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11/15 — Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships 

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2023-24 Annual Report

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Sorting Through Scholarship: SLIS Student Organizes Obermann Library Collection

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Upcoming Events

Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Director (2025–26) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Director (2025–26)

Wednesday, October 30, 2024 5:00pm
Is there a burning topic in your discipline or a topic that cuts across disciplines that we should bring to campus? Is there a format for the conversation that can energize an intellectual community around that topic? That might be the perfect topic for an Obermann Symposium! These imaginative half- and whole-day symposia connect the arts and humanities with design, politics, health sciences, environmental studies, technology, and other disciplines via a compelling topic. Symposia should...
Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships

Friday, November 15, 2024 5:00pm
The UI Obermann Center for Advanced studies is currently accepting applications for its new International Fellowships Program, which offers dedicated space, time, and funding for interdisciplinary scholars to collaborate on innovative research at the University of Iowa. Up to eight international fellowships will be granted every academic year. Applicants must be active researchers at an accredited institution of higher learning outside of the United States or independent researchers/artists with...
Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 5:00pm
Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research, Book Ends—Obermann/OVPR Book Completion Workshop supports University of Iowa faculty from disciplines in which publishing a monograph is required for tenure and promotion. The award is designed to assist faculty members in turning promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books. Applications for upcoming Book Ends workshops are due Feb. 19, 2025.
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News

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Global connections: How international faculty shape Iowa’s future

Wednesday, October 2, 2024
On September 26, 2024, International Programs hosted a webinar focused on international faculty success in international scholarship and creative work as a part of the Cultivating Success: A Global Faculty Initiative series. Obermann Center director Luis Martín-Estudillo joined a distinguished panel of UI faculty experts to offer valuable insights into navigating the complexities of academia as an international faculty member at Iowa.
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Introducing Counterpoint, the Obermann Center's Newest Series

Monday, September 30, 2024
This October, the Obermann Center is thrilled to present the inaugural event in our new annual public conversation series, Counterpoint. These events will highlight a University of Iowa scholar with a long career of making critical contributions to their field, placing them in dialogue across the disciplines with another scholar from a different yet complementary field. 
Eleanor Ball standing by Obermann library shelves

Sorting Through Scholarship

Monday, September 9, 2024
Three months ago, I stepped into the Obermann Center’s library for the first time. My task was simple, if sizeable: I needed to organize the ~600 volumes in the collection by the end of the summer. As a student in Iowa’s School of Library & Information Science, I was excited for my first solo library project. I’ve been interested in academic librarianship, scholarly communications, and research support for a long time. However, I knew I would have to approach the work strategically and manage my time well in order to succeed. Our goal was to transform the library into a showcase for the works of Obermann scholars. But we also own many books that are unrelated to Obermann, and all of our books were intermingled without regard for subject, date, or author. After about thirty minutes of pacing up and down the library on my first day, I decided I was going to take every book off the shelf.
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Featured Programs

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Locating Reproductive Justice: Global & Regional Perspectives

2024–25 Obermann Arts and Humanities Symposium

As calls for transnational solidarity among reproductive justice movements emerge, communities are asking how reproductive liberation is tethered to struggles for democracy, environmental justice, migrant justice, trans and queer justice, and other social movements. This symposium brings together scholars and artists with local, regional, and global perspectives to bear on the pursuit of reproductive justice as we launch a new book series from the University of Iowa Press: “Locating Reproductive Justice: Global and Regional Perspectives." 

Join us for transnational, cross-disciplinary conversations featuring readings, seminars, and discussions on March 27–28, 2025, in Iowa City. 

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Counterpoint

For each annual event in Obermann’s new Counterpoint series, two University of Iowa researchers from different disciplines will discuss a compelling topical issue in a public forum. Discussions will take place in the beautiful Voxman Recital Hall, and a short musical program designed to echo the theme of the conversation will open each event. This series is co-presented by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the UI School of Music. Series events are free and open to all. 

For the first event in the series—on Monday, October 14 at 7:30 p.m.—Christopher Merrill—poet, nonfiction writer, translator, editor, and director of the UI’s renowned International Writing Program—and Loren Glass, a historian of creative writing and M.F. Carpenter Professor and chair of the UI English department, will discuss the relationship between international politics and literature, taking Merrill’s 24-year tenure at the IWP as a point of departure. 

 

Butterflies coming out of a book

Book Ends: Obermann/OVPR Book Completion Workshop

This program supports University of Iowa faculty from disciplines in which publishing a monograph is required for tenure and promotion. The award is designed to assist faculty members turn promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books. Book Ends brings together four senior scholars for a candid, constructive three-hour workshop on a faculty member’s book manuscript. The award provides a $500 honorarium for two external senior scholars ($500 for each). We also ask two University of Iowa senior faculty members to participate, as an opportunity to learn about and support the work of a colleague.

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