News & Events

Upcoming Events & Deadlines

Planning and Writing Successful Grant Proposals in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Seminar

Wednesday, January 13, 2027 1:00pm to 5:00pm

Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)

The Research Development Office is hosting an in-person grant writing seminar, Planning and Writing Successful Grant Proposals in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, that will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 13 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, Jan. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the IMU. The seminar is presented by AtKisson Training Group.

This seminar will cover fundamental concepts of proposal planning and writing for the Arts and Humanities faculty backed by concrete...

Planning and Writing Successful Grant Proposals in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Seminar

Thursday, January 14, 2027 8:30am to 12:30pm

Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)

This seminar will cover fundamental concepts of proposal planning and writing for the Arts and Humanities faculty backed by concrete...

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...

View more events

News

UI professor Stephanie Miracle on the demands and rewards of interdisciplinary work

Reid Dempsey

Stephanie Miracle’s ensemble is large. Mechanical engineers, musicians, hydroscientists, robots, zoological specimens, filmmakers, parking ramps, at least one professor of 18th-century literature, and the Iowa River all have found a place in collaborations honored this year by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

Six questions for Walter Biggins, our 2026 editor-in-residence

Reid Dempsey

You’ve worked for a number of robust institutions in the last fifteen years. Do you feel the role of a university press has changed in campus life since you began your career? If so, what do you see as the most important ways that presses can engage and support their intellectual ecosystems today, beyond publishing books?

I started in university-press publishing in September 1999, so the number is closer to (ulp!) 27 years. In that timespan, I’ve worked for three presses: University Press of Mississippi, University of Georgia Press, and now University of Pennsylvania Press (Penn Press).

Meet our new assistant director, Amy Chen

Reid Dempsey

Obermann Center for Advanced Studies

Hi, Amy! So happy to sit down with you after your first few weeks on Church Street. I was hoping we could talk about Iowa first—it’s played a significant role in your academic history. Could you talk a little about your journey and how you’ve come to the Obermann Center?

Sure! I went to Iowa as an undergraduate, double majoring in English and political science. I was drawn to campus from my hometown of Wichita, Kansas, by Iowa’s reputation as the Writing University. I did all sorts of things as an undergraduate. I was a resident assistant, Writing Fellow, editor-in-chief of the undergraduate literary magazine, and research assistant on top of writing an honors thesis and taking graduate classes in English. After graduation, I really needed a break! I went away to travel, then pursued my PhD at Emory University and completed a postdoc at the University of Alabama.

Variants of Uncertain Significance

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

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

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.

Iowa Library Advocacy: An American Consultant’s Case Study

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

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

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

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 nonprofit and community leaders who have recently facilitated their own community and program assessments.

View more articles

Subscribe to newsletter

Recent Events

Conflict and Resolution — An Obermann Wide Lens Event

Wednesday, May 6, 2026 4:00pm to 5:30pm

Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)

In a world shaped by tension, disagreement, and change, conflict surrounds us, from moments of personal friction to struggles within communities and across nations. It surfaces in our institutions, our relationships, and the stories we tell about ourselves and others. How do conflicts take shape and persist? How are they influenced by power, perspective, and history? Can conflict be generative? What forms might resolution take? How do we begin that process?

This Wide Lens event brings together...

Conifer String Quartet at the Obermann Center

Friday, May 1, 2026 6:30pm to 8:00pm

111 Church Street

Join us for a festive evening of live music as the Obermann Center welcomes an outstanding UI string quartet!

The Conifer Quartet will present a dynamic program featuring works spanning from the classical era to contemporary pieces by our own University of Iowa faculty. To provide deeper context, the musicians will briefly discuss the history, themes, and styles of each movement before playing, and we will open the floor for an audience Q&A at the end of the performance.

We look forward to sharing...