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Beyond “Not Urban”: The Smithsonian's Andy Mink on Serving Rural Communities
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Upcoming Events
Application Deadline: Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat
Have you been waiting all school year to make serious progress on your book manuscript, article, or grant application? Jumpstart your summer writing project at the Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat May 11–14, 2026!
Fifteen participants will enjoy a week of quiet productivity apart from the distractions of campus at the beautiful North Ridge Pavilion in Coralville. Daily catered lunches will provide an opportunity for exchange and discussion with other writers across campus. Each day will...
"Rural Community-Centered Research: Maternity Care and Why It Matters" — Keynote lecture (in person and virtual) by Katy Kozhimannil, University of Minnesota
Special Preliminary Event for the Obermann Symposium "Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research."
This lecture, co-sponsored by the UI Carver College of Medicine, is designed for a non-clinical audience and will be open to the public. Katy B. Kozhimannil is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor and Co-Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center and the University of Minnesota Rural Health Program.
The lecture will take place in Pediatric...
Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research — 2025–26 Obermann Symposium
Directed by Brian R. Farrell, Daria Fisher Page, and Ryan T. Sakoda (UI College of Law), Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research will bring together scholars, community leaders from across the U.S., and professionals who work with rural populations and in rural spaces. During the symposium, attendees will be invited to collaborate in theorizing rurality, share how it impacts their work, examine how rurality is represented and celebrated, and begin to discuss challenges...
"Reimagining the Rural from Idyll to Hinterland: Exhausting Rural Childhoods” — keynote lecture by Esther Pereen, University of Amsterdam
This is a keynote lecture for the 2025-2026 Obermann Symposium: "Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research."
Esther Pereen, University of Amsterdam: "Reimagining the Rural from Idyll to Hinterland: Exhausting Rural Childhoods”
Across the social and cultural realms, the rural is often imagined through idyllic and pastoral genres that allow it to be conceived as a refuge from globalization. Pereen's European Research Council–funded project RURAL IMAGINATIONS, concentrating on...
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Building community around rural research
Beyond “Not Urban”: Andy Mink on Serving Rural Communities
Seeking Humanities/Arts PhD Student for Program Coordinator Position, '26-'27
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Featured Programs
Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research
Directed by Brian R. Farrell, Daria Fisher Page, and Ryan T. Sakoda (UI College of Law), Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research will bring together scholars, community leaders from across the U.S., and professionals who work with rural populations and in rural spaces. During the symposium, attendees will be invited to collaborate in theorizing rurality, share how it impacts their work, examine how rurality is represented and celebrated, and begin to discuss challenges faced by rural communities.
The symposium will take place on March 26 and 27, 2026. Cultivating Rurality aims to identify and connect faculty members and others at the University of Iowa who are already engaged in rural research and teaching, and will also include several events open to the public. Participants will leave the symposium with new scholarly tools and professional connections to more effectively address interdisciplinary issues of rurality in the future.
Spring 2027 Obermann International Fellowships
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
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.