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...

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News

Dominic Dongilli

Meet Dominic Dongilli: HPG's New Graduate Research Assistant

Introducing the 2020–21 Humanities for the Public Good Graduate Research Assistant Arriving at the University of Iowa in Fall 2018 to begin his graduate studies, Dominic Dongilli knew that he wanted to participate in his new community in multiple ways. It was not going to be only about the library and classes. With that intention in mind, he applied for the new Humanities for the Public Good...

Jua Kali: Brian Ekdale Mines Lessons from Kenya's Scrappy Gig Economy

Jennifer New
Brian Ekdale, a filmmaker and media scholar, is pondering what Kenya’s robust gig economy has to teach us at this moment of global crisis. Jua kali describes the country's scrappy, entrepreneurial network of artisans, manual laborers, and tradespeople who fix things, make small-batch wares, and resell found or wholesale merchandise. The term has evolved to refer to a kind of work culture and ethos...
group of scholars looks at artwork

Working Group Directors Q&A

The Obermann Center's unique Working Groups program provides space, structure, and discretionary funding for participants from across the UI campus and beyond to explore complex issues at a moment when cross-disciplinary collaboration is crucial to address shifting domains of knowledge and a rapidly changing world. We've extended the application deadline for 2020-21 Working Groups to April 28, and...
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Summer 2020 Humanities for the Public Good Interns Selected

The Humanities for the Public Good program welcomes its second cohort of summer interns. The interns, who earn $5,000 for their eight weeks in the field, will work with organizations in the Iowa City-Cedar Rapids corridor on specific projects that range from oral history recording and archiving to curriculum development. In addition to their time at the job site, interns will meet regularly as a...
three scholars in Obermann library

Doing History in Public: Alumni share their work beyond academe

On February 24, three University of Iowa History PhD alumni visited campus to share their current work beyond academe. All three are exemplary scholars who have earned national and campus recognition for their work. In addition to the acclaim they’ve received, what makes these alumni stand out is their work in the public sector: Karen Christianson, whose dissertation explored gender relations in a...
hands full of cash

Surveying the Effects of Political Corruption

Jennifer New
Americans may feel they are living in an era of unprecedented political corruption. Just weeks ago, President Trump pardoned eleven people, many of whose convictions included bribery, tax fraud, and the sale of a public office. In the whirl of daily headlines, it can be easy to forget that corruption is nearly as old as democracy itself, with the ancient Greeks and Romans providing many examples...
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Recent Events

Info Session: Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Career Diversity Summer Workshop promotional image

Info Session: Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Career Diversity Summer Workshop

Thursday, September 24, 2020 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Virtual

Join us for this virtual info session/Q&A about the 2021 Humanities Without Walls National Predoctoral Career Diversity Summer Workshop (July 19–August 6, 2021). The session will be led by Obermann Center Director Teresa Mangum.

Register via Zoom to receive the meeting link. 

Pandemic, State & Society Webinar Series promotional image

Pandemic, State & Society Webinar Series

Friday, September 18, 2020 8:00pm to 9:30pm
Virtual

Join International Programs, the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, and the Iowa Global Health Network for a special two-part webinar series "Pandemic, State & Society" (Sept. 18 & 25) bringing together voices from Asia to discuss firsthand experiences with the coronavirus.

Asia was the first place to experience the coronavirus, impose lockdowns, and then emerge from them. It was also the first to experience a resurgence of infection due to the...

Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: A conversation with Katina Rogers

Wednesday, September 16, 2020 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Virtual

In her new book, Putting the Humanities PhD to Work (Duke University Press, 2020), Katina Rogers invites readers to build a university that is truly worth fighting for by thinking more expansively about what constitutes scholarly success—not only to support individual career pathways, but also to work toward greater equity and inclusion in the academy. This book grounds practical career advice in a nuanced consideration of the academic workforce, diversity and inclusion, new modes of scholarly...

The Summer Internship for Humanities PhDs: A presentation by HPG interns promotional image

The Summer Internship for Humanities PhDs: A presentation by HPG interns

Tuesday, September 15, 2020 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Virtual

Join us as Summer 2020 Humanities for the Public Good interns reflect on their experiences working with Eastern Iowa non-profits and University of Iowa units during Summer 2020. They will share the work they did and connect their learning experiences to their scholarship and future work.

REGISTER via Zoom to receive the meeting link.

Free and open to all.

Humanities Without Walls promotional image

Humanities Without Walls

Thursday, August 27, 2020 4:00pm to 5:30pm
Virtual

The Obermann Center for Advanced studies is proud to be a member of the 16-university Midwest consortium Humanities Without Walls, which is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. On Thursday, August 27, HWW will kick off their 2020-21 career diversity programming. In this virtual roundtable, you’ll hear from three HWW fellowship alumni about their experiences post-fellowship and how the Predoctoral Career Diversity Summer Workshop informed their career exploration and development.

This...

Addressing Equity in the Classroom Setting During Times of Change: Tools for Faculty promotional image

Addressing Equity in the Classroom Setting During Times of Change: Tools for Faculty

Friday, August 21, 2020 3:00pm to 4:30pm
Virtual

Title of Training:  "Addressing Equity in the Classroom Setting During Times of Change: Tools for Faculty"

Training overview:  The Covid-19 pandemic, combined with the nationwide protests following the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, have laid bare the racial disparities that exist in education, healthcare, political participation, and other systems in the United States. These disparities and inequities accompany students as they enter into the learning spaces at the...