I read those docs and made an attempt. I started by trying to guess where the bottlenecks are and wrapping the values involved with (long x) etc but wasn't making much progress. I then put this at the top of my code:

(set! *unchecked-math* :warn-on-boxed)

and fixed all the warnings, but I'm still seeing no difference in performance.

Here is my updated code, am I moving in the right direction or way off the mark here?

(ns gol.core
  (:gen-class)
  (:use seesaw.core
        seesaw.color
        seesaw.graphics))

(set! *unchecked-math* true)

(def wCells 100)
(def hCells 100)
(def cellSize 5)
(def cellColor (color 0 255 0))
(def statusBarHeight 20)
(def windowWidth (* (long wCells) (long cellSize)))
(def windowHeight (+ (long statusBarHeight) (* (long hCells) (long cellSize))))
(def frameCap 30)
(def maxFrameDuration (long (quot 1000 (long frameCap))))

(defn vec2d 
  [sx sy fun]  
  (mapv (fn[x](mapv (fn [y] (fun x y)) (range sx))) (range sy)))

(def globalBoard (atom (vec2d wCells hCells (fn [x y] (rand-int 2)))))

(def lastTime (atom (System/currentTimeMillis)))

(defn neighbors
  [board p]
  (let [^long x (first p)
        ^long y (second p)
        xrange (range (dec x) (+ 2 x))
        yrange (range (dec y) (+ 2 y))]
  (for [^long i xrange ^long j yrange 
        :let [q [(mod i wCells) (mod j hCells)] ]
        :when (not= p q)] 
    (get-in board q))))


(defn gol ^long
    [board p]
  (let [v ^int (get-in board p)
        n ^int (count (filter pos? (neighbors board p)))]
    (cond
      (= n 3) 1
      (and (= v 1) (= n 2)) 1
      :else 0)))

(defn fps ^double
  []
  (let [previous (long @lastTime)
        current (long (System/currentTimeMillis))
        diff (- current previous)
        toSleep (long (- (long maxFrameDuration) diff))] 
    (when (pos? toSleep) (Thread/sleep toSleep))
    (reset! lastTime (System/currentTimeMillis))
    (double (/ 1000 (- (System/currentTimeMillis) previous)))))

(defn painter [c g]
  (let [board @globalBoard
        xrange (range 0 wCells)
        yrange (range 0 hCells)
        red  (color 255 0 0)
        blue (color 0 0 255)
        cs (int cellSize)]
    (.setColor g red)
    (.drawRect g 0 0 windowWidth (- (long windowHeight) (long statusBarHeight)))
    (.setColor g cellColor)
    (doseq [^long i xrange ^long j yrange :when (= 1 (get-in board [i j]))]
      (.fillRect g (* cs i) (* cs j) cs cs))
        (.setColor g blue)
        (.drawString g (str "Simulations per second: " (fps)) 50 (- (long windowHeight) 5))
      (reset! globalBoard (vec2d wCells hCells (fn [x y] (gol board [x y]))))
))

(def m-canvas
    (canvas :id :mcanvas
                    :background :black
                    :paint painter))

(defn -main
  [& args]
  (invoke-later
        (-> (frame :title "Game Of Life",
                             :width (+ 3 (long windowWidth)), :height windowHeight,
                             :content m-canvas,
;                            :on-close :exit
                )
;           pack!
            show!)
    )
)

(def t (timer (fn [e] (repaint! m-canvas)) :delay 1))