William & Mary Sharp Seminar 2025-2026

From Kenya to Ireland, from rural Minnesota and Alabama to Rio Grande City, Texas, the 2025-2026 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 at William & Mary's Charles Center. 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.

The seminar was 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.

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 William & Mary alumni Anne and Barry Sharp, and The Pulitzer Center.  

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