Upcoming Events

Graduate Student Writing Group Session & Social promotional image

Graduate Student Writing Group Session & Social

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 11:00am to 1:00pm
111 Church Street
The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, in collaboration with Grad Success & Belonging, is hosting a writing group followed by a social for Graduate & Professional Student Appreciation Week. This writing group session facilitated by two grad ambassadors will offer community and accountability to Iowa's graduate and professional students working on any kind of academic writing project (academic articles/essays, fellowship or grant applications, dissertations, book projects, etc.). The session...
Writing for The Conversation: Informational Lunch for Grad Students and Postdocs promotional image

Writing for The Conversation: Informational Lunch for Grad Students and Postdocs

Friday, April 11, 2025 12:00pm to 1:30pm
111 Church Street
Join the Office of the Vice President for Research, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, and the Graduate College for lunch and an introduction to pitching your research to The Conversation US with Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Associate Vice President for Research.  The Conversation is an independent news organization dedicated to unlocking the knowledge of academic experts for the public good. With a monthly readership of 20 million, The Conversation expertly shares a scholar’s expertise far...
Annual Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day 2025 promotional image

Annual Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day 2025

Saturday, April 12, 2025 (all day)
MacLean Hall
In honor of Sonia Kovalevsky, the Department of Mathematics at the University of Iowa organizes Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day yearly with the goal to inspire young women interested in math and show them that math is like solving a puzzle. Sonia Kovalevsky High School Mathematics Day is an opportunity for young women to engage in a day of networking, mentoring, and fun! The daylong program includes workshops, interactive talks, math related games and panels of professionals with...
Graduate Student Session with Mark Simpson-Vos, Obermann Editor-in-Residence promotional image

Graduate Student Session with Mark Simpson-Vos, Obermann Editor-in-Residence

Thursday, April 17, 2025 10:00am to 11:00am
111 Church Street
This interactive talk for PhD and MFA students in the writing disciplines will outline the publishing process for first books. The session will guide graduate students through the steps of the academic publishing process, with a focus on demystifying the journey from dissertation/thesis to manuscript to published book. Key topics will include identifying the right academic publisher, understanding peer review, negotiating contracts, and building a strong proposal. Led by Mark Simpson-Vos, Senior...
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Upcoming Application Deadlines

Upcoming Application Deadlines

Application Deadline: Obermann Working Groups (2025–26) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Working Groups (2025–26)

Wednesday, April 9, 2025 5:00pm
Obermann Center Working Groups provide space, structure, and discretionary funding ($500 per year for 3 years) 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 explore new work and to share their own research, to organize a symposium, and to develop grant proposals. This program allows participants from across the campus and beyond to explore complex issues at a...
Fall Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Fall Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Wednesday, September 24, 2025 5:00pm
Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research, Book Ends—Obermann/OVPR 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. Book Ends brings together a panel of senior scholars for a candid, constructive three...

News

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Meet Obermann International Fellow Ercan Canhasi

This spring, we welcomed Obermann International Fellow Dr. Ercan Canhasi, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Prizren in Kosovo.
Headshot of middle-aged, bald man wearing glasses and a suit.

Meet Obermann International Fellow Thomas Horky

Dr. Thomas Horky, a professor of sports journalism at the Macromedia University of Applied Sciences in Hamburg, Germany, reflects on his research in sport and media and his time in Iowa City as an Obermann International Fellow in Spring 2025.
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Demystifying the Publishing Process

Publishing a monograph is essential to the careers of scholars in many disciplines, but the academic publishing process is often opaque and mystifying. This spring, the Obermann Center begins a new program to set UI faculty and graduate students up for success in the publishing market by connecting them with an accomplished editor from a scholarly press.
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Obermann Center Receives Funding for Global Writing Initiative

The Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)—a global forum that strengthens the work of humanities centers through advocacy, grant-making, and inclusive collaboration—has selected a joint humanities project of the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, to participate in its Global Justice and Humanities Practices initiative, with an accompanying award of $10,000. “Mass Migrations, Personal Voices: Latin American Women Migrants Write Their Stories” will explore and disseminate new insights into the impact of guided creative writing on the lives of Latin American migrant women. Luis Martín-Estudillo, Director of the Obermann Center, authored the proposal and will serve as the project’s PI. Luis Muñoz, UI Associate Professor of Spanish and director of the MFA in Spanish Creative Writing, and a graduate student in Spanish Creative Writing, will work alongside Martín-Estudillo and two faculty from the Centro de Estudios Interdisciplinarios Migratorios (Center for Interdisciplinary Migration Studies) at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay’s flagship institution, to plan and conduct creative writing workshops for women who recently migrated to Uruguay, having fled economic and humanitarian crises in their native Venezuela.
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Obermann Center seeks ABD PhD student for '25-'26 Program Coordinator position

