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Upcoming Application Deadlines

Upcoming Application Deadlines

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Spring 2027) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Spring 2027)

Friday, September 18, 2026 11:59pm
111 Church Street

The UI Obermann Center for Advanced studies is accepting applications for Spring 2027 Obermann International Fellowships. This program offers dedicated space, time, and funding for interdisciplinary scholars to collaborate on innovative research at the University of Iowa. Up to eight international fellowships will be granted every academic year. Applicants must be active researchers at an accredited institution of higher learning outside of the United States or independent researchers/artists...

Application Deadline: Book Ends, Obermann Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Application Deadline: Book Ends, Obermann Book Completion Workshop

Wednesday, September 23, 2026 5:00pm
Virtual

Books Ends supports University of Iowa faculty from disciplines in which publishing a monograph is required for tenure and promotion. The award is designed to assist UI faculty members with significant research responsibilities turn promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books.

Book Ends brings together a panel of senior scholars for a candid, constructive three-hour workshop on a faculty member’s book manuscript. The award provides a $500 honorarium for two external...

Application Deadline: Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (Summer 2027) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (Summer 2027)

Wednesday, October 7, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grants (IDRG) foster collaborative scholarship and creative work by offering recipients time and space to exchange new ideas leading to invention, creation, and publication. IDRG groups work at the Obermann Center for two weeks, usually in July and/or August. Applicants propose work on a project with colleagues from across the University, across disciplines within their own department, or with colleagues from other parts of the country or the world. Projects...

Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Directorship (2027–28) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Symposium Directorship (2027–28)

Wednesday, October 28, 2026 5:00pm
111 Church Street

Is there a burning topic in your discipline or a topic that cuts across disciplines that we should bring to campus? Is there a format for the conversation that can energize an intellectual community around that topic? That might be the perfect topic for an Obermann Symposium!

In addition to a compelling topic, we invite co-directors to propose national and international speakers who can offer richly diverse perspectives on the symposium theme. We also want to highlight the work of UI and local...

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...

News

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Demystifying the Publishing Process

Publishing a monograph is essential to the careers of scholars in many disciplines, but the academic publishing process is often opaque and mystifying. This spring, the Obermann Center begins a new program to set UI faculty and graduate students up for success in the publishing market by connecting them with an accomplished editor from a scholarly press.
CHCI logo

Obermann Center Receives Funding for Global Writing Initiative

The Consortium of Humanities Centers and Institutes (CHCI)—a global forum that strengthens the work of humanities centers through advocacy, grant-making, and inclusive collaboration—has selected a joint humanities project of the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Universidad de la República, Uruguay, to participate in its Global Justice and Humanities Practices initiative, with an accompanying award of $10,000. “Mass Migrations, Personal Voices: Latin American Women Migrants Write Their Stories” will explore and disseminate new insights into the impact of guided creative writing on the lives of Latin American migrant women. Luis Martín-Estudillo, Director of the Obermann Center, authored the proposal and will serve as the project’s PI. Luis Muñoz, UI Associate Professor of Spanish and director of the MFA in Spanish Creative Writing, and a graduate student in Spanish Creative Writing, will work alongside Martín-Estudillo and two faculty from the Centro de Estudios Interdisciplinarios Migratorios (Center for Interdisciplinary Migration Studies) at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo, Uruguay’s flagship institution, to plan and conduct creative writing workshops for women who recently migrated to Uruguay, having fled economic and humanitarian crises in their native Venezuela.
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Obermann Center seeks ABD PhD student for '25-'26 Program Coordinator position

The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies is seeking an advanced (ABD) humanities or social sciences PhD student to work with the Obermann staff to support programs and events and tell the stories of the exciting research projects and initiatives supported by the Center.
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CSSI Invites Applications for Co-Sponsored Fall 2025 Obermann International Fellowships Program

The Center for Social Science Innovation (CSSI) is pleased to announce its co-sponsorship of a Fall 2025 Obermann Center for Advanced Studies International Fellowship. The fellowship program provides international researchers and artists with the opportunity to develop collegiate collaborations and pursue independent work at the University of Iowa. CSSI will co-sponsor one fellow who aims to conduct innovative social science research on campus. Prospective fellows can request a CSSI co-sponsorship within their application. In tandem with the benefits provided by the Obermann Center, fellows co-sponsored by CSSI will be provided with a quiet, dedicated office space at CSSI and access to the Center’s amenities (such as meeting rooms, break areas, and office support).
Jose Fernandez

Humanities Without Walls Externship Program Fosters Career Diversity, Community Collaboration

