicology and women’s studies, participated in the conversation.

Martijn van Wagtendonk (left) discusses creativity.

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Songs @ Ciné

“Songs @ Ciné” was organized by the Willson Center and sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research as part of the Thinc. at UGA Entrepreneurial Week. The event took place March 29 in an intimate, 127-seat screening room at Ciné, a nonprofit cinema and arts venue in downtown Athens.

All proceeds from the event supported Ciné’s purchase of a digital projection system that will allow the theatre to continue to screen current films. Ciné will retain its capability to project 35mm prints for classic films and other special screenings.

The songwriter showcase was a “song swap” with five artists onstage singing individually and together. Mike Mills, formerly of R.E.M., was joined by Don Chambers, veteran Athens singer-songwriter; Dave Marr, formerly of The Star Room Boys; Hardy Morris, lead singer of Dead Confederate; and Thayer Sarrano, Athens singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.

The Thinc. at UGA event provided an opportunity for the Willson Center to highlight entrepreneurship in the arts and nonprofit sectors, and to support an important community resource. As one of the Willson Center’s key external affiliates, Ciné is central to its efforts to build community partnerships and cooperative initiatives involving Athens’ thriving arts scene.

Thirty tickets were made available to UGA students free of charge with the support of the Office of the Vice President for Research. The sold-out event raised more than $3,000 for Ciné’s digital conversion campaign.

Arts and Entrepreneurship Panel Discussion

University of Georgia faculty and alumni shared new perspectives on the arts and entrepreneurship in this discussion organized by Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) and the Willson Center.

Mark Callahan, artistic director of ICE, served as moderator of the panel. The other participants were Connie Frigo, visiting professor of saxophone in the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, and UGA alumni Mitchell Jarrett and Ashley Buchanan.

Connie Frigo is an accomplished performer, former Fulbright Scholar, and author of the “Entrepreneurship 101” column in Saxophone Journal. In 2011, she launched “Road of Creativity,” a business dedicated to teaching entrepreneurship and creativity to musicians.

Mitchell Jarrett studied anthropology, Chinese, and film at UGA. He co-wrote and co-produced the 2012 film The Taiwan Oyster, which his brother Mark directed. Together they raised over $20,000 through Kickstarter to support the making of the film, which screened in competition at South by Southwest in 2012.

Ashley Buchanan graduated with a BFA in jewelry and metalwork from UGA in 2009. She now makes jewelry full-time from her home studio in Johnson City, Tennessee , selling her work through galleries, boutiques, fairs, and the Internet.

Thinc. at UGA

Thinc. at the University of Georgia is a new initiative that promotes entrepreneurship and fosters economic development in the region by providing inspiration and advice to entrepreneurs. Thinc. at UGA brings together

entrepreneurship experts from industry and academia with faculty, alumni, students and members of the local community in Athens and across the state. The Willson Center presented two events for Thinc. at UGA Entrepreneurial Week in 2013.

Mike Mills

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The Atlantic Archipelagos Research Project (AARP) is a forum to think about identities, cartographies and cultural ecologies. First conceived of in context of the islands of Britain and Ireland, this conference offered the first opportunity to expand the idea into North America. It coincided with established interests at UGA in the environment, ecology, art and creative writing, including the Institute of Native American Studies’ conference on the “Red Atlantic.”

The AARP’s horizon includes engagement with international colleagues to establish a world-class specialism in the study and research of “archipelago” as a creative, intellectual, and political concept that connects pillars of research in existence at UGA. AARP builds new connections between the Willson Center and its regional, national and international partners, including Emory, Exeter, the National University of Ireland Galway, Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, and the Universities of London, Liverpool, and York.

The conference continued April 11–12 with panel discussions and lectures from an international array of speakers. AARP then moved to Sapelo Island, where participants learned more of the complex histories of the Georgia coast.

The intellectual questions raised through AARP speak powerfully to the “archipelago” as an activity and as a way of visiting the landscape in new ways. The project’s conceptual aim is to analyze the tensions in coupling identity and nationhood with ecology and the environment, relationships usually underplayed or overlooked. Participants’ specialties include the Atlantic and capitalism; early modern culture and transnational exchange; literary and cultural theory; literary environmentalism and nature writing; cartography and literary mapping; archipelagic, regional and national identities.

The AARP meeting was a State-of-the-Art Conference sponsored by the Office of the Provost at UGA, in partnership with the British-Irish Studies Program; Institute of Native American Studies; Center for Undergraduate Research Opportunities; Creative Writing Program; Department of English; Department of History; and Russell Special Collections Libraries.

