Obermann Center for Advanced Studies

9/18/26— Application Deadline: Spring 2027 Obermann International Fellows

Learn/apply

9/23/26—Application Deadline: Book Ends (Obermann Book Completion Workshop)

Apply

Variants of Uncertain Significance: Genetic Components of Intellectual Disability with Benjamin Darbro and John Manak

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Upcoming Events

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants

Thursday, April 1, 2027 5:00pm

111 Church Street

This new Obermann Center program offers modest yet swift support for those portions of research and creative endeavors by UI scholars that are important toward advancing a project but do not have enough funding from other sources. We will grant 10 awards of $500 or less per academic year. Note that funds need to be spent by June 30 of each year.

Eligibility: Open to all University of Iowa faculty and staff researchers who have not received a SIP award in the past academic year.

Application...

Application Deadline: Obermann Working Groups (2027–30)

Wednesday, April 7, 2027 5:00pm

111 Church Street

Obermann Center Working Groups provide space, structure, and discretionary funding for groups led by faculty that may include advanced graduate students, staff members, and community members with a shared intellectual interest.

Groups have used this opportunity to share their work in progress or draw up a set of readings they want to undertake and discuss. Others have organized conferences, applied for grants together, written articles together, designed new courses, taken field trips, organized...

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News

Research group meeting in upstairs Obermann office

Variants of Uncertain Significance

Monday, August 17, 2026

Reid Dempsey

“I suppose what’s always speaking to me in the back of my mind is my mother,” says Benjamin Darbro. “She’s really the one who inspired this problem solving.” My question to University of Iowa professors John Manak, of the Department of Biology (College of Liberal Arts and Sciences) and Darbro, of the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics (Carver College of Medicine), was about the nature of their work. What is your relationship to complexity?

Meet Reid Dempsey

Thursday, August 13, 2026

Hi, Reid! You’re the new program coordinator at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies (OCAS). Can you explain your role? Hi! Certainly. It’s a blend of responsibilities, but mostly communications support. I help with interviews, social media, outreach, and recordkeeping. I’m also learning from the Obermann staff—Jenna, Erin, Amy, and Luis—how an organism like OCAS supports research and intellectual life inside and outside the University of Iowa. Their combined experience and skill set can be a little dazzling, and the work feels special. Not every school has something like the Obermann Center on campus, dedicated to sharing resources, building networks, and thinking about the best ways to make things happen.

Behind the Zines: Learning from Artists at Public Space One

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Bella Spilotro

This summer, I had the pleasure of interning at Public Space One (PS1), an artist-led, community-driven contemporary art center, for eight weeks as a student intern supporting grant administration, research, documentation, and publication development for the multi-year Alongside/Banned but Not Silenced project.

Gregg Johnson standing outside of the public library

Iowa Library Advocacy: An American Consultant’s Case Study

Monday, July 27, 2026

Gregg Johnson

This summer I've had the privilege of working with the Development Director of the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation (ICPLFF), Katie Roche. As a Government Affairs and Advocacy Intern, I've relished the opportunity the Obermann Center granted to expand my professional horizons beyond academia and to translate that experience directly into future industry opportunities.

Connecting to Community Through the Archives

Monday, July 27, 2026

Johanna Tesfaye

Working with an archive allows us to situate ourselves within a place’s history and connect with the community it has represented over time. This is central to my own filmmaking process, a way of imagining with the narratives of an archive. A creative practice that began with materials from my personal archive (years of iPhone photos and videos, notes, sound recordings) has since developed into deliberate collaborations with people, places, and spaces.

students writing by hand and at computers

UI launches pilot to expand writing across disciplines

Thursday, July 23, 2026

The University of Iowa is building on its longstanding excellence in teaching writing and communication with the launch of a new Writing Enriched Curriculum (WEC) pilot program this fall. The program represents an important step toward integrating writing and communication into every discipline and developing a model that can strengthen student outcomes across the university. The pilot program is a collaboration between the Obermann Teaching with Writing Working Group, the Office of Writing and Communication, the Writing Center, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with additional support from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the Center for Teaching, and the Office of Teaching, Learning, and Technology.