The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies is seeking an advanced (ABD) humanities or social sciences PhD student to work with the Obermann staff to support programs and events and tell the stories of the exciting research projects and initiatives supported by the Center.
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CSSI Invites Applications for Co-Sponsored Fall 2025 Obermann International Fellowships Program

The Center for Social Science Innovation (CSSI) is pleased to announce its co-sponsorship of a Fall 2025 Obermann Center for Advanced Studies International Fellowship. The fellowship program provides international researchers and artists with the opportunity to develop collegiate collaborations and pursue independent work at the University of Iowa. CSSI will co-sponsor one fellow who aims to conduct innovative social science research on campus. Prospective fellows can request a CSSI co-sponsorship within their application. In tandem with the benefits provided by the Obermann Center, fellows co-sponsored by CSSI will be provided with a quiet, dedicated office space at CSSI and access to the Center’s amenities (such as meeting rooms, break areas, and office support).

Recent Events

Multiple Pathways to Recovery: A Conversation about Addiction Research and Treatment Services promotional image

Multiple Pathways to Recovery: A Conversation about Addiction Research and Treatment Services

Wednesday, February 13, 2019 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Iowa City Public Library
In this Obermann Conversation, three researchers and practitioners will discuss alternative forms of treating alcohol and drug addictions, including effectiveness for various populations. Paul Gilbert conducts research to understand and address alcohol-related disparities. He is particularly interested in the ways that gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation shape drinking patterns, risk of alcohol use disorders, and use of treatment services. His current projects include an NIH-funded...
The US / Mexico Border in Context promotional image

The US / Mexico Border in Context

Thursday, December 6, 2018 4:00pm
Iowa City Public Library
Several scholars will help us put current events at the U.S. / Mexico border into perspective. Lina-Maria Murillo (History and GWSS) received her doctorate in Borderlands History at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 2016. Currently, she is completing her manuscript titled From Population Control to Reproductive Freedom: Contraception and Race in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Rene Rocha (Political Science) focuses on policy analysis, including questions such as: How does immigration...
"Humanities for the Public Good" Launch promotional image

"Humanities for the Public Good" Launch

Tuesday, November 13, 2018 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Iowa City Public Library
On November 13 at 4:00 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library, Teresa Mangum, Director of the UI Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, will share details of a new 4-year program funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, "Humanities for the Public Good: An Integrative, Collaborative, Practice-Based Humanities PhD." The event will feature opening remarks by John Keller, Dean of the Graduate College and Interim Vice President for Research & Economic Development; a talk titled “The Future of the...
A reading by Murata Sayaka and Ginny Tapley Takemori promotional image

A reading by Murata Sayaka and Ginny Tapley Takemori

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Gilmore Hall
The Japan Foundation New York together with International Programs, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Obermann Center, and the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures present a workshop and bilingual reading with Murata Sayaka and Ginny Tapley Takemori on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. Murata Sayaka is one of Japan’s most prominent writers, known for her frank explorations of the role of sex and gender in contemporary society. She received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize...
Murata Sayaka and Ginny Tapley Takemori promotional image

Murata Sayaka and Ginny Tapley Takemori

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 2:00pm to 3:15pm
Phillips Hall
The Japan Foundation New York together with International Programs, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Obermann Center, and the Division of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures present a workshop and bilingual reading with Murata Sayaka and Ginny Tapley Takemori on Tuesday, October 30, 2018. Murata Sayaka is one of Japan’s most prominent writers, known for her frank explorations of the role of sex and gender in contemporary society. She received the prestigious Akutagawa Prize...
Gerrymandering, Voter Registration, and Access to the Ballot—An Obermann Conversation promotional image

Gerrymandering, Voter Registration, and Access to the Ballot—An Obermann Conversation

Thursday, October 25, 2018 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Iowa City Public Library
How is voting restricted in our country in lawful ways? For this Obermann Conversation, political scientist Tracy Osborn, grassroots organizer Sharon Lake and legal advisor Andrew Bribriesco will discuss issues ranging from gerrymandering, Iowa's voter registration law, voter identification, and lack of voting rights for felons.  Tracy Osborn is an associate professor in the UI Department of Political Science and the director of the Politics and Policy Program at the Iowa Public Policy Center...