AARP began with a performance of music and poetry by the famed poet and novelist Ciaran Carson from Belfast, Ireland, accompanied by his wife, Deirdre, on April 10. Carson was introduced by Paul Gleeson, Consul General for Ireland.

Carson is the author of a number of collections of poetry including The Irish for No (1987), winner of the Alice Hunt Bartlett Award; Belfast Confetti (1989); First Language: Poems (1994), winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize; Collected Poems (2009), and The Midnight Court (2006), a translation of the 18th-century work by Irish poet Brian Merriman.

Ciaran Carson

Atlantic Archipelagos Research Project 2013 State of the Art Conference

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Marcus Bugler, Host: Joan Buttram (Department of Dance)

Marcus Bugler, executive dance director and choreographer for Glenbrook Studios® and instructor and choreographer for Nevada Ballet Theatre and Cirque du Soleil’s production of Viva Elvis, was in residence April 4 – 6. Recognized for his skill in training actors and singers to be theatrical movers on stage and screen, Bulger teaches master classes, gives

workshops, adjudicates and choreographs in dance schools, camps and conventions across the country.

Kopelman String Quartet, Host: Levon Ambartsumian (Hugh Hodgson School of Music)

The Kopelman String Quartet is one of the major string quartets of the world. Founded a decade ago by graduates of the Moscow Conservatoire, the quartet is steeped in the standards and style of the classic Russian school. While on campus October 2 – 10, the Quartet led individual master-classes and quartet master-classes, and held meetings with UGA faculty and students. The Quartet gave the Payne Memorial Concert as part of the Franklin College Chamber Music Series.

Liz Lerman, Host: Mark Callahan (Ideas for Creative Exploration [ICE])

Liz Lerman, a visionary choreographer, performer, educator, and writer, was in residence October 29 – November 2. She has been the recipient of numerous honors, including a MacArthur “Genius Grant” Fellowship and a United States Artists Ford Fellowship. Her work has been commissioned by the Lincoln Center, American Dance Festival, Harvard Law School, and the Kennedy Center, among many others.

Willson Center Visiting Fellows

Willson Center Short-Term Visiting Fellowships, nominated by UGA faculty, bring distinguished artists, scholars and performers to the arts and humanities community at the University of Georgia. Visiting Fellows conduct intensive workshops for faculty and students, and give public presentations of their work. During 2012-13, the Willson Center supported three sets of visiting fellows.

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Frank Shovlin, Host: Nicholas Allen (Willson Center)

Frank Shovlin, Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, spoke on “‘Their Friends, the French’: Joyce and Jacobitism” on September 6. Shovlin is the author of Journey Westward: Joyce, Dubliners and the Literary Revival (2012) and The Irish Literary Periodical 1923-1958 (2003).

Odekhiren Amaize, Host: Roger Vogel (Hugh Hodgson School of Music)

On September 6, Odekhiren Amaize, Associate Professor in the College of Communication and Media Sciences at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi, performed as bass-baritone soloist for the premiere of Things Fall Apart, a major song cycle by UGA Professor Emeritus Roger C. Vogel. The song cycle is based on excerpts from the novel of the same name by Chinua Achebe.

Paul Tough, Host: Nicholas Allen (Willson Center)

Paul Tough, author of Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America (2010) and How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character (2012), spoke on “How Children Succeed” on October 1 in the Chapel. He has written extensively about education, child development, poverty, and politics, including

cover stories in The New York Times Magazine on character education, the achievement gap, and the Harlem Children’s Zone. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, GQ, and Esquire, and on the op-ed page of The New York Times.

Donald Hodges, Host: Roy Legette (Hugh Hodgson School of Music)

Donald Hodges, Covington Distinguished Professor of Music Education and Director of the Music Research Institute (MRI) at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, spoke on “Peering into the Musical Brain” on October 4. At the MRI he oversees more than 40 active research projects divided into six categories: BioMusic, Neuroimaging of Musicians, Music Education, Musicians’ Hearing Health, Music Performance, and Ethnomusicology-Ecocriticism.

Benjamin Reiss, Host: Nicholas Allen (Willson Center)

On October 4, Benjamin Reiss spoke on “Wild Things vs. Sleep Nazis: How Children’s Bedtime Became a Problem.” Reiss, Professor of English at Emory University, specializes in 19th-century American literature and culture, with strong interests in the history of medicine, race, disability, and popular culture. He is an editor of the Cambridge History of the American Novel (2011).

