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Thank you, UI community, for supporting Obermann activities this year! We've been energized by your attendance and inspired by your feedback.
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Our 2022–23 Annual Report: Celebrating 45 years of supporting research at the UI
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Witnessing the Gravedigger: Photography professor Thalassa Raasch captures the work of Everard Hall in new manuscript
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Upcoming Events

Book Ends Information Session (virtual)

Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop (2023–24)

Humanities for the Public Good Closing Symposium
News

Witnessing the Gravedigger

Promoting Breastfeeding in Women with MS

Exploring the Intersection of Sports, Media, and Culture

Exploring Trauma and Imagination: "Ruinous Gods: Suites for Sleeping Children" Opera Takes Shape

Scholars Create Demo Derby as Comment on U.S. Political Discourse

Exploring Healthy Aging across the Life Course

Data Justice for Flint: Seamster Leads Effort to Build Accessible Archive with Humanities Without Walls Grand Research Challenge Project

Obermann Center symposium’s ‘Frequências’ film festival explores Afro-Brazilian cinema

Building Bridges: The MOSTRA Brazilian Film Festival

Lauren Burrell Cox is Obermann's New Assistant Director!

Frequências Symposium: A Discussion with Three Co-organizers

Frequências symposium a historical gathering of Brazilian filmmakers and scholars on the UI campus

Working to Create Nets: A Humanities for the Public Good Update

Meet Willie Zheng, our Undergraduate Communications Assistant

The City We Make Together — New book explores civic engagement

Redesigning Introductory Graduate Courses

New National Translation Center Builds on UI's Strengths and Extends Reach

Recent Immigrant and PhD Student Thrives on Stories of UI's Latinx History

Imagining Latinidades Convenes Writing Retreat

Seeking Memories in Poland: MFA playwright reckons with Holocaust memorialization

Scholar, Descendant, Collaborator: Jodi Skipper's new book explores slave dwelling project

Dancing During War: Kowal Explores WWII Photo Archives

Working Group Spotlight: Jewish Studies

Working Group Spotlight: Transform(ED) Justice Collaboratory

The Language of Social Justice: David Cassels Johnson explores educational language policies

Working Group Spotlight: Spanish Heritage Speakers in the Classroom

Weaponizing Humanities Research: Dellyssa Edinboro and the Oracles Murals

Jeannette Gabriel to Discuss History of Iowa's Jewish Communities

Book Ends with Chris Goetz

We want to better understand what you need to re-engage in your work.

HPG Intern Brings Brokaw Press Passes to Life

Beyond Times New Roman: Daria Fisher Page makes the case for visual advocacy in law school

Searching for Red with Margaret Beck

Hannah Baysinger Discovers “Next”

Planting Hope: The Anne Frank Tree Arrives in Iowa

Bethanny Sudibyo Wins 2021 Humanities 3MT

University of Iowa Awarded 2022-23 Mellon Sawyer Seminar

Goodbye, Gradate Institute. Hello, Graduate Engagement Corps!

John Rapson's Communal Composition: Esteban and the Children of the Sun

The Kindness of Strangers: Philosopher seeks to make caregiving disparities and their effects visible

Andrew Boge Reflects on the HWW Career Diversity Workshop

Seeing Asian American Life through the Video Essay

Training Librarians to Preserve Community Memory

Apply for the Summer '23 Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Career Diversity Workshop

A Project Postponed: Scholars Take Interdisciplinary Grant Project on the Road

John Rapson: Looking Back at a Generous Collaborator

Using Virtual Reality to Train Math Teachers

Summer Interns at the Halfway Mark: A growing tomato, a gift from Brokaw, and nudity in the archives

A Thousand Prospects for Research: A Spelman Rockefeller Community Scholar Reflects

Brain Time: Rodica Curtu, Mathematical Biology, and the Perception of Time

Rural life, capitalism, and solidarity: Eric Hirsch on the challenges of climate change & entrepreneurship in highland Peru

Planning the UI College of Education Annual Summer Racial Justice Institute

Heart Attack or Takotsubo Syndrome? An AI project seeks to differentiate

The Anne Frank Tree: Taking Root in Iowa

Black Spring: Tracie Morris asks, "How did we get to here and where do we go from here?"

