William & Mary Sharp Seminar 2025-2026

From Kenya to Ireland, from rural Minnesota and Alabama, to Rio Grande City, Texas, the 2026 Sharp Seminar students ventured into the heart of geographies and communities to report on issues such as the youth vote, art preservation, environmental conservation, anti-immigrant sentiment, and gaps in healthcare. 

This year marks the 15th Sharp Writer-in-Residence Program/Journalism Seminar, a joint Campus Consortium initiative between the Pulitzer Center and William & Mary’s Charles Center, supported by William & Mary alumni Anne and Barry Sharp.

The yearlong seminar is led by Ted Maris-Wolf, associate director of The Charles Center at William & Mary, and Stephanie Hanes, environment and climate change writer at The Christian Science Monitor and a Pulitzer Center grantee.

The Sharp Seminar serves as a journalism incubator, providing students with opportunities to go beyond the academic world to report on topics for more general audiences. This year’s cohort includes 14 students with different disciplinary backgrounds, from psychology and government to finance, history, and geospatial analysis. In addition to research and writing workshops, students were able to engage with working journalists—and Pulitzer Center grantees—including writer and documentarian Nina Dietz and The Arizona Republic’s Daniel Gonzalez. 

The Sharp Writer-in-Residence Program/Journalism Seminar was launched in 2011 with support from the Sharps.  

“We are equipping students for a life of connections,” Maris-Wolf said. These students “define what journalism will look like.”