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

Jessica Pleyel ironing

Jessica Pleyel: Mending through Art

Jennifer New
Wax guns, duck decoys, and nail polish. These are some of the items in artist Jessica Pleyel’s community engagement toolkit. The Obermann Graduate Institute alumna is currently bringing audiences together to consider gun violence against women, especially by domestic partners. Her exhibition, To(get)her: Meeting/Melting/Mending, had a month-long run at the Des Moines Social Club this spring, and...

All in the Mix: Erica Damman's Environmental Games

Jennifer New
Remove the letter A from Scrabble and things get tricky pretty quickly. Likewise, remove apis melliferia, or the honeybee, from the world’s ecosystems and things start to fall apart. Almonds and apples, coffee and avocados—all become, if not extinct, then exceptionally rarer without bees to pollinate them. Industries that employ thousands of people are compromised. The food that sustains certain...

Summer Brings Russell Scholars, a pair of education projects, two arts projects, and digital collaborations to the Obermann Center

The Obermann Center will host multiple groups this summer, working on projects ranging from an edited anthology to a "film opera." The Philosophy of Physical Atomism is the focus of this year's Obermann Summer Seminar. These lectures, given by Bertrand Russell in the early months of 1918, were published in pairs in four issues...

Talking “Prophylactic Chats” with Fellow-in-Residence Edward Cohn

Jenna Hammerich
It's 1975, Lithuania. You receive a letter in the mail—brief, and on KGB letterhead. "You are invited to a friendly chat at our headquarters," it says. "Next Monday, 10 a.m." Gulp. These "chats"—frequent occurrences in Khrushchev-era Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia—are the current fascination of Obermann Fellow-in-Residence Edward Cohn. A professor of history at Grinnell College, Dr. Cohn...

Humanities on the Hill 2017—with the National Humanities Alliance

Just as news was breaking that the proposed federal budget could zero out the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities, I joined representatives from nearly 200 colleges and universities in Washington, D.C. for the 2017 National Humanities Alliance Advocacy Day. As the current secretary of the NHA Board of Directors, I know firsthand what...

The Making of "Hot Tamale Louie": Fantastical immigrant’s tale inspires multi-genre production

Jennifer New
Sometime between chemo and radiation, John Rapson was struck by inspiration. It came in the form of a New Yorker article. The long piece, “Citizen Khan” by Kathryn Schulz, is as meandering and rich as its subject: Zarif Khan. After reading the article last June, Rapson, a jazz professor in the School of Music, immediately knew that he’d found the subject for a new piece. Not only would it include...
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Recent Events

Political Activism Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Political Activism Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Saturday, September 23, 2023 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Iowa City Public Library

Panel #2: Political Activism

Travers (Simon Fraser University): “Trans Participation in Sport: The Fight to Include Us in Public Life” Douglas Hartmann (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities): "Documenting and Rethinking the Impact of Protest through Sport: The Case of WNBA Activism in the 2020 Georgia Senate Race" Jason Kido Lopez (University of Wisconsin, Madison): "Constructing Crisis in Women’s Sports: Outkick’s 'Anti-Woke' Sports Media Brand"

There will be a break from noon to 1 p.m.

...
Athletes and Resistance Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Athletes and Resistance Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Saturday, September 23, 2023 10:30am to 12:00pm
Iowa City Public Library

Panel #3: Athletes and Resistance

Adrian Burgos (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): "In Clemente's Wake: Afro-Latino Ballplayers and the Quest for Respect"

Noah Cohan (Washington University, St. Louis): “Raising a Glass Helmet: How Black Athletes and Artists Resist Football’s Head Gear”

Jaime Schultz (Penn State University): "Consumed: On Women, Distance Running, Disordered Eating, and Illness Narratives"

Moderated by Glenn Houlihan, a PhD student in American...

Publishing Fair and Reception - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Publishing Fair and Reception - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Friday, September 22, 2023 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building

In addition to snacks and drinks, this informal reception will include booths from university presses that publish work on sport.

This event is a part of the Sports, Power, and Resistance: Legacies and Futures Obermann Arts and Humanities Symposium. 

Free and open to all.

'I Was Raised on this Sport: Football and Female Expertise' Keynote Address - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

'I Was Raised on this Sport: Football and Female Expertise' Keynote Address - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Friday, September 22, 2023 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Stanley Museum of Art

How can the history of activism in sports help us understand the dynamics shaping conflicts today? How might labor relations in sport be imagined differently? How does the structure of sporting entertainment provide opportunities and obstacles to activism, and how can activists navigate these challenges?

As fans flock to sports arenas to cheer for their favorite teams, these spaces are simultaneously important societal battlegrounds. From acts of political protest by players to legislative...

Imagining Belonging Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Imagining Belonging Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Friday, September 22, 2023 10:15am to 1:00pm
Iowa City Public Library

Welcomes and Panel #1: Imagining Belonging

Michael Butterworth (University of Texas, Austin): "The Team That United a City: On Sports Documentaries and the Rhetorical Construction of Unity" Theresa Runstedtler (American University): "Black vs. White Ball: Race and the 1974 NBA Finals" Ashley Brown (University of Wisconsin, Madison): “A Patriot’s Game: Tennis, Physical Fitness, and ‘Good Citizenship’ during World War II” Abraham Kahn (University of Arkansas): “Sundays and Saturdays: Brian...
Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall promotional image

Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall

Friday, September 22, 2023 10:00am to 4:00pm
Virtual

The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies & the Office of the Vice President for Research present Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall, a daylong online writing retreat for faculty, academic staff, and graduate students across the UI, led by Michelle Boyd, PhD, of InkWell Academic Writing Retreats.

This full-day online writing retreat offers an opportunity to set up your fall writing plans. You'll learn how to quickly clarify what needs to be done, what to do...