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

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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...

UI grad student takes home first place for humanities-based Three Minute Thesis competition

UI graduate student Christie Vogler wins the Obermann Center’s first humanities-based Three-Minute Thesis competition with her research on gender archeology, which uncovers the unknown roles of women in Ancient Rome. Read the full article at The Daily Iowan's website: https://dailyiowan.com/2020/02/10/university-of-iowa-grad-student-takes-home-first-place-for-humanities-based-three-minute-thesis...
What Can Museums Become? logo

Activating the Museum

March Humanities Symposium to Explore Future of Museums When you think about museums, what comes to mind? Many of us picture an imposing building with artworks and artifacts displayed among velvet ropes, marble columns, and guards who shush you. But there are many possibilities for museums, and the two directors of this spring’s Obermann Humanities Symposium, “What Can Museums Become?”, Joyce Tsai...
Imagining Latinidades podcast logo

Imagining Latinidades Offers Full Slate This Spring

The second half of the year-long Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar Imagining Latinidades welcomes a full slate of speakers to campus this spring. After hosting an opening conference and two short symposia in the fall, in addition to commencing a podcast, the Seminar’s directors—Darrel Wanzer-Serrano (Latina/o Studies and Communication Studies), Rene Rocha (Political Science and Latina/o Studies)...
Jean Gordon

Lost Language Found: Gordon Develops Tool to Improve Aphasia Diagnosis

Jenna Hammerich
How would you feel if, in the middle of a conversation, you couldn’t come up with the word for water, shirt, or table—or your own name? If suddenly it was a struggle to comment on a movie or tell a simple story? You’d likely feel confused, embarrassed, frustrated, scared. According to the National Aphasia Association, over two million Americans suffer from aphasia—the inability to speak, write...

It All Depends on 31 Syllables: A Study of the Power of Japan's Medieval Waka

Jennifer New
Imagine if your social stature and your livelihood were dependent on your ability to write poetry and refer to the work of other poets. If there were poetry competitions among the elite that decided one’s worthiness. Or if the entire direction of a nation could be changed via 31 syllables. Japanese waka, a 31-syllable precursor to haiku, held just this kind of sway for several centuries...
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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...