Thinking in Images: The Evolution of Rachel Williams

Cathy Park Hong Gives UI Keynote

Sawyer Seminar Culminates with Latina/o/x Futurity

Signing Music, Gender in The Iliad, and Civil Rights Performance: Three faculty receive book completion awards

Pandemic Practices: Lessons Learned (and Worth Keeping)

Spring 2021 Invite-a-Guest-to-Class Mini-Grant Recipients, Visitors

Wise and Valiant: Ana Rodríguez-Rodríguez celebrates forgotten women authors

Patent Warrior: Jason Rantanen's projects seek to help patents serve people

Black Lives on Screen: Cinematic Arts Offers Semester-Long Series

Cultural Postmortem 2020

New Voices, Refreshing Perspectives: Invite-a-Guest-to-Class Mini Grants

Meet the Podcasters! Three UI faculty-podcasters pull back the curtain on their process

Book Talk with Rhondda Robinson Thomas, author of Call My Name, Clemson: Documenting the Black Experience in an American University Community , Nov. 30

Planning Scholar Suggests Iowa Is at a Crossroads, and Proposes a Path Forward

Exploring the Echo Chamber: Brian Ekdale PI on $1M Grant to Study Social Media Algorithms & Extremism

Obermann Spelman Rockefeller Community Scholar Named

Graduate Students Build Campus-Community Connections, Explore New Careers in Summer Internships

Graduate Students Build Campus-Community Connections, Explore New Careers in Summer Internships

Pandemic, State & Society Highlights Voices from Asia

Uneasy Stories: Mary Lou Emery Explores the Paradoxical Cultural History of the Bungalow

HPG Summer 2020 Internship Program: Final Report

Supporting Scholars of Color and Perspectives on the Black Experience

Mini Grants to Bring Virtual Guest Speakers to Your Class

Laura Perry Joins Obermann

Humanities Without Walls Consortium Awarded Mellon Grant Renewal

Healing the Academy: HuMetricsHSS trains scholars, administration in values-based metrics

Meet Dominic Dongilli: HPG's New Graduate Research Assistant

Jua Kali: Brian Ekdale Mines Lessons from Kenya's Scrappy Gig Economy

Working Group Directors Q&A

Summer 2020 Humanities for the Public Good Interns Selected

Doing History in Public: Alumni share their work beyond academe

Surveying the Effects of Political Corruption

UI grad student takes home first place for humanities-based Three Minute Thesis competition

Activating the Museum

Imagining Latinidades Offers Full Slate This Spring
Lost Language Found: Gordon Develops Tool to Improve Aphasia Diagnosis

It All Depends on 31 Syllables: A Study of the Power of Japan's Medieval Waka

Black Curators' Roundtable Examines Changing Practices

First Humanities 3-Minute Thesis Winner Crowned

A Clown Walks Into the Matrix...

Why You – Yes, YOU Who Is Only Partway into a Dissertation and Who Doesn’t Have Time – Need to Do the Humanities 3MT!

Executive Directors of MLA, AHA to Participate in Humanities Career Diversity Symposium

Relying on the Unreliable: Historian Catherine Stewart Examines 1930s Domestic Workers

Ashley Cheyemi McNeil Appointed 2019-21 HPG Postdoctoral Scholar

Misfitting: Symposium Connects Disabilities Studies Scholars, Shines Light on Need for Scholarly Leadership at UI

Ortiz-Guzmán Appointed 2019-20 Sawyer Seminar Postdoctoral Fellow

Not Distracted: Aiden Bettine Balances Traditional Scholarship and Public Engagement Projects

Four CLAS Graduate Students Chosen for National Humanities Center Education Program

Andrew Tubbs: Scholar, musician, disability advocate, comedian

Yellow Fever's History of Humans, Microbes, and Ideas

NHA Advocacy Day

An Aerial View—Remembering Esco Obermann

Nina G: Stuttering comic walks the line between satire and issue advocacy

Humanities for the Public Good Seeks Post-Doc, Research Assistant
Save the date! March 8 Career Diversity in the Humanities Working Symposium

