Upcoming Events & Deadlines

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants promotional image

Application Deadline: Small Important Project Grants

Thursday, April 1, 2027 5:00pm
111 Church Street

This new Obermann Center program offers modest yet swift support for those portions of research and creative endeavors by UI scholars that are important toward advancing a project but do not have enough funding from other sources. We will grant 10 awards of $500 or less per academic year. Note that funds need to be spent by June 30 of each year.

Eligibility: Open to all University of Iowa faculty and staff researchers who have not received a SIP award in the past academic year.

Application...

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.

View more events

Spacer

News

Translating Whitman

“Poets to Come” in Five Languages: Ed Folsom has spent his career deciphering the works of Walt Whitman. After decades of reading and re-reading the quintessential American author, Folsom has had some unexpected new insights into his work by reading translations from German, Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Polish. In June 2011, Folsom, who is the Carver Professor in the Department of...

MOOCs: History, Hype, and Reality slideshow

MOOCS—History, Hype, and Reality: In February, UI Vice President for Research Dan Reed kicked off the Obermann Afternoons series with a talk detailing the history of so-called massive open online courses and their futures. Here are the slides from his talk.

Obermann Afternoons Explores Intersection Between Solar Cooker, Deforestation, and Women's Lives

Missing the Woods for the Trees: Mechanical Engineer and Feminist Anthropologist Connect the Local and Global — Women and children from northwest India spend more than 20 hours a week walking to existing stands of trees, cutting down wood, and carrying as much as 70 pounds home to use as cooking fuel. As part of an Obermann Working Group, H.S. Udaykumar (Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering...

Obermann Working Groups Taking Applications for 2013-2014

Explore New Work, Share Research, Organize a Symposium or Grant Proposal! The Obermann Working Groups provide space, structure, and discretionary funding for groups of faculty and advanced graduate students 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...

2014 Obermann Summer Seminar Directorship Now Open for Applications

Lead a Major Collaborative Project! The Summer Seminar Directorship is an opportunity to lead a major collaborative project that will result in some form of publication or public work. The director(s) of the seminar must be a University of Iowa faculty or full-time research staff. The seminar can include approximately a dozen participants. While most will be visiting scholars and researchers...

Lake Effect

In January 2012, Lisa Johnson participated in the Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy. Her final project was a collaborative arts ensemble between women at the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women and community partners. During the intense week-long Institute working with the public was front and center in Johnson’s mind, but having coffee with farmers near Estherville or...

Recent Events

Political Activism Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Political Activism Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Saturday, September 23, 2023 1:00pm to 2:30pm
Iowa City Public Library

Panel #2: Political Activism

Travers (Simon Fraser University): “Trans Participation in Sport: The Fight to Include Us in Public Life” Douglas Hartmann (University of Minnesota, Twin Cities): "Documenting and Rethinking the Impact of Protest through Sport: The Case of WNBA Activism in the 2020 Georgia Senate Race" Jason Kido Lopez (University of Wisconsin, Madison): "Constructing Crisis in Women’s Sports: Outkick’s 'Anti-Woke' Sports Media Brand"

There will be a break from noon to 1 p.m.

...
Athletes and Resistance Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Athletes and Resistance Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Saturday, September 23, 2023 10:30am to 12:00pm
Iowa City Public Library

Panel #3: Athletes and Resistance

Adrian Burgos (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign): "In Clemente's Wake: Afro-Latino Ballplayers and the Quest for Respect"

Noah Cohan (Washington University, St. Louis): “Raising a Glass Helmet: How Black Athletes and Artists Resist Football’s Head Gear”

Jaime Schultz (Penn State University): "Consumed: On Women, Distance Running, Disordered Eating, and Illness Narratives"

Moderated by Glenn Houlihan, a PhD student in American...

Publishing Fair and Reception - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Publishing Fair and Reception - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Friday, September 22, 2023 4:30pm to 6:00pm
Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building

In addition to snacks and drinks, this informal reception will include booths from university presses that publish work on sport.

This event is a part of the Sports, Power, and Resistance: Legacies and Futures Obermann Arts and Humanities Symposium. 

Free and open to all.

'I Was Raised on this Sport: Football and Female Expertise' Keynote Address - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

'I Was Raised on this Sport: Football and Female Expertise' Keynote Address - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Friday, September 22, 2023 2:30pm to 4:00pm
Stanley Museum of Art

How can the history of activism in sports help us understand the dynamics shaping conflicts today? How might labor relations in sport be imagined differently? How does the structure of sporting entertainment provide opportunities and obstacles to activism, and how can activists navigate these challenges?

As fans flock to sports arenas to cheer for their favorite teams, these spaces are simultaneously important societal battlegrounds. From acts of political protest by players to legislative...

Imagining Belonging Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium promotional image

Imagining Belonging Panel - Sports, Power, and Resistance Obermann Arts & Humanities Symposium

Friday, September 22, 2023 10:15am to 1:00pm
Iowa City Public Library

Welcomes and Panel #1: Imagining Belonging

Michael Butterworth (University of Texas, Austin): "The Team That United a City: On Sports Documentaries and the Rhetorical Construction of Unity" Theresa Runstedtler (American University): "Black vs. White Ball: Race and the 1974 NBA Finals" Ashley Brown (University of Wisconsin, Madison): “A Patriot’s Game: Tennis, Physical Fitness, and ‘Good Citizenship’ during World War II” Abraham Kahn (University of Arkansas): “Sundays and Saturdays: Brian...
Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall promotional image

Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall

Friday, September 22, 2023 10:00am to 4:00pm
Virtual

The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies & the Office of the Vice President for Research present Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall, a daylong online writing retreat for faculty, academic staff, and graduate students across the UI, led by Michelle Boyd, PhD, of InkWell Academic Writing Retreats.

This full-day online writing retreat offers an opportunity to set up your fall writing plans. You'll learn how to quickly clarify what needs to be done, what to do...