Suzanne Matson, Host: Nicholas Allen (Willson Center)

Author Suzanne Matson gave a reading on October 11. Matson received an MA in English and Creative Writing in 1983 and a PhD in English in 1987 from the University of Washington, where she was awarded the Robert B. Heilman Dissertation Prize, an Academy of American Poets Prize, and the Susannah McMurphy Fellowship. Since 1988 she has

taught at Boston College where she is a full professor and the chair of the English department.

Distinguished Artists and Lecturers

The Willson Center Distinguished Artist or Lecturer program supports individual faculty or interdisciplinary groups in bringing leading thinkers and practitioners to campus in support of ongoing and innovative research projects. The Willson Center funded more than twenty distinguished artists and lecturers during the year.

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G. R. F. Ferrari, Host: Frank Harrison (Department of Philosophy)

G. R. F. Ferrari, Professor and Chair of the Department of Classics at University of California, Berkeley and a prominent interpreter of Plato, spoke on “The Philosophic Life in Ancient Greece” on October 19. His first book, Listening to the Cicadas: A Study of Plato’s Phaedrus (1987), examined both Plato’s arguments and the dramatic setting of the dialogue. He is editor of The Cambridge Companion to Plato’s Republic (2007).

Robert Connor, Host: Nicholas Allen (Willson Center)

Robert Connor, senior advisor and past president of the New York-based Teagle Foundation, spoke on “The Cliff, the River and the Sea: Reflections on Extreme Literature in Ancient and Modern Times” on November 7. The Teagle Foundation serves as an influential national voice and a catalyst for change in higher education to improve undergraduate student learning in the arts and sciences.

Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, Host: Charles B. Cross (Department of Philosophy)

Carrie Ichikawa Jenkins, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of British Columbia, gave a lecture on November 30. She is author of An Empirical Basis for Arithmetical Knowledge (2008). She has published on a wide variety of other topics, from

the Liar Paradox to the Philosophy of Flirting.

Nils Folke Anderson, Host: Stephen Ramos (College of Environment and Design)

Artist Nils Folke Anderson spoke on January 17 as part of an exhibit sponsored by the Willson Center and the College of Environment and Design. Anderson, a painter and sculptor whose works have been exhibited and reviewed internationally, presented a group of eight works, including paintings, a light sculpture, and three installations created on site specifically for the exhibition. The show also featured an interactive work, titled Haptic Geometry, in which the public was invited to participate in configuring a group of “reciprocally linked” sculptures.

Steven Tepper, Host: Mark Callahan (Ideas for Creative Exploration [ICE])

On January 22, Steven Tepper spoke on “Creative Work and the Work of Creativity: How Colleges and Universities Can Prepare Graduates to Reinvent Our World.” Tepper is a leader in the field of cultural policy and research on the impact of the arts on everyday life. He is

the Associate Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise and Public Policy and an Associate Professor of Sociology at Vanderbilt University.

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William Schabas, Host: Diane Marie Amann (School of Law)

Chairman of the Irish Centre for Human Rights William A. Schabas, professor of international law at Middlesex University London, spoke on “Human Rights and Culture” on February 7. Schabas is an internationally respected expert on human rights law, genocide and the death penalty and is a prolific author. He has often been invited to participate in international human rights missions on behalf of non-governmental organizations, and served as a member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 2002 to 2004.

Karen Kunc, Host: Melissa Harshman (Lamar Dodd School of Art)

Artist Karen Kunc gave a lecture entitled “Printedness” on February 21. Kunc is a Cather Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where she has taught since 1983. Her awards include a Fulbright Scholar Award to Finland and two National Endowment for the

Arts Fellowships. Kunc’s works have been shown in exhibitions nationally and internationally and are held in numerous private, public and university collections

Steven Spooner, Host: Richard Zimdars (Hugh Hodgson School of Music)

On February 23, the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, in partnership with the Willson Center, presented an all-day Eastern European Piano Literature Symposium. Dr. Steven Spooner of the University of Kansas piano faculty was the featured artist. Spooner played a short recital, taught a piano master class, and gave a lecture titled “An American Studying at the Moscow Conservatory.” On February 26, Spooner performed a full solo piano recital in Ramsey Concert Hall.

Edgar W. Schneider,  Host: William Kretzschmar (Department of English)

Edgar W. Schneider, Chair of English Linguistics at the University of Regensburg, Germany, spoke February 27 on “World Englishes: New Language Forms Mushrooming in New Contexts.” Schneider has written and edited several books, including American Earlier Black English (1989); Focus on the USA (ed., 1996); Postcolonial English (Cambridge UP, 2007) and English Around the World: An Introduction (CUP 2011).