Nathan Platte's Fascination with the Sounds of an Unassuming Director

The Power of Programming: Sam Rebelsky

Discovering Ecosystems of Graduate Studies - A slide presentation

The Accidental Ethnographer

Iphigenia Point Blank—On stage and in the community

UI Awarded two grants from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation totaling $1.6 Million

Capturing the Lived Experiences of Latinx High Schoolers

Vero Smith: Making the Museum More Accessible

Making Space: Grad Institute alum blogs, podcasts for Black graduate students with mental health issues

Book Ends: New program helps faculty finish book projects

Digital Bridges Symposium, August 8-10

Beyond Justice: Understanding the Adjudication Process of Sexual Misconduct on College Campuses

Archiving the Archives

Mangum Elected VP of National Humanities Alliance

Healing Arts: Scholar Traces Journey of a 15th-Century Medical Book
Full audio of Trudy Peterson's keynote lecture on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Archives as a Space for Social Justice Is Focus of Provost's Global Forum/Obermann Humanities Symposium

Two UI Students Selected as HWW Fellows

First Iowa City Archive Crawl Celebrates Treasures in Local Collections
UI students learn the true meaning of public engagement

The Archeology of Ten Minutes Ago: Preserving the Artifacts of Border Crossing

UI’s Iowa Native Spaces project works with Meskwaki, Ioway to bring historical perspectives to more Iowans

Iowa City Archives Crawl - Hold History in Your Hands!

February Digital Bridges Events

Typewriters for Eskimos: Imperialist Rhetoric & Puerto Rico

Colliding Art Forms and Documenting Refugees: The Iphigenia Project

Colored Conventions Project - Lecture & Workshop with Gabrielle Foreman
Introducing Our Fall 2017 Fellows

Incarcerate. Educate. Integrate. Prisoner access to education focus of September conference and new speaker series

2018-19 Program Dates and Application Deadlines

Jessica Pleyel: Mending through Art
All in the Mix: Erica Damman's Environmental Games

Summer Brings Russell Scholars, a pair of education projects, two arts projects, and digital collaborations to the Obermann Center

Talking “Prophylactic Chats” with Fellow-in-Residence Edward Cohn

Humanities on the Hill 2017—with the National Humanities Alliance

The Making of "Hot Tamale Louie": Fantastical immigrant’s tale inspires multi-genre production

Sara Goldrick-Rab's Feb. 13 college affordability talks available online

Artistic director Michael Rohd to discuss cultivating community-centered arts April 5

A Symposium Bears Fruit: New book and an inter-institutional grant the latest results of The Latino Midwest

The Phenomena of Attention: Shaun Vecera's Current Study of Distracted Driving

Anne Fausto-Sterling to Present at Darwin Days

Announcing "1984 in 2017: A Symposium"

Civic Media: When Coding, Social Justice, and Creativity Meet

Digital Storytelling at Heart of Spring Digital Bridges Lineup

Successfully Aging in Place: Obermann Conversation focuses on keeping older residents in neighborhoods

Student Loan Debt Topic of February Visit

Snapshot of German Iowa in the Global Midwest Symposium

2017 Obermann Graduate Institute Fellows Announced

Engaged Filmmaking - Documentary Course Reflects Graduate Institute's Teachings

A Letter to the Obermann Community

Sawyer Mellon Seminar Maps Cultural Exchanges Across Eurasia

Riverside Theatre Talkbacks - A new Obermann collaboration

Free screening of STARVING THE BEAST, a new documentary exploring current issues in public higher education, Oct. 17

Have No Fear exhibit explores the role of Middle Eastern artists post 9/11

Have No Fear - Exhibit explores the role of Middle Eastern artists post 9/11

Apply for Summer '17 Alternative Careers for Humanities PhD Candidates Workshop in Chicago

The Meek and the Mighty: Interdisciplinary Research Grant Explores Diversity Programs

Meet the Manuscript with Obermann Graduate Fellow Heather Wacha

2015-16 Obermann Annual Report

Humanities research and the human condition

Open-Access Tools Make Research Available to All

Reviving Biophilia—Mary Trachsel Considers Our Disconnect from the Natural World

A Q&A with 2016-17 Fulbright winner Noaquia Callahan

Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar to Focus on Eurasian Manuscripts in 2016-17

