Upcoming Events & Deadlines

Planning and Writing Successful Grant Proposals in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Seminar promotional image

Planning and Writing Successful Grant Proposals in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities Seminar

Thursday, January 14, 2027 8:30am to 12:30pm
Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)

The Research Development Office is hosting an in-person grant writing seminar, Planning and Writing Successful Grant Proposals in the Creative Arts, Social Sciences, and Humanities, that will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 13 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday, Jan. 14 from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in the IMU. The seminar is presented by AtKisson Training Group.

This seminar will cover fundamental concepts of proposal planning and writing for the Arts and Humanities faculty backed by concrete...

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

First Iowa City Archive Crawl Celebrates Treasures in Local Collections

Hold History in Your Hands at the First-Ever Iowa City Archives Crawl What gems hide in plain sight in Iowa City’s libraries, museums, and archives? At the area’s first-ever archives crawl, visitors can snoop in between the pages of historic diaries, read other people's mail, hold feathers and fossils, and peer into mysteries revealed by historic artifacts like swords and locks of...
Graduate Institute participants doing a movement exercise

UI students learn the true meaning of public engagement

Thank you to Emily Nelson and Iowa Now for this article about the 2018 Obermann Graduate Institute Some scholars may consider giving a presentation, curating an exhibit, or hosting a medical screening for community groups to be a form of public engagement. Although each of these is an important contribution, the annual Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy encourages...
Exhibit of backpacks found along the Mexican border

The Archeology of Ten Minutes Ago: Preserving the Artifacts of Border Crossing

Jenna Hammerich
Across campus and community, you’ll be seeing the poster for our upcoming symposium, Against Amnesia: Archives, Evidence, and Social Justice. We wanted a powerful image to anchor our communications for this event—one that captures the urgency and importance of archiving in today’s political climate, especially in the name of human rights. Living, breathing archives, uncomfortable, incriminating...

UI’s Iowa Native Spaces project works with Meskwaki, Ioway to bring historical perspectives to more Iowans

Reprinted from Iowa Now, this article features a project that was incubated via the Obermann Working Group program and has been directed by Jacki Rand (History, CLAS) who has been an Obermann Fellow-in-Residence and Co-Director of the Obermann Graduate Institute, as well as former Graduate Institute Fellows Eric Zimmer and Dave De La Tore and Obermann HASTAC Scholar Mary Wise. Article by Chris...
Iowa City Archives Crawl logo

Iowa City Archives Crawl - Hold History in Your Hands!

On Saturday, February 24, Iowa City hosts its first archives crawl. You'll hold history in your hands. Get behind-the-scenes tours of local museums and libraries. Talk to experts who can help you with your own home-archiving projects. And learn about projects that scholars and artists are currently creating from the impressive archival holdings of local institutions. Between 11:00 am and 3:00...

February Digital Bridges Events

Two spring events hosted by our Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry: A Grinnell College/University of Iowa Partnership funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Save the dates for next spring! February 2 and 3: How to Harvest History, A talk and workshop with Rebecca Wingo, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Liberal Arts at Macalester College (PhD, History, University of Nebraska...
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Recent Events

Registration Deadline: Graduate Student Breakfast & Talk with Sara Jo Cohen, Obermann Editor-in-Residence promotional image

Registration Deadline: Graduate Student Breakfast & Talk with Sara Jo Cohen, Obermann Editor-in-Residence

Tuesday, October 21, 2025 5:00pm
111 Church Street

UI graduate students at all stages are invited to join Editor Cohen for breakfast and a talk focused on turning an article, thesis, or dissertation into a book. The session will take place on Tuesday, November 4, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. at the Obermann Center library.

Register by Oct. 21, 5 p.m. Learn more and register at https://obermann.uiowa.edu/obermann-editor-residence.

Cohen is Editorial Director at University of Michigan Press, where she acquires titles in music, theater and performance...

Application Deadline: Editorial Consultations with Sara Jo Cohen, Obermann Editor-in-Residence promotional image

Application Deadline: Editorial Consultations with Sara Jo Cohen, Obermann Editor-in-Residence

Monday, October 13, 2025 5:00pm
111 Church Street

UI faculty, students, and staff are invited to apply for a 20- 30-minute editorial consultation with the Obermann Center's 2025 Editor-in-Residence, Sara Jo Cohen, at the Obermann Center library on Monday, Nov. 3, 2025.

Potential discussion topics could include finding an editor, pitching a book, writing a book proposal, how the publishing process works, etc. Applications are due Oct. 13 by 5 p.m.

Learn more and apply at https://obermann.uiowa.edu/obermann-editor-residence.

Cohen is Editorial...

5/2: How Polarity Yields Five Codes of Music - A Syzygy with S/Z. Presentation 1: From Polarity to Plurality promotional image

5/2: How Polarity Yields Five Codes of Music - A Syzygy with S/Z. Presentation 1: From Polarity to Plurality

Monday, October 6, 2025 7:30pm
Voxman Music Building
The first of seven presentations of an intergalactic music poetics. Drawing together ancient wisdom and modern science, this poetics aims at transmuting one’s experience of everything as music and living joyfully even as we work confidently toward an abundant future.
Application Deadline: Faculty Book Proposal Workshop with Sara Jo Cohen, Obermann Editor-in-Residence promotional image

Application Deadline: Faculty Book Proposal Workshop with Sara Jo Cohen, Obermann Editor-in-Residence

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 5:00pm
111 Church Street

For this workshop, 4–5 UI faculty members will submit book proposal drafts for a collaborative feedback session on Nov. 5 led by Sara Jo Cohen, the Obermann Center's 2025 Editor-in-Residence. The session is designed to help authors write a compelling book proposal, with a focus on crafting a strong pitch, identifying target audiences, and outlining the project’s structure. The workshop’s goal is for participants to walk away with a strong and cohesive book proposal, increasing their chance of...

The Fourth Age of Life: The Challenges of Aging and the Joys of Connecting — An Obermann Counterpoint Event promotional image

The Fourth Age of Life: The Challenges of Aging and the Joys of Connecting — An Obermann Counterpoint Event

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Voxman Music Building

What does it truly mean to grow and thrive as we age? In this thought-provoking Obermann Counterpoint event, Mercedes Bern-Klug (School of Social Work, CLAS) and Amy Colbert (Tippie College of Business) will explore the diverse ways we live, adapt, and flourish in our later years, whether we choose to navigate life independently or in a communal care setting. Against the backdrop of a growing loneliness epidemic among older adults, the two will discuss the health and social benefits of nursing...

Text and Textures: Women Creating Books with Bite - A conversation with Pervin Saket & Diane Vadino promotional image

Text and Textures: Women Creating Books with Bite - A conversation with Pervin Saket & Diane Vadino

Monday, September 22, 2025 5:30pm
Shambaugh House

Text and Textures: Women Creating Books with Bite.

A conversation with Obermann International Fellow Pervin Saket & Diane Vadino led by Devanshi Khetarpal.

Co-sponsored by the International Writing Program and the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies.

Free and open to all!