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.

View more events

Spacer

News

Bella Spilotro

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.
Gregg Johnson standing outside of the public library

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.
photos scattered across a desk

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.
Laptop with Zoom open

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.
The Community surrounding the Towncrest Center while their street sign is being installed.

Where Money Meets the People: What Academics Can Do for Their Community

Aaron Stagner
Five years ago, I was sitting at a desk a lot like the one I’m sitting at now, doing similar things. In 2021, I taught ESL and adult continuing education classes in Houston, Texas. Teaching both new and established residents made it clear that anybody, from anywhere, could make Houston their home. Working closely with my community, I discovered one of the most important requirements for my students to establish themselves successfully: literacy. Both in language and technology, literacy allowed my students to thrive, get jobs, and build a community.
View more articles
Subscribe to newsletter

Recent Events

Provost's Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank - Film Screening promotional image

Provost's Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank - Film Screening

Tuesday, March 1, 2022 7:00pm to 8:30pm
FilmScene (Chauncey)

February 28 - March 2, 2022, the University of Iowa will host scholars, experts, and researchers from around the world as part of the 2022 Provost’s Global Forum, "Teaching Anne Frank."

With a goal to inspire discussions of global affairs and build relationships between the university and the state of Iowa, this Provost's Global Forum brings together a multi-disciplinary panel of experts from Iowa and across Europe to highlight the educational value and continuing relevance of Anne Frank's...

Welcoming the Immigrants: Refugee Resettlement in Jewish Iowa promotional image

Welcoming the Immigrants: Refugee Resettlement in Jewish Iowa

Tuesday, March 1, 2022 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Iowa City Public Library

The Iowa Women's Archives features a presentation by Dr. Jeannette Gabriel to celebrate Women's History Month. Drawing from materials in the Iowa Women's Archives, Dr. Gabriel will examine the impact of WWII refugees on Iowa's Jewish communities. Attendees may join us live at the Iowa City Public Library, Meeting Room A, or online by watching the live stream on the Iowa City Public Library's YouTube channel. 

Provost's Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank - Panel Discussions promotional image

Provost's Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank - Panel Discussions

Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:00am to 5:00pm
University Capitol Centre

February 28 - March 2, 2022, the University of Iowa will host scholars, experts, and researchers from around the world as part of the 2022 Provost’s Global Forum, "Teaching Anne Frank."

With a goal to inspire discussions of global affairs and build relationships between the university and the state of Iowa, this Provost's Global Forum brings together a multi-disciplinary panel of experts from Iowa and across Europe to highlight the educational value and continuing relevance of Anne Frank's...

WorldCanvass - Teaching Anne Frank promotional image

WorldCanvass - Teaching Anne Frank

Monday, February 28, 2022 5:30pm to 7:00pm
MERGE

Seventy-five years after the publication of The Diary of Anne Frank, historians, educators, human rights activists, and readers of all ages and nationalities continue to find beauty, humor, tragedy, and hope in the words of a young girl whose life ended in a Nazi death camp at the end of WWII.  WorldCanvass will kick off the 2022 University of Iowa Provost’s Global Forum “Teaching Anne Frank” on February 28, from 5:30-7 p.m., with an expert panel discussing Anne’s life before and during...

Provost's Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank promotional image

Provost's Global Forum: Teaching Anne Frank

Monday, February 28, 2022 (all day)
University of Iowa Campus

Feb. 28–March 2, 2022, the University of Iowa will host scholars, experts, and researchers from around the world as part of the 2022 Provost’s Global Forum, "Teaching Anne Frank."

With a goal to inspire discussions of global affairs and build relationships between the university and the state of Iowa, this Provost's Global Forum brings together a multi-disciplinary panel of experts from Iowa and across Europe to highlight the educational value and continuing relevance of Anne Frank's story...

Humanities Labs: New Formations for Graduate Education promotional image

Humanities Labs: New Formations for Graduate Education

Tuesday, February 22, 2022 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Virtual

What is a humanities lab? Imagine a problem and project-based course in American or African American Studies, arts or performance, communication studies, film, GWSS, literature, language, history, philosophy, or religious studies in which your reading and writing addressed a pressing social challenge. Imagine testing how humanists could help address that challenge working alongside a community partner. Join us as we learn about humanities lab courses across the country. Then consider applying...