Digital Bridges to Obermann - Summer 2016 Institute and Collaborations

Why I Give to the Obermann Center - Ken Brown

HASTAC Scholars Reflect on Graduate Institute Symposium

Cultivating Our Resilient Humanities Community - NHA visit establishes pilot program

Raising the Flag for the Humanities on Capitol Hill

Teresa Mangum Named Secretary of National Humanities Alliance

We Did So Much Beyond the Home - Jeannette Gabriel talks about the Jewish Women in Iowa Project

Kate Kedley - Building Solidarity Between Honduras and Iowa

Beyond the Shiny New Toy—Next Frontier for Digital Humanities

Teaching Sustainability—Across the Disciplines

Marilynne Robinson to Deliver Lecture, "The American Scholar Now"
2016 Graduate Institute Fellows Announced

Diverse Voices "Write to Change the World" - The OpEd Project at the UI

Jessica Anthony: Graduate Institute Alumna Dances with and for the Underserved
Don Quixote in 140 Characters

Summer Workshop Helps Humanities PhD Candidates Expand Options

Connecting 400-Year-Old Knight Errant to UI Students and Community

Traci Molloy and UAY Students Unveil Piece

Supporting the Obermann Center — Jack and Trudi Rosazza
THE YES MEN leads workshop on UI campus

To the Class of 2019 - Inspiration from Obermann Public Scholar Dave Gould

Opportunities for Grad Students at Obermann

Philosopher Promotes Everyday Practice of His Field—And Lands Dream Job

Medieval Scholars Get Messy with NEH Manuscript Production Seminar

Scenes from Anthropocene Symposium

The Allure of Concision — Matthew Arndt’s Fascination with Schoenberg’s Shortest Works

Shannon Jackson challenges higher education to consider--The Way We Perform Now

Smoke-Screen: Dance Performance Explore Themes of the Anthropocene

On the Trail of Parkinson’s — Jon Doorn Seeks Clues to Stop Neurodegenerative Disease

UI Faculty and Grad Students Selected for Humanities Without Walls Opportunities

Follow the children: Michael Hill views the adolescent character as a weathervane
Designing the Digital Future - A Symposium Summary
2015 Obermann Graduate Institute Fellows Selected
Arts, Education, and Social Justice: Meet Informatics

Designing the Digital Future: Highlighting Informatics Work in the Arts and Humanities

Reflections on Imagining America from UI’s PAGE Fellows

Obermann-Incubated Project Comes to a Crescendo

Remembering Longtime Obermann Scholar Bruce Gronbeck

Incarcerated in Iowa - Relationship Forged at the Obermann Graduate Institute Results in Prisons Project and Symposium

Social Practice Art: Engaging Multiple Perspectives

Humanities Without Walls — Opportunities for Humanities Faculty and Graduate Students
"Obermann Afternoons" Line Up Announced

Food for Thought, First Theme Semester

Designing Technologies for Children

Christopher Newfield penetrates "humanities crisis"

Health Humanities: Building the Future of Research and Teaching

Inquiring About Affect - A Conversation with Naomi Greyser

2nd Iowa Humanities Festival: From Jamaica to Rome in a Day

Designing the Future for Publicly Engaged Research and Teaching in the Humanities

Andrea Charise On the Health Humanities Frontier

Comics in the Library, Museum and Classroom - Rachel Williams and Corey Creekmur Make a Case for Comics in Academia

