Upcoming Events

There are currently no events to display.

View more events

Spacer

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

SumSem_group2_1.jpg

Social Practice Art: Engaging Multiple Perspectives

The role of art in society has long been debated. If an artist works in a university and in combination with community partners, that definition becomes murkier yet.As part of the Obermann Center’s Summer Seminar, “Problem Solving Social Practice in Art,” a group of scholars, community organizers, and artists cast a wide net on the idea of “social practice in art,” examining and exposing gaps in...
HWW logo

Humanities Without Walls — Opportunities for Humanities Faculty and Graduate Students

Andrew W. Mellon–funded Grand Challenge — The Global Midwest As we announced last year, the Obermann Center is one of 15 centers in the $3,000,000 Mellon-funded Humanities Without Walls Consortium headed by Professor Dianne Harris of the University of Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities. Applications are welcome from faculty at two or more consortial universities whose scholarship...

"Obermann Afternoons" Line Up Announced

Obermann Afternoons, the Obermann Center's informal speakers series, launches again this fall. “Anthropocene 101" leads the way on September 17 from 4:00 to 5:30 pm, as Barbara Eckstein (English, CLAS), Bradley Cramer (Earth & Environmental Sciences, CLAS), and Tyler Priest (History, CLAS) give a preview of their spring Humanities Symposium, Energy Cultures in the Age of the Anthropocene. They will...
Food for thought poster

Food for Thought, First Theme Semester

Obermann Co-sponsors Next Year's "Food for Thought"—First University of Iowa Theme Semester. It began with a small group of people and a big idea: rallying academic, arts, and community events around a common theme, connecting people and programs in original ways. Over the last few months, that idea has taken root. Next spring, it’ll bear fruit with a collection of initiatives under the banner...

Designing Technologies for Children

Seven years ago when Juan Pablo Hourcade (Computer Science, CLAS) published a review article about designing technologies for children, smartphones were not widespread, the iPad hadn’t been introduced, nor had motion-sensing gaming devices like Kinect. A lot has changed in terms of how children can access technology and what they can do it with. And yet there still is not a succinct overview of...

Christopher Newfield penetrates "humanities crisis"

On April 28, we invite you to join Christopher Newfield (University of California, Santa Barbara) as he asks, “What Are the Humanities For—in the 21st Century?” One of the country’s most energetic analysts of higher education funding, Newfield has such diverse interests and expertise that his talk may range from literature to economics and corporate culture to the roots of American education and...

Recent Events

Obermann Book Ends Information Session (virtual) promotional image

Obermann Book Ends Information Session (virtual)

Wednesday, January 29, 2025 9:00am to 9:30am
Virtual

Co-sponsored by the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, the Books 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 turn promising manuscripts into published books.

At this brief Zoom session, attendees will learn about the program and the application...

NEA Big Read | Free Book Pick Up promotional image

NEA Big Read | Free Book Pick Up

Monday, January 20, 9:00am to Wednesday, February 12, 2025 5:00pm
Stanley Museum of Art

The Stanley Museum of Art will launch its National Endowment for the Arts Big Read program on Jan. 20, 2025, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

This event features a community wide reading of the novel Beloved by Toni Morrison. Pick up a free copy of Beloved at 12 pickup locations across Iowa City between Jan. 20 and Feb. 12, 2025. 

Register here to pickup a free copy: https://uiowa.doubleknot.com/event/nea-big-reads-beloved-by-toni-morriso...

An email confirmation must be presented to claim a book...

2025 Winter Institute for Teaching with Writing promotional image

2025 Winter Institute for Teaching with Writing

Wednesday, January 8, 2025 10:00am to 12:00pm
Virtual

This is the first in a series of two workshops (via Zoom) designed for instructors interested in incorporating more writing into content-oriented courses. All faculty and TAs are welcome, particularly those teaching in departments other than Rhetoric and English. Workshops are led by members of the Obermann Teaching with Writing Working Group.

REGISTER HERE for one or both sessions. Both sessions will be held via Zoom.

Session I, Monday, Jan. 6, 10 a.m.– noon: Low-Stakes Writing Assignments...

2025 Winter Institute for Teaching with Writing promotional image

2025 Winter Institute for Teaching with Writing

Monday, January 6, 2025 10:00am to 12:00pm
Virtual

This is the first in a series of two workshops (via Zoom) designed for instructors interested in incorporating more writing into content-oriented courses. All faculty and TAs are welcome, particularly those teaching in departments other than Rhetoric and English. Workshops are led by members of the Obermann Teaching with Writing Working Group.

REGISTER HERE for one or both sessions. Both sessions will be held via Zoom.

Session I, Monday, Jan. 6, 10 a.m.– noon: Low-Stakes Writing Assignments...

Lecture: Met Opera Tosca in Historical Perspective

Friday, November 15, 2024 5:00pm
Voxman Music Building

Professor Anna Barker will introduce the opera Tosca and provide a historical perspective. Streaming from the MET Opera will be in Marcus Theater Sycamore on Saturday, Nov. 23 at noon. 

Learn in a fun way about one of the most-often performed operas. Free and open to all. 

Hosted by the Opera Studies Obermann Working Group

Pecha Kucha "Engage the Innovators" promotional image

Pecha Kucha "Engage the Innovators"

Thursday, November 7, 2024 10:00am to 4:00pm
University Capitol Centre

Join us for the University of Iowa’s very first Mental Health and Well-Being Pecha Kucha.

Pecha Kucha, Japanese for chit-chat, is a fast paced, imagery-focused workshop that elevates the voices of our campus “mental health and well-being innovators.”

Attend these workshops to:
•    Discover new ways of thinking about work from a mental health & well-being lens
•    Get tangible takeaways about innovative mental health and well-being practices occurring on campus
•    Create connections to...