Paul Zanker, Host: Mark Abbe (Lamar Dodd School of Art)

On February 28, Paul Zanker, internationally renowned as one of the foremost scholars of ancient Greek and Roman art, spoke on ”The Arch of Constantinew: A Monument of the Roman Senate.” Zanker’s monographs include The Power of Images in the Age of Augustus (1988) and Living with Myth: The Imagery of Roman Sarcophagi (2012). He is currently professor of ancient art history at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa, Italy.

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel, Host: Lorgia García Peña (Department of Romance Languages)

Yolanda Martínez-San Miguel is Director of the Institute for Research on Women at Rutgers University. She spoke April 1 on “The Afro-Boricua Mirror Stage: Down These Mean Streets as Foundational Narrative of Puerto Rican and Chicano Studies.” She teaches in the Latino Studies Program and the Comparative Literature Program at Rutgers and holds a PhD in Spanish from the University of California, Berkeley (1996).

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Maggie Nelson, Hosts: Andrew Zawacki and Caroline Young (Department of English)

On April 4, author Maggie Nelson read from her most recent book, The Art of Cruelty: A Reckoning (Norton, 2011), which was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. She is also the author of three other books of nonfiction prose and several books

of poetry, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship in nonfiction, an NEA Fellowship in poetry, and an Andy Warhol Foundation/Creative Capital Arts Writers Grant.

Michael Friedman, Host: Edward Halper (Department of Philosophy)

Michael Friedman of Stanford University, one of the foremost interpreters of Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of science, spoke on April 5. The first of his 11 books, Foundations of Space-Time Theories, received the Matchette Prize and the Lakatos Award. He has also held National Science Foundation, Guggenheim, and National Endowment for the Humanities fellowships, and he received the Humboldt Research Award.

Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer, Host: Lisa Fusillo (Department of Dance)

Dr. Millicent Hodson, American choreographer and dance historian, is best known for her research and pioneering reconstruction of the 1913 Nijinsky-Stravinsky ballet Le Sacre du Printemps (“The Rite

of Spring”). This reconstruction work was done in tandem with designer and art historian Kenneth Archer, the leading expert on the work of Nicholas Roerich, the designer of the ballet’s first production. Hodson and Archer visited UGA together and spoke on April 16.

Paddy Johnson, Host: Isabelle Loring Wallace (Lamar Dodd School of Art)

Paddy Johnson, the founding editor of the blog Art Fag City, lectured on April 16. In addition to her work on the blog, she has been published in New York Magazine, The Guardian, and The Economist. In 2008, Johnson became the first blogger to earn a Creative Capital Arts Writers grant from the Creative Capital Foundation. Winner of the Village Voice Web Award for Best Arts Blog in 2010 and 2011, Johnson writes a regular column on art for The L Magazine.

Dalia Judovitz, Host: Susan Rosenbaum (Department of English)

On April 18, Dalia Judovitz of Emory University spoke on “Artistic Gesture and Critical Commentary: Duchamp and Lyotard.” Judovitz is widely recognized as one of the foremost scholars of Marcel Duchamp, and was a student of Jean-Francois Lyotard. Her books include Drawing on Art: Duchamp & Company (Minnesota, 2010) and Subjectivity and Representation in Descartes: The Origins of Modernity (1988).

Richard Allen, Host: Antje Ascheid (Department of Theatre and Film Studies)

Richard Allen, professor and chair of cinema studies at New York University, spoke on “The Sound of The Birds” on April 22. Allen is the editor of The Hitchcock Annual, the journal of Alfred Hitchcock studies, and the author of a number of books including Hitchcock’s Romantic Irony (Columbia University Press, 2007). Allen introduced a special screening of Hitchcock’s Frenzy at Ciné after his talk on campus. His visit was co-sponsored by the department of theatre and film studies and the film studies program.

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Achy Obejas, Host: Lorgia García Peña (Department of Romance Languages)

Poet and novelist Achy Obejas gave a lecture and read from her work on April 22. Obejas is the author of the critically acclaimed novels Ruins, Days of Awe and three other books of fiction. Her poetry chapbook, This is What Happened in Our Other Life, was both a critical favorite

and a bestseller. She is a founding member of the creative writing faculty at the University of Chicago, a member of the editorial board of In These Times, and a blogger for WBEZ.org.

