Upcoming Events & Deadlines

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...

Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop promotional image

Application Deadline: Book Ends Book Completion Workshop

Thursday, May 31, 2029 (all day)
111 Church Street

Books Ends—Obermann 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 important, field-changing, published books.

Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

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News

Translating Ixtlilxochitl’s Thirteenth Relation

At the death of an Aztec king, two brothers contest their father’s throne. A civil war ensues and ends with the kingdom divided in two. A number of years later, a Spanish conquistador named Cortés arrives in the area and one brother sends him an offer: I’ll help you if you help me. With the Spaniard’s assistance, the one brother is deposed, while the other not only takes the throne but fights...

Designing the Future

As changes in technology, population, climate, the economy, the organization of knowledge, and other systems gather speed, the need to predict and even to design the future accelerates as does the need to re-envision STEM as STEAM (sciences, technology, engineering, arts-humanities, and medicine). Through 2013-2014, a series of "futurists"—from the arts...
Just Strike by Josh MacPhee

Exuberant Politics: Fall 2013

Exuberant Politics is a yearlong programming initiative examining recent intersections of art and activism around the world. Organized by Exubernaut Collective, a group of faculty, graduate students, and community members, the series enjoys sponsorship from across community and campus, including the Obermann Center.Where have we experienced exuberance in protest and affinity? Grassroots political...

Obermann Afternoons Kicks Off with Talk on Intergenre Crossing

Building on the Obermann Center’s tradition of nurturing interdisciplinary scholarship, the Intergenre Explorations Working Group has brought together faculty engaged in intergenre work. Rather than (or in addition to) crossing disciplines, intergenre work crosses from one mode of research or presentation to another. Synthesizing scholarly and creative modalities, these crossings entail palpable...

Obermann Director Named to National Humanities Alliance Board of Directors

The Obermann Center is pleased to announce that Director Teresa Mangum has been invited to serve on the Board of Directors of the National Humanities Alliance. For over 30 years, the NHA has been the nation’s leading public policy and advocacy organization for the academic and public humanities. This non-partisan advocacy coalition works to advance humanities education and research, preserve...

Teaching the Latino Midwest

The culture and history of Latinos in the Midwest is an increasingly significant topic for college courses in Latino/a Studies. Numbers alone indicate that this regional emphasis is critical. Between 2000 and 2010, the Latino population increased by 44% across the country and by more than 73% in many Midwestern states. Yet, there is no teachable anthology for undergraduate classes.Claire Fox...

Recent Events

Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival promotional image

Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival

Thursday, April 23 to Sunday, April 26, 2026 (all day)
Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building
The Iowa City International Film Festival is a student-run experimental film festival hosted in Iowa City.
Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026 promotional image

Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026

Saturday, April 18, 2026 (all day)
University of Iowa
Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026 supported by the Department of History, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Obermann Center, and the Perry A. and Helen J. Bond Fund for Interdisciplinary Interaction at the University of Iowa
Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026 promotional image

Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026

Friday, April 17 to Saturday, April 18, 2026 (all day)
University of Iowa
Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026 supported by the Department of History, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Obermann Center, and the Perry A. and Helen J. Bond Fund for Interdisciplinary Interaction at the University of Iowa
Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026 promotional image

Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026

Thursday, April 16 to Saturday, April 18, 2026 (all day)
University of Iowa
Association of Ancient Historians Meeting 2026 supported by the Department of History, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Obermann Center, and the Perry A. and Helen J. Bond Fund for Interdisciplinary Interaction at the University of Iowa
Global Vaccines in a Time of Climate Change, Megacities, and Antiscience promotional image

Global Vaccines in a Time of Climate Change, Megacities, and Antiscience

Friday, April 10, 2026 4:30pm to 5:15pm
Biology Building East
Peter Hotez addresses the global challenges facing vaccination efforts, including climate change, urbanization, and organized antiscience movements.
The DTP Vaccine and Narratives of Injury promotional image

The DTP Vaccine and Narratives of Injury

Friday, April 10, 2026 3:45pm to 4:30pm
Biology Building East
Tara Smith explores the history of the DTP vaccine and the narratives that shape public perception of vaccine injury.