Community, Assessment, and the Work of Showing Up

Wednesday, July 8, 2026

Olivia Alsup

This summer, I am working as the Community Feedback Framework Intern for the Iowa City Public Library Friends Foundation. In this position, I'm working on examining current best practices for how libraries can engage intentionally and effectively with the communities they serve. My final project for the internship will be putting together a report that will help guide the library through its community assessment process and help inform future library services, spaces, and programs. Day to day, I interview other non-profit and community leaders who have recently facilitated their own community and program assessments.

The Community surrounding the Towncrest Center while their street sign is being installed.

Where Money Meets the People: What Academics Can Do for Their Community

Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Aaron Stagner

Five years ago, I was sitting at a desk a lot like the one I’m sitting at now, doing similar things. In 2021, I taught ESL and adult continuing education classes in Houston, Texas. Teaching both new and established residents made it clear that anybody, from anywhere, could make Houston their home. Working closely with my community, I discovered one of the most important requirements for my students to establish themselves successfully: literacy. Both in language and technology, literacy allowed my students to thrive, get jobs, and build a community.

Full Circle: Interning at the Neighborhood Centers

Monday, June 29, 2026

Robin Johnstone

Through the Humanities Without Walls program—administered by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies—I was placed in a paid summer internship at the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County, a natural fit given the organization’s focus on education and telling stories about the communities they serve. My work this summer involves writing profiles of the staff and neighbors around the Pheasant Ridge community, developing a podcast to highlight a variety of ethnic communities in Iowa City, and utilizing my background in pre-college planning, improvisation, and empowering others to tell their own stories.

Bridging Continents with AI: Prof. Washington Okeyo’s Vision for Entrepreneurship Education

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Maria Torres Melgares

This spring, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies welcomed Professor Washington Okeyo as an Obermann International Fellow. Working closely with the Tippie College of Business, Prof. Okeyo used his fellowship to explore a rapidly evolving frontier: the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into entrepreneurship education.

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AI + Care @ Iowa: Challenge and Promise

2027 Obermann Symposium

Directed by Kenneth Nepple (Department of Urology), Jason Misurac (Department of Pediatrics), and Weiguo Patrick Fan (Department of Business Analytics), this symposium builds on the University of Iowa Health Care’s deployment of AI to engage the issue of care in all its dimensions. Practitioners and researchers from different disciplines will address issues from the cancer rate in Iowa and healthcare provider burnout to the values underlying different approaches to caring for others and the self. The event will facilitate interdisciplinary discussions between professionals in medicine, business analytics, humanities, law, the arts, software engineering, journalism, social sciences, education, and more. Our goal is that the symposium will bridge these perspectives to look productively at an issue that generates both trepidation and hope.

The symposium takes place April 1 and 2, 2027.

Spring 2027 Obermann International Fellowships

Application period open

We offer flexible fellowships for international researchers and artists to develop collaborations and pursue independent work at our beautiful Iowa City campus. International Fellows will receive a $3,000 stipend to help defray the cost of travel and lodging; University of Iowa health insurance coverage for the duration of the fellowship; office space at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies; temporary University of Iowa affiliation, including access to UI libraries; and structured opportunities for scholarly exchange.

Applications for Spring 2027 fellowships are due September 18, 2026.

Book Ends: Book Completion Workshop

Application period open

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 a panel of 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 will also ask one University of Iowa senior faculty member to participate.

9/18/26— Application Deadline: Spring 2027 Obermann International Fellows

Learn/apply

9/23/26—Application Deadline: Book Ends (Obermann Book Completion Workshop)

Apply

Variants of Uncertain Significance: Genetic Components of Intellectual Disability with Benjamin Darbro and John Manak

read article ➔