Scott Russell Sanders, Host: Stephen Corey (The Georgia Review)

Scott Russell Sanders, author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction including A Private History of Awe and A Conservationist Manifesto, gave a talk on April 22 entitled “Near and Distant Bears.” Among his honors are the Lannan Literary Award, the John Burroughs Essay Award, the Mark Twain Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2012 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

John Rist, Host: Edward Halper (Department of Philosophy)

John Rist, Professor Emeritus of Classics at the University of Toronto, spoke on April 26. His talk was entitled “Can Augustine’s ‘City of God’ Help Us Deconstruct Multiculturalism?” Rist was at that time visiting professor at the Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum in Rome and Father Kurt Pritzl, O.P. Chair in Philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He was formerly Regius Professor of Classics at the University of Aberdeen.

From the 2013 exhibit Discrete Aperture: The Works of Nils Folke Anderson. Sponsored by the Willson Center and the College of Environment and Design.

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Public Impact Grants

The Willson Center Public Impact Grant supports faculty in the organization on campus and in the local community of conferences, exhibitions, and performances that showcase humanities and arts research in a broad context. The Public Impact Grant is designed to offer interaction between national and international artists and scholars, UGA faculty, students and the community.

Ririe-Woodbury Dance Company Performance and Residency, Host: Bala Sarasvati (Department of Dance)

The Ririe Woodbury Dance Company, led by founders Shirley Ririe and Joan Woodbury, provided a three-day residence in the UGA Department of Dance October 15 – 17, 2012. The company taught master classes in the Department of Dance, provided a lecture demonstration/ performance, and staged a work for UGA dance students. The RWDC, one of the leading

companies in dance education, has performed throughout the U.S., British Isles, Canada, China, Europe, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa and the Virgin Islands.

EcoFocus Film Festival Host: Sara Beresford (Odum School of Ecology)

EcoFocus Film Festival was initiated in 2007 by UGA’s Odum School of Ecology with the mission to present high-quality films on environmental subjects to inform and inspire audiences. The 2012-2013 EcoFocus Film Festival took place during March 22 – 30, 2013 and featured the best environmental films of the year along with filmmakers, speakers and special events.

The Aspen String Trio, Hosts: Maggie Snyder and Michael Heald (Hugh Hodgson School of Music)

The Aspen String Trio was in residence March 24 – 26 at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music. The three world-class instrumentalists each have a long-time association as artist-faculty with the Aspen Music Festival and have performed in the world’s most prestigious venues. The trio also gave a recital in Ramsey Hall on March 27. Their visit was sponsored in part by the UGA Performing Arts Center.

The Willson Center Public Impact Grant was crucial to the success of the 2013 festival and greatly enhanced the impact of the festival on the Athens and Northeast Georgia community. By supporting the mission of the festival, the WIllson Center enables EcoFocus to play an important role in informing and inspiring the public about important and challenging environmental issues.

– Sara BeresfordEcoFocus Festival Director

Beresford

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� Faculty Seminar on the Book Organizers: Miriam Jacobson (English), Anne Myers-Devine (Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library) This interdisciplinary seminar explored the nature of the book in all its forms, across time and space. It included plenary talks by guest lecturers Adam Smyth and Brian Croxall.

� The Georgia Colloquium in 18th-and 19th-Century Literature Organizers: Roxanne Eberle (English), Chloe Wigston Smith (English) This colloquium promoted intellectual inquiry across the disciplines and provided a forum for faculty and graduate students from UGA and from regional and national universities to present recent work. Guest lecturers included Keith Wilson, Rebecca Stern, Misty Anderson, and Jon Mee.

� Georgia Workshop on Culture, Power and History Organizers: Pablo Lapegna (Sociology and LACSI), David Smilde (Sociology) This workshop provided an interdisciplinary discursive space for social scientific research that sees meaning creation (culture) as central to the way humans create social structure; regards structured inequality (power) as a central aspect of the social world; and focuses on concrete actors and structures as they develop through time (history).

� Religion and Politics in Ancient North Africa Organizer: Naomi J. Norman (Classics) This seminar examined the latest scholarship on the political, economic, religious, and cultural aspects of ancient North Africa during Punic and Roman occupation (spanning from the ninth century B.C.E. to the seventh century C.E.).

� History and Gender Workshop Organizers: Jennifer L. Palmer (History), Kathleen Clark (History) This seminar examined the historical scholarship on gender as a central matter for research within the History Department — one which cuts across temporal and geographic boundaries, and draws together scholars who study topics from ancient Greece to modern-day Mexico. Guest lecturers included Jennifer Heuer and Tara Zahra.

