Upcoming Events

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants promotional image

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants

Friday, May 8, 2026 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 ten 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

Graduate students: Note that the Graduate College offers Small Grants for the...

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Upcoming Application Deadlines

Upcoming Application Deadlines

Application Deadline: Spring 2026 Obermann Writing Collective promotional image

Application Deadline: Spring 2026 Obermann Writing Collective

Friday, January 23, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

This program offers accountability to artists, scholars, and researchers working on any kind of writing project (articles, essays, fellowship or grant applications, dissertations, book projects, edited volumes, etc.) who want dedicated time, a cozy space, and a community for the practice of writing.

In spring 2026, four writing groups will meet in our Writers' Attic at the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at 111 Church St. Each group will meet once a week for 1.5 hours, beginning the week of...

Nomination Deadline: Obermann Interdisciplinary Achievement Award promotional image

Nomination Deadline: Obermann Interdisciplinary Achievement Award

Monday, February 2, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

The new Obermann Interdisciplinary Achievement Award recognizes individuals or teams whose trajectories have engaged diverse disciplines to produce insights that would be unattainable within a single academic silo. These scholars cultivate collaborative work, fostering dialogue across academic fields and institutional units. Their research or creative work engages with foundational questions that resonate across society. By recognizing interdisciplinary excellence, the Obermann Center for...

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Fall 2026) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Fall 2026)

Saturday, February 14, 2026 (all day)
111 Church Street

The UI Obermann Center for Advanced studies is accepting applications for Fall 2026 Obermann International Fellowships. This program offers dedicated space, time, and funding for interdisciplinary scholars to collaborate on innovative research at the University of Iowa. Up to eight international fellowships will be granted every academic year. Applicants must be active researchers at an accredited institution of higher learning outside of the United States or independent researchers/artists with...

Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Tuesday, February 17, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research, Book 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 in turning promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books.

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants promotional image

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants

Friday, May 8, 2026 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 ten 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

Graduate students: Note that the Graduate College offers Small Grants for the...

News

Charles Darwin

Internationally Renowned Darwin Biographer to Speak

Exploring Darwin's Motives: Why did Charles Darwin, a rich and impeccably upright gentleman, go out of his way to privately develop a subversive image of human evolution in 1837-39? Why did he pursue the subject with tenacity for three decades before publishing The Descent of Man in 1871? Internationally renowned Darwin biographer James Moore will address these questions and others in his lecture,...

The Unintended Consequences of Rankings

We are a society obsessed with quantifying and ranking things. Neurosurgeons, small towns, and nasal sprays all have their own ranking lists. Someone is a winner and someone is a loser. While many of us are aware of this increased quantification and vaguely understand its potential dangers, Michael Sauder (Sociology, CLAS) is working to make the unintended consequences of this trend and fascination...

Memorializing the Cold War, One Ambiguous Site at a Time

Memorializing the Cold War One Ambiguous Site at a Time: How should the Cold War be memorialized? This question forms the backbone of the Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grant project of Sarah Kanouse (Art & Art History, CLAS) and Shiloh Krupar (Geography, Georgetown University).Through their “wishful federal agency,” The National Toxic Land/Labor Conservation Service,” also known as the National...

Imagining America: A Call to Action

A group of nine University of Iowa faculty members, graduate students, and staff attended the Imagining America conference in Syracuse, New York from October 4-6, 2013, "A Call to Action."Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life is a consortium of universities and organizations dedicated...
David L. Gould (Headshot)_1.jpg

Dave Gould Is First Obermann Public Scholar

Though we tend to associate scholarship with the work of campus faculty members, knowledge creation also has strong roots in our communities. The Obermann Center is piloting a Public Scholar program designed to enhance research on campus through partnerships that engage University of Iowa researchers with innovators outside the University. As Obermann...
Herman Gray

Herman Gray Visit Stems from Obermann Cmiel Semester

Herman S. Gray, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will give a public lecture on October 18, 2013, “On Race, Representation, and Resonance,” in Becker Auditorium, Room 101, at 4:00 pm. His lecture engages with the way scholars of television and race often take representation as the site of subject/ion and visibility as the object of cultural politics. Gray asks if...

Recent Events

2024 Iowa City Darwin Day promotional image

2024 Iowa City Darwin Day

Friday, April 12, 2024 2:30pm to 5:30pm
Biology Building East

Every year to mark Charles Darwin’s birthday, Iowa City Darwin Day organizes a two-day celebration of science designed to promote scientific literacy and increase public awareness of the contributions of science to society. The featured speakers for the 2024 events on April 12 and 13 are Joseph Graves Jr. and Harmit Malik. All talks are free and open to all. 

Joseph Graves Jr. is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical...

Prairie Lights Reading with Visiting Scholar Lesley-Ann Noel promotional image

Prairie Lights Reading with Visiting Scholar Lesley-Ann Noel

Thursday, April 11, 2024 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books

Free copy of Design Social Change: Take Action, Work Toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo for the first 30 attendees!

What motivates you as a changemaker? What forces are preventing you (and others) from thriving? These questions are essential to the work of creating social change, and they are exactly what Lesley-Ann Noel asks you to explore in her new book, Design Social Change: Take Action, Work Toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo (Ten Speed Press, 2023). In the book and at...

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: In the Shadow of the Inquisition, the US Constitutional Right to Liberty of Conscience promotional image

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: In the Shadow of the Inquisition, the US Constitutional Right to Liberty of Conscience

Wednesday, April 10, 2024 12:00pm to 1:00pm
University Capitol Centre

Part of the series: Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the Americas

"In the Shadow of the Inquisition: The US Constitutional Right to Liberty of Conscience"

Dr. Isaac Amon
Director of Academic Research, Jewish Heritage Alliance 
Adjunct Professor, Washington university School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri

Sponsors of the series: The Jewish Studies Working Group; The Anne Frank Initiative; International Programs; Obermann Center for Advanced Studies; Center for...

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the Americas promotional image

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the Americas

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Phillips Hall

Join us for a Public Talk:

"The Legacy of Sefarad: (Crypto) Jewish Experiences in Spain and Portugal,” Dr. Isaac Amon, Director of Academic Research, Jewish Heritage Alliance and Adjunct Professor, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri "Zamora Sefardí: Jewish Legacy in Zamora, Spain,” Dr. Jeśus Jambrina, Professor of Spanish, Viterbo University, LaCrosse, Wisconsin
 

This is part of the series: "Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the...

Office of Community Engagement: Engagement Summit promotional image

Office of Community Engagement: Engagement Summit

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 (all day)
University Capitol Centre

The Engagement Summit brings together faculty, staff, students, and community partners to explore and celebrate a year of impactful community engagement work between the University of Iowa and communities across Iowa and beyond.

This daylong event will include sessions and speakers on important topics in community engagement, including community-engaged research, the impact of engagement on communities, creative place-making and improving quality of life in communities, graduate education and...

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Jewish Studies Certificate Launch promotional image

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Jewish Studies Certificate Launch

Monday, April 8, 2024 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Old Capitol Museum

Join us to celebrate the University of Iowa's new Jewish Studies Program, featuring remarks by members of the campus community and a discussion of Sephardic history, identity, and citizenship with:

Dr. Isaac Amon
Director of Academic Research, Jewish Heritage Alliance 
Adjunct Professor, Washington university School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri

Dr. Jeśus Jambrina
Professor of Spanish, Viterbo University, LaCrosse, Wisconsin
Founder of the Centro Isaac Campantón

This is part of the series:...