Georgia Humanities invites proposals from Georgia-based individuals including—but not limited to—historians, folklorists, musicians, artists, culture bearers, writers, museum professionals, humanities scholars, and performers.

We’re seeking applicants who:

• Have strong experience in public speaking, teaching, performance, or facilitation.
• Have deep knowledge and enthusiasm for the topic.
• Are willing to travel throughout Georgia and are comfortable presenting to audiences of varying ages and backgrounds.
• Are willing to accept 3-5 speaking engagements in a calendar year.
• Take original, engaging approaches to their subject matter.
• Can deliver inclusive and nonpartisan programs that serve all Georgia communities.

Georgia Humanities Georgia Circuit presenters and performers will be expected to:

• Reach out to potential host organizations to generate interest
• Respond to host organization requests in a timely, professional manner
• Arrange and deliver up to 5 presentations/performances with organizations across Georgia
• Provide their own transportation to and from engagements
• Identify Georgia Humanities as the sponsor of each engagement
• Refrain from delivering partisan content
• Encourage audience engagement and participation through dialogue, conversation, etc.
• Encourage audience members to complete a post-event assessment

Speakers chosen for the Georgia Circuit will receive a $300 honorarium per presentation and a distance-based travel stipend to defray necessary food and lodging costs.

Georgia Humanities seeks presenters from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines—history, literature, art, music, philosophy, civics, and the natural and social sciences—as long as the approach is rooted in the public humanities. Whether you are a scholar, artist, performer, culture bearer, community leader, or storyteller, we welcome proposals that are thoughtful, well-researched, and grounded in meaningful reflection and interpretation.

Programs may take the form of lectures, performances, story circles, interactive dialogues, or other creative formats. While we’re happy to consider traditional talks with Q&A, we also encourage formats that actively engage audiences—through storytelling, music, participatory art, and conversation. If your strength lies in sparking dialogue around a poem, guiding a discussion on a local mural, or leading a chorus through a historic protest song, we want to hear from you.

This year’s theme—By the People: Georgia Stories of Belonging and Becoming —is offered as an invitation, not a prescription. Presenters are encouraged to interpret the theme in ways that feel authentic to their experience, expertise, and vision.

We’re especially interested in programs that spark curiosity, offer unexpected insights, and create space for people to connect across difference. In short, we’re looking for ideas that help Georgians see their place in the ongoing story of democracy—past, present, and future.

The application asks you to list 3-5 learning outcomes—specific things audience members will know, understand, or be able to do after your presentation. Examples might include:

• Participants will be able to identify key historical or cultural contributions of underrepresented communities in Georgia, recognizing their role in shaping democratic life.
• Participants will gain greater understanding of how personal narratives and local traditions contribute to a shared sense of civic identity and belonging.
• Participants will reflect on their own role in sustaining democracy through everyday practices such as dialogue, cultural expression, and community engagement.
• Participants will explore the layered histories of Georgia’s landscapes—such as town squares, monuments, or migration paths—and consider how place influences identity and memory.
• Participants will engage in facilitated dialogue to practice listening across difference and build civic empathy through story sharing.
• Participants will learn to recognize democratic values expressed through art, music, and storytelling in Georgia communities, past and present.
• Participants will be introduced to the idea of democracy as an evolving and participatory process, shaped by many voices across time and place.
• Participants will leave with a broadened understanding of who “We the People” includes, and how collective identity in Georgia continues to evolve.
• Participants will develop new language and frameworks to talk about belonging, becoming, and civic life in their own communities.
• Participants will experience the humanities as a tool for community connection, critical reflection, and public imagination.
• Participants will recognize how musical traditions in Georgia have expressed themes of identity, resistance, belonging, and hope across generations.
• Participants will engage with an artist’s creative process to understand how art can act as both documentation and interpretation of public life.

Applications will be accepted from Wednesday, August 27, 2025, through Wednesday, October 1, 2025.

Click here to begin your application »

For questions about the Georgia Circuit program or application process, please contact Mary Wearn at mwearn@georgiahumanities.org.