At some point, every student pursuing a graduate degree in the humanities has been asked, “So you're going to be a professor?” Humanities PhDs and MAs are often seen as hyperspecialized degrees useful only in the realm of academia—but in fact, the analytical and communication skills, as well as the broad understanding of culture attained through high-level study of the humanities, sets students up for success in a variety of careers, especially in the nonprofit sector. As globalization and rapid technological advancements are transforming the job market and accelerating its pace of change, it’s essential that graduate students be prepared to apply their skills in unexpected ways. University faculty, however, are not typically trained to guide these students toward meaningful, productive careers outside of academia.
world map with flag pins

Obermann Center Invites International Applicants for Residential Fellows Program

The Obermann Center is thrilled to announce that it is expanding its residential fellowship program to accept international researchers and artists. Fellowships offer dedicated space, time, and funding for scholars and artists based outside of the United States to develop collaborations and pursue independent work at the University of Iowa. Up to eight international fellowships will be granted every academic year, and fellows will receive a $2,000 stipend, office space at the Obermann Center, access to University of Iowa libraries, and other benefits.

Recent Events

Humanities for the Public Good (HPG) Summer Internship Info Session promotional image

Humanities for the Public Good (HPG) Summer Internship Info Session

Friday, February 4, 2022 9:00am to 10:00am
Virtual

Join Associate Director of the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, Jennifer New, to learn more about Humanities for the Public Good (HPG) Summer 2022 internship opportunities. Internships are open to UI graduate students pursuing doctoral degrees.

Learn more about the available internships at https://uihumanitiesforthepublicgood.com/summer-2022-internships/.

The info session is free and open to all: https://uiowa.zoom.us/j/91762226223. 

Practice-based, cross-disciplinary opportunities for...

Reproductive Justice: An Obermann Conversation promotional image

Reproductive Justice: An Obermann Conversation

Wednesday, February 2, 2022 7:00pm to 8:00pm
Virtual

In the fight surrounding Roe v. Wade, it's easy to lose sight of the many other ways that access to reproductive healthcare can be limited or denied. Two Obermann scholars, Lina-Maria Murillo and Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz, talk with local healthcare providers and researchers to provide a fuller landscape of reproductive justice in the Midwest.

Featured speakers:

Lastascia Coleman, nurse-midwife, UIHC Nicole Novak, research faculty, College of Public Health Meagan Thompson, nurse-midwife, UIHC...
A Conversation about Reimagining the Intro to Graduate Studies Course in the Humanities promotional image

A Conversation about Reimagining the Intro to Graduate Studies Course in the Humanities

Wednesday, January 26, 2022 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Virtual

This spring, the Andrew W. Mellon-funded Humanities for the Public Good initiative will host a series of conversations to share what we’re learning about graduate education in the humanities. The first conversation features University of Iowa faculty who have redesigned “Introduction to Graduate Studies” courses in key departments, including those who received HPG course minigrants. Free and open to all, but registration is required

For the last two years, a series of energetic Advisory Board...

Application Deadline: Sawyer Seminar Dissertation Fellowships promotional image

Application Deadline: Sawyer Seminar Dissertation Fellowships

Tuesday, January 25, 2022 5:00pm

The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies at the University of Iowa welcomes applications for two academic year graduate dissertation fellowships with a stipend of $20,938 each (tuition scholarship up to $750 per semester, 50 percent of mandatory fees, and a contribution towards their health and dental insurance) for dissertation research, funded through the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  The fellowships are for the 2022-2023 academic year and include participation in the Mellon...

Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank promotional image

Let Me Be Myself: The Life Story of Anne Frank

Tuesday, January 18 to Wednesday, March 2, 2022 (all day)
Old Capitol Museum

Curated by the Anne Frank Center USA, the Let Me Be Myself exhibit provides an in-depth history of Frank and her family, connecting Anne’s experiences to those of contemporary teens who have experienced prejudice and discrimination. The exhibition parallels Frank's life story with the present and makes the fate of the millions of victims of the persecution of the Jews during the Second World War personal and palpable.

After the exhibit leaves the UI, it will travel to a half dozen Iowa...

Winter Institute for Teaching with Writing promotional image

Winter Institute for Teaching with Writing

Thursday, January 6, 2022 10:00am to 12:00pm
Virtual

This is the second in a series of two workshops on teaching with writing on January 4th and 6th from 10 am to 12 pm. The January 4th workshop will focus on designing meaningful writing assignments, teaching analytical reading skills, and scaffolding students through the writing process. The January 6th workshop will focus on responding to and assessing student writing, and dealing with grammar and mechanics.

Faculty and TAs in all disciplines, departments, and colleges (particularly instructors...