Upcoming Events & Deadlines

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants promotional image

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) promotional image

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...

Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Thursday, May 31, 2029 (all day)
111 Church Street

Books Ends—Obermann Book Completion Workshop 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.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

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News

Jessica Anthony: Graduate Institute Alumna Dances with and for the Underserved

Jessica Anthony is committed to using dance to tell previously silenced stories. A Visiting Professor in Dance, Anthony is currently co-directing Dancers in Company with fellow faculty member Michael Sakamoto, and the two are breathing new life into the 32-year old touring company. Dancers in Company has long held the mission of preparing University of Iowa dance students for the experience...
Don Quixote in Chinese

Don Quixote in 140 Characters

Can one of the world's most iconic books be boiled down to a Tweetable 140 characters? Don Quixote was parodied or plagiarized, depending on how you look at it, before Cervantes could even write the second volume chronicling the misadventures of an errant knight and his loyal sidekick. The 400-year old tome has inspired a plethora of adaptations, including ballets, symphonies, cartoons, films...

Summer Workshop Helps Humanities PhD Candidates Expand Options

Last July, two University of Iowa graduate students expanded their sense of how they might use their training as humanities scholars. Erica Damman (Environmental Humanities, CLAS) and Noaquia Callahan (History, CLAS) were part of the first cohort of graduate student Fellows to participate in the Alternative Academic Career Workshop for Pre-Doctoral Students in the Humanities. The Workshop is...
Ana Rodriguez and Denise Filios

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

This fall, University of Iowa students are discovering the charms of an aged knight-errant, his earthy sidekick, and a cast of colorful characters. In celebration of the 400th anniversary of the publication of Don Quixote, Ana Rodríguez-Rodríguez and Denise Filios, professors in Spanish and Portuguese, are co-directing the Obermann–International Programs Humanities Symposium, “Parody, Plagiarism...
I am, I Will, I am Afraid

Traci Molloy and UAY Students Unveil Piece

Traci Molloy, a Brooklyn-based artist and a participant in the 2014 Obermann Summer Seminar, returns to Iowa City in early October to give a lecture and unveil a new artwork that she created with local teenagers. Titled “I Am, I Will, I’m Afraid,” the work combines photography and text composed by twelve self-described youth “outliers” attending United Action for Youth’s Summer Art Workshops. It...
Jack and Trudi Rosazza

Supporting the Obermann Center — Jack and Trudi Rosazza

The support that the Obermann Center receives from friends such as Jack and Trudi Rosazza helps us to deepen and extend our work. This year, for example, we were able to send our director, Teresa Mangum, to a workshop with the OpEd Project. This visionary organization helps underrepresented voices land on the opinion pages of our nation’s newspapers, thereby changing discourses. In November, the...

THE YES MEN leads workshop on UI campus

POROI co-sponsored the YES MEN this August in their visit with the UI Lecture Committee. During that visit, the YES MEN lead a workshop in which they broke down their signature, satirical style of creative, performance-based activism, advising participants on their own change-making initiatives. Participants included student government representatives working to eliminate plastic waste from the...
Dave Gould

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

David Gould, Obermann Public Scholar, is spending this fall semester introducing University of Iowa undergraduates to a cast of amazing, inspiring visitors. From a master storyteller from The Moth and musicians from the Cirque du Soleil , to the co-founder of Girls on the Run and the creator of an online funding company, this eclectic group of guests will help students consider what makes for a...
Dickens Universe

Opportunities for Grad Students at Obermann

The Obermann Center offers a growing number of opportunities for UI graduate students—from courses to a research assistantship. As we begin the 2015-16 academic year, we wanted to provide an overview for students, as well as for faculty advisors and graduate directors. Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy This year, we celebrate the 10th anniversary of our signature program, the...
collinsfamily-3771 (2).jpg

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

“The Institute [on Engagement and the Academy] really pushed me to figure out what civically engaged scholarship looked like,” says Brian Collins. “It was—and sometimes still is—difficult for me to wrap my head around how my scholarship as a philosopher could directly apply to and benefit from this kind of work.” That has not stopped Collins from imagining ways to share philosophy and its...
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Recent Events

Iowa Writing Centers Consortium Conference promotional image

Iowa Writing Centers Consortium Conference

Friday, April 8, 2022 8:30am to 3:30pm
English-Philosophy Building

The Iowa Writing Centers Consortium Conference brings together college and university writing center staffs and students from throughout Iowa and neighboring states. The 2022 Conference will take place on Friday, April 8th, 2022 on the first floor of the English Philosophy Building from 8:30 am - 3:30 pm.

Conference theme: Lessons from Covid: Losses, gains, discoveries and insights. See here for registration informaton and the schedule.

Registration is $15 for students and $30 for professional...

Invisible Neighbors: Latinx Immigrants in Eastern Iowa — An Obermann Conversation promotional image

Invisible Neighbors: Latinx Immigrants in Eastern Iowa — An Obermann Conversation

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Virtual

Every week, new arrivals come to our area from Mexico and Central America. Many come with few possessions and only the thinnest personal network. These largely invisible newcomers to our community have immediate needs, some of which are being addressed by organizations like Open Heartland and UI-sponsored legal and medical clinics. We’ll hear more about our Latinx immigrant neighbors, their needs, and the work currently happening to assist their arrival.

Speakers:

Deb Dunkhase is the founder...

Tasks in Action! — A Workshop by Dr. Julio Torres, UC-Irvine promotional image

Tasks in Action! — A Workshop by Dr. Julio Torres, UC-Irvine

Saturday, April 2, 2022 10:00am to 12:00pm
Virtual

As part of the Teaching and Learning Heritage Languages Series, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Obermann Center present "Tasks in Action!", an interactive workshop with Dr. Julio Torres (UC-Irvine). The workshop will cover pedagogical aspects of the heritage language classroom, with a specific focus on how "tasks" can be used in courses at all levels, including language, culture, literature, linguistics, and courses for specific purposes. Designed for language faculty at the K...

Heritage Language Education: A Talk by Dr. Julio Torres (UC-Irvine) promotional image

Heritage Language Education: A Talk by Dr. Julio Torres (UC-Irvine)

Friday, April 1, 2022 5:00pm to 6:30pm
Virtual

As part of the Teaching and Learning Heritage Languages Series, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and Obermann Center present "Heritage Language Education," a talk by Dr. Julio Torres of UC-Irvine. 

ECO SOMA by Petra Kuppers Reading and Book Release Party promotional image

ECO SOMA by Petra Kuppers Reading and Book Release Party

Thursday, March 31, 2022 6:00pm to 8:45pm
The Tuesday Agency

Please join us in welcoming Petra Kuppers to Iowa City for a reading and discussion about her most recent book Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) 

Dear Kitty: The Act of Keeping a Diary promotional image

Dear Kitty: The Act of Keeping a Diary

Wednesday, March 30, 2022 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Iowa City Public Library

As we await the arrival of the Anne Frank Tree, which will be planted on the University of Iowa Pentacrest on April 29, 2022, we encourage people of all ages to read the book that is at the heart of this event. Better yet—read it in community!

To provide context to your reading, we’re offering three in-person discussions at the Iowa City Public Library (123 S. Linn St., Iowa City). All of the discussions are free and open to the general public. 

In this second session, Dr. Kirsten Kumpf Baele...