We’re pleased to announce the 2025-26 Obermann Symposium, “Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research,” co-directed by Daria Fisher Page, Brian R. Farrell, and Ryan T. Sakoda from the UI College of Law. “Cultivating Rurality” will take a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary look at the subject of rurality through the lenses of law, medicine, education, sustainability, business, social science, and the arts by connecting faculty members and others at the University of Iowa who are already engaged in rural research and teaching, as well as scholars, community leaders, and professionals who work with rural populations and in rural spaces. Attendees will be invited to collaborate in theorizing rurality, share how it impacts their work, examine how rurality is represented and celebrated, and problem-solve challenges faced by rural communities, both in Iowa and elsewhere, such as resource extraction, limited investment and digital infrastructure, low quality water and food, and rural-to-urban migration.
“Despite the presence of some of the world's leading research universities in rural areas or their proximity, the essential contributions rural communities make to our societies remain understudied, as do the impacts of globalization and climate change on those same communities,” says Luis Martin-Estudillo, Director of the Obermann Center. “We need to rethink the reciprocal relationship between academia and rurality. This symposium will provide an excellent opportunity to review past efforts, explore new ideas, and develop interdisciplinary projects that reflect the complexity of rural realities.”
The symposium will take place on March 26 and 27, 2026, and will include several events open to the public. Participants will leave the symposium with new scholarly tools and professional connections to more effectively address interdisciplinary issues of rurality in the future.
If you're a scholar working on rural topics and interested in connecting with the co-directors, please reach out to us at obermann-center@uiowa.edu.
Visit the symposium website for speaker and schedule updates.