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

Street pickers with can carriers in Matanzas, Cuba

Yellow Fever's History of Humans, Microbes, and Ideas

Jennifer New
Yellow fever was once a terrifying killer that violently took the lives of half of the people who contracted it. It killed workers building canals, soldiers engaged in sieges, and investors on fact-finding missions. A viral disease spread between humans and primates, it is caused by a species of mosquito that prefers clean, fresh water. Before this was proven decisively in 1901, yellow fever was a...

NHA Advocacy Day

Obermann Director Teresa Mangum joined hundreds of humanities faculty members, center directors, and leaders of professional organizations like the Modern Language Association and the American Historical Association in Washington, DC. As part of the annual NHA Advocacy Day, they shared the educational, social, and economic benefits of the arts and humanities. The NHA especially encourages...
Esco in his 20s wearing a suit and bowtie

An Aerial View—Remembering Esco Obermann

Jenna Hammerich
Esco Obermann embodied interdisciplinarity. That's him in the photo to the right, upside down on his parents' windmill in Yarmouth, Iowa. (Look closely—the soles of his shoes are aligned with the motor.) Esco, one of nine siblings, grew up doing acrobatics on his family's farm in southeastern Iowa—backbends on bulls, rope stunts in haylofts, L-sits on windmills—as if driven to seek new...
Nina G

Nina G: Stuttering comic walks the line between satire and issue advocacy

Jennifer New
Bay Area comedian Nina G works tough territory. She plays gigs at clubs with names like “Nightlife on Mars” and “The Laugh Boat.” She stutters. And she’s really funny about it. While most stand-up comics engage their audiences through relatable stories, Nina G’s work pulls that kind observational humor into the broader intersection of comedy, satire and issue advocacy. That’s tough territory...
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Humanities for the Public Good Seeks Post-Doc, Research Assistant

While we tend to assume one attends graduate school in the humanities to become a professor, deep immersion in anthropology, art, history, literature, philosophy, and other cultural disciplines is excellent preparation for all kinds of workplaces--especially when content is enhanced by competencies sought by a variety of employers. In fall 2018, the University of Iowa received a four-year grant...

Save the date! March 8 Career Diversity in the Humanities Working Symposium

SAVE THE DATE! Career Diversity in the Humanities: An Obermann Humanities for the Public Good Working Symposium March 8 from 9–5 at the Iowa City Public Library Across the country, leaders of PhD programs in the humanities face a conundrum. How can a department honor the subjects, methods, and practices of their disciplines while also preparing graduates for diverse careers? To...
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Recent Events

Ten Years Too Long: Making the Flint Water Crisis Public Archive promotional image

Ten Years Too Long: Making the Flint Water Crisis Public Archive

Wednesday, July 10, 2024 12:00pm to 1:00pm
Virtual

The Flint Water Crisis Public Archive aims to aid community leaders, researchers, and the general public in better understanding what happened during the Flint Water Crisis. Without our intervention, we risk losing access to documents released regarding the crisis, stripping us of the opportunity to learn about these important events and their ongoing implications for communities in Michigan and beyond. Panelists will include the project's founder, who will discuss the upcoming launch of the...

Dissertation Camp promotional image

Dissertation Camp

Friday, June 7, 2024 9:00am to 1:00pm
Virtual

The 2024 dissertation writing camp runs from Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, June 7. Spaces are limited; priority will be given to doctoral students who are post-proposal, have mostly completed data collection, and are focused on writing. We meet via Zoom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon-Fri). Each day begins with a short group discussion and ends with a 30-minute presentation focused on dissertation writing, but most of the time is devoted to writing. Participants set daily and weekly writing goals and...

Dissertation Camp promotional image

Dissertation Camp

Thursday, June 6, 2024 9:00am to 1:00pm
Virtual

The 2024 dissertation writing camp runs from Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, June 7. Spaces are limited; priority will be given to doctoral students who are post-proposal, have mostly completed data collection, and are focused on writing. We meet via Zoom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon-Fri). Each day begins with a short group discussion and ends with a 30-minute presentation focused on dissertation writing, but most of the time is devoted to writing. Participants set daily and weekly writing goals and...

Dissertation Camp promotional image

Dissertation Camp

Wednesday, June 5, 2024 9:00am to 1:00pm
Virtual

The 2024 dissertation writing camp runs from Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, June 7. Spaces are limited; priority will be given to doctoral students who are post-proposal, have mostly completed data collection, and are focused on writing. We meet via Zoom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon-Fri). Each day begins with a short group discussion and ends with a 30-minute presentation focused on dissertation writing, but most of the time is devoted to writing. Participants set daily and weekly writing goals and...

Dissertation Camp promotional image

Dissertation Camp

Tuesday, June 4, 2024 9:00am to 1:00pm
Virtual

The 2024 dissertation writing camp runs from Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, June 7. Spaces are limited; priority will be given to doctoral students who are post-proposal, have mostly completed data collection, and are focused on writing. We meet via Zoom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon-Fri). Each day begins with a short group discussion and ends with a 30-minute presentation focused on dissertation writing, but most of the time is devoted to writing. Participants set daily and weekly writing goals and...

Dissertation Camp promotional image

Dissertation Camp

Monday, June 3, 2024 9:00am to 1:00pm
Virtual

The 2024 dissertation writing camp runs from Tuesday, May 28 to Friday, June 7. Spaces are limited; priority will be given to doctoral students who are post-proposal, have mostly completed data collection, and are focused on writing. We meet via Zoom from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Mon-Fri). Each day begins with a short group discussion and ends with a 30-minute presentation focused on dissertation writing, but most of the time is devoted to writing. Participants set daily and weekly writing goals and...