� Historical Phenomenon of Modernism Organizer: Jed Rasula (English) This seminar investigated the historical phenomenon of Modernism as it was manifested in literature, music, dance, film, and the visual arts. The seminars involved faculty and students from numerous UGA departments as well as guest lecturers including Carrie Preston, Przemyslaw Strozek, and Michael Jennings.

Research Seminars

Willson Center Research Seminars support faculty organizing year-long interdisciplinary discussion groups on particular research topics. Seminars bring to campus scholars from other institutions. The Willson Center funded six seminars for the 2012–2013 academic year.

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James Anaya

The 2012 – 2013 Willson Center/ EECP Odum Lecture was given February 7 by James Anaya, Regents’ and James J. Lenoir Professor of Human Rights Law and Policy in the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona. Anaya’s talk was entitled “Reconciliation with the Native Americans Still Needed: Toward a More Wholesome American Landscape.”

An expert in International Human Rights and Indigenous peoples law, Anaya is the author of the acclaimed book, Indigenous Peoples in International Law (Oxford Univ. Press, 1996, 2d. ed. 2004), and currently serves as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Anaya has advised numerous indigenous and other organizations from several countries on matters of human rights and indigenous peoples, and he has represented indigenous groups from many parts of North and Central America in landmark cases before courts and international organizations. He participated in the drafting of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and was the lead counsel for the indigenous parties in the case of Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua, in which the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for the first time upheld indigenous land rights as a matter of international law.

Peter Murray CBE

Peter Murray, the founding director of one of the world’s foremost venues for the outdoor exhibition of sculpture, gave the 2012 – 2013 Willson Center / GMOA lecture on March 20. Murray’s talk, entitled “Museums Without Walls: Art in the Landscape,” was organized by Willson Center Associate Academic Director for Arts and Public Programs Antje Ascheid, associate professor of theatre and film studies. A public reception was held following the lecture.

Murray founded the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, located at Bretton Hall, an 18th-century estate 20 miles south of Leeds, England, in 1977. He has curated work by artists including Henry Moore, Joan Miró, Barbara Hepworth, Eduardo Chillida, William Turnbull, James Turrell, Isamu Noguchi, Nigel Hall, David Nash, Jaume Plensa, and Andy Goldsworthy.

Murray holds the titles of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) and Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The rank of CBE is one level below knighthood in the British order of chivalry.

Willson Center / EECP Odum Lecture

The Environmental Ethics Certificate Program (EECP) is a non-degree program offered as an enhancement to an undergraduate or graduate degree. The EECP provides an interdisciplinary forum for students, faculty, and the community to discuss social and scientific responsibilities toward the environment. The Willson Center/EECP Odum Lecture is hosted by Dorinda G. Dallmeyer, director of the Environmental Ethics Certificate Program.

Willson Center / GMOA Lecture

The Georgia Museum of Art is both a university museum under the aegis of the University of Georgia and, since 1982, the official state museum of art. Located on the East Campus of UGA in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex, it opened in 1948. The Willson Center / Georgia Museum of Art (GMOA) Lecture features interdisciplinary presentations by arts and humanities faculty.

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Animation, Art, and Careers for UGA Students

The September 28 Cinema Roundtable featured Mike Hussey (Theatre and Film Studies) and a panel of former UGA students who now work professionally in the fields of animation and/or digital effects. The panelists discussed the challenges and rewards of creative careers in animation and cable TV. Guests included Chris Wells (CG Supervisor for Hydraulx on films including Avatar, Battle: Los Angeles, and Take Shelter), Valentina Tapia (Program Development at Adult Swim), and Neal Holman (Producer, Art Director, Archer, FX Network). Richard Neupert of UGA Film Studies chaired the panel.

Science / Fiction / Time Games: Watching Chris Marker’s La Jetée

The January 25 roundtable included a screening of the film, a 27-minute narrative featurette from 1962. Marker, a French filmmaker also known for experimental essay films such as A Grin Without a

Cat (1977) and Sans Soleil (1983), was a contemporary of Alain Resnais, Agnes Varda and other filmmakers of the Left Bank cinema movement whose work was tangential to the French New Wave. He died in 2012 at the age of 91. The panel included UGA faculty members Andrew Zawacki (English; director of the creative writing program) and Jed Rasula (Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English), as well as Marker specialist Virginia Bonner (Film and Media Studies, Clayton State University).

