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

Stephen Best: “Baldwin's Inarticulacy”

Friday, March 29, 2024 3:30pm to 5:00pm
English-Philosophy Building
The Department of English and Obermann Center are hosting Stephen Best on Friday, March 29 at 3:30 p.m. in 304 EPB (Gerber). UI PhD candidate Sarah Frank will introduce Professor Best and UI Professor Deborah Whaley will serve as respondent. Stephen Best (Berkeley) is Rachael Anderson Stageberg Chair in English and Director of the Townsend Center for the Humanities. One of the most important scholars of his generation, Professor Best has published two acclaimed monographs: "The Fugitive's...
New Histories for Reproductive Justice: Authors in Conversation promotional image

New Histories for Reproductive Justice: Authors in Conversation

Thursday, March 28, 2024 7:00pm
Prairie Lights Books
Professors Natalie Lira, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and Angela Hume, University of California, Berkeley, will be in conversation with each other about their recent books on the topics of abortion and the history of sterilization. Their work is deeply informed by and grounded in a reproductive justice framework.
Global Visiting Scholar Presentation: Policy Engagement & Development for Women’s Reproductive Health in India promotional image

Global Visiting Scholar Presentation: Policy Engagement & Development for Women’s Reproductive Health in India

Tuesday, March 26, 2024 1:30pm to 2:20pm
College of Public Health Building
Join global visiting scholar, Dr. M. Sivakamy, as she speaks about her research in gender-based policy and women's health in India.
Book Matters: Christopher Goetz in Conversation with Corey Creekmur at Prairie Lights promotional image

Book Matters: Christopher Goetz in Conversation with Corey Creekmur at Prairie Lights

Thursday, March 21, 2024 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Prairie Lights Books
Join us for a reading and discussion, co-hosted by Prairie Lights, to celebrate Christopher Goetz’s recent book, The Counterfeit Coin: Videogames and Fantasies of Empowerment. Goetz is an associate professor and head of film studies in the Department of Cinematic Arts. After the reading, Corey Creekmur, associate professor in the departments of Cinematic Arts and English, will join Goetz for a conversation and Q&A with the audience. A reception will follow the event. Thursday, March 21, 2024 7...
Application deadline: Obermann Summer Writing Retreat promotional image

Application deadline: Obermann Summer Writing Retreat

Thursday, March 14, 2024 5:00pm
North Ridge Pavilion
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 Summer 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 include...
Out of the Archive Series: The Short Films of Aarin Burch promotional image

Out of the Archive Series: The Short Films of Aarin Burch

Tuesday, March 5, 2024 6:15pm to 9:00pm
FilmScene (Chauncey)
Please join us at FilmScene for the continuation of "Out of the Archive: Envisioning Blackness," a monthly screening and discussion series that celebrates the vibrant  tradition of Black cinema by featuring rarely screened, newly restored, and archivally engaged films. Tickets are pay-what-you-can (with students, in particular, encouraged to pick $0). Join us before each screening for a free dinner reception catered by local restaurants, and stay after each film for post-screening conversations...