Wall to Wall

Obermann Part of Major Collaborative Mellon Award

The Heart of the Chicago Humanities Summit

Micromagnets: On the Path To Greater Energy Efficiency

Obermann Fellows in Conversation—Race Relations in the U.S. South

2014 Graduate Institute Fellows

Obermann Grad Fellow Combines Biking Advocacy and Research

A Year in the Life of the Obermann Center

New Film Celebrates the Humanities

Internationally Renowned Darwin Biographer to Speak

The Unintended Consequences of Rankings

Memorializing the Cold War, One Ambiguous Site at a Time

Imagining America: A Call to Action

Dave Gould Is First Obermann Public Scholar

Herman Gray Visit Stems from Obermann Cmiel Semester

Health Humanities Planning Sessions

Translating Ixtlilxochitl’s Thirteenth Relation

Designing the Future

Exuberant Politics: Fall 2013

Obermann Afternoons Kicks Off with Talk on Intergenre Crossing

Obermann Director Named to National Humanities Alliance Board of Directors

Teaching the Latino Midwest

Interdisciplinary Research Grant Groups in Residence for July

Rising Waters, Rapid Changes

Loyce Arthur Brings Carnaval to Iowa City

Redefining a Period

Obermann Afternoons Features Interdisciplinary Research on Aging

Reflections on the First Iowa Humanities Festival

Translating Whitman

MOOCs: History, Hype, and Reality slideshow

Obermann Afternoons Explores Intersection Between Solar Cooker, Deforestation, and Women's Lives

Obermann Working Groups Taking Applications for 2013-2014

2014 Obermann Summer Seminar Directorship Now Open for Applications

Lake Effect

Iowa Humanities Festival Features UI Faculty, NEH Chair Leach

Rewiring the Classroom

Chicago Humanities Festival / ACLS Fellowship

MOOCs: History, Hype, and Reality, a talk by VPR Dan Reed

Judith Pascoe

Author Luis Alberto Urrea Reads from New Novel

2013 Obermann Graduate Institute Fellows

Lunchtime Lecture Series Focuses on Public Humanities in Contemporary Culture

Barbara Eckstein

"Circulating Culture" Working Group Hosts UMass-Amherst Scholar Laura Doyle

Genetics - From Frankenstein to the Future

The Latino Midwest

Migration Letters

Overlap of Gesture and Memory

Fall 2012 Fellows-in-Residence

Taking a Page from Industry to Clean Up Drinking Water

Working Group Members Perform and Gain an Award
Illustrating Plutarch

Burial Mounds Focus of Weeklong NEH Grant Preparation

Two Obermann Scholars Awarded Public Engagement Grants

Civic Science - Beyond the Knowledge Wars

Civic Science at Center of Summer Seminar

Kevin Chamberlain's "Insect" Exhibit Opens

Raquel Baker and Ted Gutsche

HASTAC Scholars Organize THATCamp Iowa City
stef shuster: Transgender Activist, Academic Pioneer

Lobbying for the Humanities

Kathleen Diffley

Graduate Institute Fellows Present at Jakobsen Conference

Was the Word: Crossing the Line

Udaykumar and the Solar Cooker Project

Working Groups Look Ahead to Second Year

Katie Porter's New Book Examines Effects of Consumer Debt

Interdisciplinarity is Focus of Obermann Workshop

Humanities and Public Life Series Announced
18 Graduate Fellows Engage in Graduate Institute

Teresa Mangum Joins Imagining America Board

Lena Hill Organizes Ellison Events

Chris Brochu

Mary Campbell

Music Therapy
Featured Programs

Obermann Writing Collective
We've launched a new program to support academic writers: the Obermann Writing Collective. These small, write-on-site groups meet in our new Writers' Attic at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at 111 Church St. This pilot program offers companionship and accountability to University of Iowa artists, scholars, and researchers working on any kind of academic writing project (ex. academic articles/essays, fellowship or grant applications, book projects, edited volumes, or nonfiction) who want dedicated time, a cozy space, and a community for the practice of writing.
Groups meet once a week for one and a half hours. Weekly writing sessions include brief check-ins, goal setting, and sustained writing time—along with warm appreciation and support for the demanding work of scholarly writing. We are currently hosting dedicated sessions for graduate students, as well as sessions open to anyone in the University of Iowa academic community.
Fall 2023 groups are full, but sign up below to get notified when we're ready to accept members for Spring 2024 groups!

Wide Lens: Inspiration & exchange across the disciplines
For the last two years, many of us have deeply missed the good company of our colleagues. This new series—a joint initiative of the UI College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, the Office of the Vice President for Research, and the Stanley Museum of Art—aims to re-inspire and reconnect us.
For each gathering in the Wide Lens series, researchers, scholars, and artists from across the university will briefly present their work on a shared topic of interest. Then, we'll open the floor to questions and conviviality over hors d'oeuvres and drinks at the ever-inspiring Stanley Museum of Art.

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.