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The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies
The UI’s Obermann Center for Advanced Studies serves the research mission of the University of Iowa. The Center is a convening space dedicated to debate and discovery. Its grants for University of Iowa artists and researchers support imaginative collaborations and multi-disciplinary exploration. Its programming connects scholars across campus and engages the larger public in the ambitious, illuminating, and transformative work of the artists and scholars it serves.
The purpose of the annual Obermann Humanities Symposium is to explore an important humanities topic that highlights UI scholars and scholarship and includes both UI and visiting participants. Recent symposia have explored the role of the humanities in understanding and communicating the new age known as the Anthropocene, celebrating and forming a cohesive vision for the study of Latinos in the Midwest, and an examination of Don Quixote as one of literature’s most famous exemplars of parody and plagiarism.
The Ida Beam Visiting Professorships Program
The Ida Cordelia Beam Distinguished Visiting Professorships Program was established in 1978-79 with the income from a bequest to the University by the late Ida Cordelia Beam of Vinton. Past visits by distinguished teachers and scholars from the United States and abroad greatly enrich our instructional and research programs. The Ida Cordelia Beam visiting professorships are a source of intellectual stimulation for students and faculty, and provide an opportunity to bring new perspectives in knowledge and teaching to our campus.