Django Unchained

On February 22 a roundtable discussion examined the acclaimed and controversial film by Quentin Tarantino. The event was organized by the Institute for African American Studies in cooperation with the Willson Center and UGA Film Studies. Panelists included moderator Richard Neupert (Theatre and Film Studies), Valerie Babb (English; Director, Institute for African American Studies), John Morrow (Department Head, History), Christopher Sieving (Theatre and Film Studies), and Freda Scott Giles (Theatre and Film Studies; Institute for African American Studies).

Lincoln

The presentation of a tense moment in American Civil War history in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln continues to inspire close evaluation of its historical accuracy, political slant, and cultural impact. This March 1 roundtable brought together four UGA experts on the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln, and representations of the South, for a discussion of Lincoln and its implications. The panelists were Stephen Berry (History; Gregory Chair in Civil War Era Studies), John Inscoe (History), Diane Batts Morrow (History), Barry Schwartz (Sociology) and moderator Richard Neupert (Theatre and Film Studies).

Willson Center Cinema Roundtables

The Willson Center Cinema Roundtable meets to discuss topics of film history, criticism and theory. The roundtables are moderated by Richard Neupert, Wheatley Professor of the Arts, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, and film studies coordinator in the Department of Theatre and Film Studies.

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Grants Roundtables

The Willson Center held two grants roundtables during the fall. Faculty panelists who have been successful in securing funding from national agencies gave short presentations in a town-hall style discussion on November 5. The panel discussed strategies in applying for external grants. The roundtable was organized by Stephen Berry and moderated by William Kretschmar.

On November 14, Nicholas Allen led a similar grants workshop discussion for graduate students on effective application strategies. The workshop included a presentation by Kylie Horney of the History Department whose project “From Vigorous & Bold Operations” won her this year’s Janelle Padgett Knight Graduate Award.

Journal Support

The Willson Center supports a number of academic journals. Support is reviewed every three years.

American Journal of ArchaeologyEditor: Naomi Norman, Department of Classics

Borrowers and LendersEditors: Christy Desmet, Sujata Iyengar, Department of English

VerseEditors: Brian Henry, Andrew Zawacki, Department of English

Ethics and the EnvironmentEditor: Victoria Davion, Department of Philosophy

VergiliusEditor: Sarah Spence, Department of Classics

Faculty Research Clusters

For 2013-14, the Willson Center will support six research clusters: Athens Music Project; International Modernism; EcoFocus Film Initiative; Digital Humanities Lab; Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE); and Neuroimaging, Movie Trailers, and Spectator Cognition.

The 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. Clusters situate their research questions in context of major and evolving issues and include elements of interdisciplinary, multi-faculty teaching at the graduate or undergraduate levels. FRCs are designed to build research capacity in the humanities and arts, engage the broader community, and increase the profile and competitiveness of faculty for grants and support. FRCs are selected by the Willson Center Advisory Board and are funded up to 36 months. The Faculty Research Cluster program is funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research through the University of Georgia Research Foundation. The EcoFocus Film Festival cluster is funded through the Willson Center.

Willson Center Online

The Willson Center developed new branding and created a new website, willson.uga.edu. The Center also restructured grant programs that included moving grant applications and review processes online supported by an external vendor.

New Willson Center Building

Through the generosity of Jane Willson and with support from the Office of the President and the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Willson Center will relocate to a larger space in 2014. Our new offices will be in a historic two-story house at 1260 South Lumpkin Street that will be thoroughly renovated to suit the Willson Center’s needs.

The building will be redesigned to host meetings, receptions, and speaking events, and will contain office space to support the Willson Center’s expanded staff. A shaded front porch overlooking a garden established by a gift from our former director, Betty Jean Craige, will serve as an everyday recreation area and outdoor event space. The new location will allow for a more accommodating and versatile Willson Center beginning in the 2014–2015 academic year.

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Faculty Advisory Board

Nell AndrewAssistant Professor of Art History, Lamar Dodd School of Art

Antje AscheidAssociate Professor of Film Studies, Department of Theatre and Film Studies

Stephen BerryAmanda & Greg Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era, Department of History

Dana BultmanAssociate Professor of Spanish, Department of Romance Languages

Rebecca EnghauserAssociate Professor of Dance, Department of Dance

Jean KidulaAssociate Professor of Music, Hugh Hodgson School of Music

Richard NeupertWheatley Professor of the Arts and Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Theatre and Film Studies

Hugh Ruppersburg, ChairUniversity Professor, Department of English; Interim Vice Provost; Senior Associate Dean, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences

“The World at Large”: The Art Rosenbaum Mural at the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts

The mission of the Willson Center is to promote research and creativity in the humanities and arts. It supports faculty through research grants, lectures, symposia, publications, visiting scholars, visiting artists, collaborative instruction, public conferences, exhibitions, and performances. It is committed to academic excellence and public impact.

