Upcoming Events

Wide Lens: LISTENING promotional image

Wide Lens: LISTENING

Thursday, May 8, 2025 5:30pm
Voxman Music Building
In a world full of noise, we often try listening to something: conversations with colleagues and family, music in our headphones, videos blasting from our smartphones. We hear all these things daily, but what does it mean to truly listen? In what sense do devices also listen to us? What is the role of silence in listening? How has listening changed over time? Can political tensions be solved through “listening”? How is listening both an art and a science? This Wide Lens event brings together...
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Upcoming Application Deadlines

Upcoming Application Deadlines

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Fall 2025) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann International Fellowships (Fall 2025)

Saturday, February 15, 2025 11:59pm
The UI Obermann Center for Advanced studies is currently accepting applications for its new International Fellowships Program, which 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 with...
Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Spring Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 5:00pm
Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research, Book Ends—Obermann/OVPR 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 in turning promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books.
Application Deadline: Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat

Friday, March 14, 2025 5:00pm
Have you been waiting all school year to make serious progress on your book manuscript, article, or grant application? Jump-start your summer writing project at the Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat May 12–16, 2025! Fifteen participants will enjoy a week of quiet productivity apart from the distractions of campus at the beautiful North Ridge Pavilion in Coralville. Daily catered lunches will provide an opportunity for exchange and discussion with other writers across campus. Each day will...
Application Deadline: Obermann Working Groups (2025–26) promotional image

Application Deadline: Obermann Working Groups (2025–26)

Wednesday, April 9, 2025 5:00pm
Obermann Center Working Groups provide space, structure, and discretionary funding ($500 per year for 3 years) 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 explore new work and to share their own research, to organize a symposium, and to develop grant proposals. This program allows participants from across the campus and beyond to explore complex issues at a...
Fall Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Fall Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Wednesday, September 24, 2025 5:00pm
Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research, Book Ends—Obermann/OVPR 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 in turning promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books. Book Ends brings together a panel of senior scholars for a candid, constructive three...

News

Obermann Part of Major Collaborative Mellon Award

Obermann Center Member of Major Collaborative Mellon Grant The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded $3,000,000 for an innovative two-year project, “Humanities Without Walls,” that will include faculty and graduate students at the University of Iowa. In addition to the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, the collaboration includes fourteen humanities institutes in the Midwest and beyond. By...

The Heart of the Chicago Humanities Summit

The following reflections on the recent Chicago Humanities Summit were written by H. Glenn Penny (History, CLAS), who was one of several University of Iowa faculty members in attendance. On January 9, 2014 the Chicago Humanities Festival (CHF) joined forces with the Modern Language Association (MLA), the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (AAAS), and local humanities centers along with the...

Micromagnets: On the Path To Greater Energy Efficiency

Johna Leddy (Chemistry, CLAS) is very enthusiastic about the possibility of improving electrochemical systems such as batteries and fuel cells to provide energy and fuels with greater efficiency. “We might be able to build a low temperature fuel cell that runs on alcohol,” says Leddy, who was a Fall 2013 Obermann Fellow-in-Residence. “It could make us less dependent on foreign oil and processes...

Obermann Fellows in Conversation—Race Relations in the U.S. South

A wonderful aspect of the Obermann Center is the way in which people from across the University meet and have unexpected conversations. While many of our programs invite people to form unique collaborations to achieve a specific outcome, such as publishing an article or developing a grant application, our longest running program, the Fellows-in-Residence, is intended to support individual projects...

2014 Graduate Institute Fellows

Seventeen UI graduate students have been selected as Obermann Graduate Fellows and will participate in the 2014 Obermann Graduate Institute. The Institute is a highly competitive program for graduate students across the University who are interested in developing publicly engaged dimensions for research, arts, and teaching. The weeklong Institute (January 13-January 17, 2014) includes...

Obermann Grad Fellow Combines Biking Advocacy and Research

Mark Pooley jokes that many people think that winter bike riding is only for the “strong and the fearless.” As someone who rides his bike most days, he acknowledges that even the strong and fearless sometimes look outside on a zero-degree wind chill morning and have second thoughts about riding to work. But what the former Obermann Graduate...

Recent Events

Joseph Graves: Race, Health, and the Built Microbiome promotional image

Joseph Graves: Race, Health, and the Built Microbiome

Friday, April 12, 2024 3:30pm to 4:30pm
Biology Building East
Race, Health and the Built Biodome: Seminar presentation by Joseph Graves Jr., Professor of Biological Science at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
2024 Iowa City Darwin Day promotional image

2024 Iowa City Darwin Day

Friday, April 12, 2024 2:30pm to 5:30pm
Biology Building East
Every year to mark Charles Darwin’s birthday, Iowa City Darwin Day organizes a two-day celebration of science designed to promote scientific literacy and increase public awareness of the contributions of science to society. The featured speakers for the 2024 events on April 12 and 13 are Joseph Graves Jr., Harmit Malik and Heather Sander. All talks are free and open to all. 
Prairie Lights Reading with Visiting Scholar Lesley-Ann Noel promotional image

Prairie Lights Reading with Visiting Scholar Lesley-Ann Noel

Thursday, April 11, 2024 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Free copy of Design Social Change: Take Action, Work Toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo for the first 30 attendees! What motivates you as a changemaker? What forces are preventing you (and others) from thriving? These questions are essential to the work of creating social change, and they are exactly what Lesley-Ann Noel asks you to explore in her new book, Design Social Change: Take Action, Work Toward Equity, and Challenge the Status Quo (Ten Speed Press, 2023). In the book and at...
Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: In the Shadow of the Inquisition, the US Constitutional Right to Liberty of Conscience  promotional image

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: In the Shadow of the Inquisition, the US Constitutional Right to Liberty of Conscience

Wednesday, April 10, 2024 12:00pm to 1:00pm
University Capitol Centre
Part of the series: Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the Americas "In the Shadow of the Inquisition: The US Constitutional Right to Liberty of Conscience" Dr. Isaac Amon Director of Academic Research, Jewish Heritage Alliance  Adjunct Professor, Washington university School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri Sponsors of the series: The Jewish Studies Working Group; The Anne Frank Initiative; International Programs; Obermann Center for Advanced Studies; Center for...
Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the Americas promotional image

Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the Americas

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 3:30pm to 5:00pm
Phillips Hall
Join us for a Public Talk: "The Legacy of Sefarad: (Crypto) Jewish Experiences in Spain and Portugal,” Dr. Isaac Amon, Director of Academic Research, Jewish Heritage Alliance and Adjunct Professor, Washington University School of Law, St. Louis, Missouri "Zamora Sefardí: Jewish Legacy in Zamora, Spain,” Dr. Jeśus Jambrina, Professor of Spanish, Viterbo University, LaCrosse, Wisconsin   This is part of the series: "Jewish Stories of Identity and Belonging: Spain, Portugal, and the...
Office of Community Engagement: Engagement Summit promotional image

Office of Community Engagement: Engagement Summit

Tuesday, April 9, 2024 (all day)
University Capitol Centre
The Engagement Summit brings together faculty, staff, students, and community partners to explore and celebrate a year of impactful community engagement work between the University of Iowa and communities across Iowa and beyond. This daylong event will include sessions and speakers on important topics in community engagement, including community-engaged research, the impact of engagement on communities, creative place-making and improving quality of life in communities, graduate education and...