The Willson Center is a showcase for faculty innovation and achievement. It facilitates intellectual exchange with the Univers-ity and the public by the encouragement of interdisciplinary activity, which extends to the sciences and other orders of knowledge. It has the capacity to offer taught programs in support of faculty and graduate research, and in partnership with alumni.

The humanities encompass philosophical, historical, social, ethical, legal, aesthetic, religious, linguistic, and ideological investigations of our world. Humanistic research includes many kinds of scholarship, such as history, criticism, theory, interpretation, and translation. The arts may be understood as the expression of human experience in various modes, such as literature, theater, music, dance, film, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and design.

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Stephen Berry, Associate Professor and Gregory Chair in the Civil War Era (History) and William Kretschzmar, Harry and Jane Willson Professor in the Humanities (English), received Digital Innovation Fellowships from the ACLS. Two of the six national awards went to UGA.

Celeste Condit, professor (Communication Studies), is sub-contract PI for “Identification of Issues and Expectations of Subjects Participating in Genetic Studies of Cancer” through the NIH, with Karen Edwards.

Miriam Jacobson, assistant professor (English), received a National Endowment for the Humanities Grant through the Folger Shakespeare Library.

William Kretzschmar, Harry and Jane Willson Professor in the Humanities (English), was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Oulu in Finland in May 2013. Professor Kretzschmar is the editor of the Linguistic Atlas Project, a national center for survey research on American English.

Cody Marrs, assistant professor (English), received a Research Fellowship from the Newberry Library, Chicago.

Barbara McCaskill, associate professor (English), received a grant to participate for four weeks in the NEH Summer Seminar, “The Role of Place in African American Biography,” sponsored by the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, Williams College, and the Upper Housatonic African American Heritage Trail.

2012-2013 Faculty Highlights

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Jed Rasula, Helen S. Lanier Distinguished Professor of English (English), received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Research Grant (with Tim Conhley).

Belinda Stillion-Southard, assistant professor (Communication Studies), received an Honorable Mention, Winifred Bryan Horner Book Award, given by the Coalition of Women Scholars in the History of Rhetoric, for her book, Militant Citizenship: Rhetorical Strategies of the National Woman’s Party, 1913-1920.

In October, Martijn van Wagtendonk, associate professor and chair of the ArtX: Expanded Forms (Lamar Dodd School of Art), won second place in the fourth annual ArtPrize exhibition in Grand Rapids, Mich. The $75,000 prize in the international competition was awarded by public vote for “Song of Lift,” a room-filling installation Wagtendonk, a current Willson Center Fellow, describes as “a five-minute-long, fully automated, viewer- sensitive opera.”

Roger Vogel, professor emeritus (Hodgson School of Music), premiered his new song cycle Things Fall Apart, based on Chinua Achebe’s classic novel, on campus in early September. The performance featured bass-baritone soloist Odekherin Amaize, whose visit to UGA was sponsored by a Willson Center grant. A recording of the premiere was broadcast on WUGATV in November.

Elizabeth R. Wright, associate professor (Romance Languages) and Sarah Spence, professor (Classics), with Andrew Lemons, UGA MA (Classics); Princeton PhD - ABD (Comparative Literature), completed the second year of a two-year NEH Collaborative Research grant to finish their translation and edition of Latin poetry on the battle of Lepanto (1571), under contract with the I Tatti series of Harvard University Press. The project is supported by grants from the Rockefeller Foundation and the American Philosophical Society.

At the August 2012 Leonard Falcone International Euphonium and Tuba Festival in Twin Lake, Michigan, UGA Hugh Hodgson School of Music students David McLemore and Simon Waldman took first and second place, respectively, in the Tuba Artist Division of the competition, while Gary Garvin and Alex Avila placed second and third in the Euphonium Artist Division. The students attended the festival with the support of a Willson Center grant awarded to David Zerkel, professor of tuba and euphonium (Hodgson School of Music).

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Internal Affiliates

Center for Asian Studies at UGA

External Affiliates

Institute for African American

StudiesCenter for

Teaching and Learning Institute of Native American Studies

Latin American & Caribbean Studies Institute

Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes

National Endowment for the Arts

Willson Center for Humanities and Arts110 Hooper Street

Athens, GA 30602-3001

Phone: (706) 542-3966

Fax: (706) 542-2828

wcha@uga.edu

willson.uga.edu