Obermann Programs
Obermann International Fellowships
Beginning in Spring 2025, the Obermann Center is expanding its residential fellowship program to attract international scholars to the UI campus. We will offer eight fellowships per academic year to active researchers at an accredited institution of higher learning outside of the United States.
Fellowships can last a minimum of two weeks and a maximum of one UI academic semester. The Obermann Center will facilitate opportunities for the international fellows to engage with faculty and students to develop intellectual collaborations.
Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat
Jumpstart your summer writing project at the Obermann End-of-Year Writing Retreat!
From May 12–16, 2025, 15 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 structured blocks for writing, breaks, small-group check-ins, and activities crafted to spark creativity and foster well-being. The retreat will also feature an engaging conversation with acclaimed author Garth Greenwell about the editorial process. The retreat is open to University of Iowa artists, scholars, and researchers working on any kind of academic writing project (e.g., academic articles/essays, fellowship or grant applications, book projects, edited volumes, nonfiction).
Applications are due by 5:00 p.m. March 14, 2025.
This program is funded by the P3 Writing for the Public Good Initiative.
Interdisciplinary Research Grants
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 are intended to result in an important scholarly or creative work.
Each collaborator is awarded $3,000 in research funding for a 2-week residency.
Editor-in-Residence
This new program connects University of Iowa faculty and graduate student researchers with university press editors. The workshop supports faculty and graduate students from disciplines in which publishing a monograph is expected. The Editor-in-Residence program also aims to emphasize the crucial role that publishing professionals play in academia. Starting this Spring, every year the Obermann Center will bring an accomplished editor from a scholarly press to campus for a short residency that includes workshops and presentations.
This program is funded by the Office of the Vice President for Research's Writing for the Public Good P3 initiative.
Book Ends
The 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 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 senior scholars ($500 for each). We will also ask one University of Iowa senior faculty member to participate.
Obermann Conversations
Obermann Conversations is an informal speaker series held at the Iowa City Public Library and occasional other locations. Once per month during fall and spring semesters, we feature work of faculty, staff, and students in conversation with thought leaders from our community. Learning from each other and delighting in the combined knowledge of academics and practitioners are the goals of this program.
The Iowa City Public Library co-sponsors this series.
Humanities Without Walls
The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies is proud to be a member of the Andrew W. Mellon funded Humanities Without Walls consortium.
In 2015, the Mellon Foundation awarded funding to the Institute for Humanities Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to fund a consortium of 16 humanities institutes in the Midwest. By leveraging the strengths of multiple distinctive campuses, the initiative, Humanities Without Walls, has created new avenues for collaborative research, teaching, and the production of scholarship in the humanities, forging and sustaining areas of inquiry that cannot be created or maintained without cross-institutional cooperation. The program has created a wealth of materials on responsive, mutual, reciprocal collaborations through the two programs the grant has supported cross-institutional Grand Research Challenges collaboration and a series of Career Diversity Workshops for graduate students.
Obermann Symposium
The Obermann Symposium is an opportunity for UI scholars to explore an important topic using an interdisciplinary lens. Co-directors invite national and international speakers who provide an interdisciplinary response to the theme, and also highlight the work of UI and local experts. The symposium often includes an arts component, as well as opportunities to share pedagogical approaches.
Recent symposia have explored the contested terrain of sports as a political force; the influence of disability on and in the arts, philosophy, religion, and political and economic life; and the ways in which contemporary Afro-Brazilian Cinema resonates within the aesthetic practices of the Black diaspora.
This is an award of up to $15,000, including significant staff support.
Writing Collective
The Obermann Writing Collective offers companionship and accountability to University of Iowa artists, scholars, and researchers working on any kind of academic writing project (ex. academic articles/essays, fellowship or grant applications, book projects, edited volumes, or nonfiction) who want dedicated time, a cozy space, and a community for the practice of writing.
Groups of 10-15 writers meet in our Writers' Attic once a week for 1.5 hours. Weekly writing sessions include brief check-ins, goal setting, and sustained writing time. All groups are open to everyone in the University of Iowa academic community.
Co-Sponsorships
The Obermann Center welcomes the opportunity to support activities and events that further our mission—promoting research and creative work, facilitating publicly engaged art and scholarship, and building intellectual community. University of Iowa faculty members may request small, discretionary grants (up to $400) to fund opportunities such as visiting speakers and conferences.
Working Groups
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 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 moment when cross-disciplinary collaboration is crucial to address shifting domains of knowledge and a rapidly changing world.
Counterpoint Series
For each annual event in our new Counterpoint series, two University of Iowa researchers from different disciplines will discuss a compelling topical issue in a public forum. Discussions will take place in the beautiful Voxman Recital Hall, and a short artistic program designed to echo the theme of the conversation will open each event. Series events are free and open to all.
Wide Lens Series
For each gathering in the Wide Lens series, researchers, scholars, and artists from across the university briefly present their work on a shared topic of interest pecha kucha–style. Then, we open the floor to questions and conviviality over hors d'oeuvres and drinks.
Wide Lens is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, and the Office of the Vice President for Research. Series events are free and open to all.
Archived Programs
Browse Obermann programming from the past 15+ years, from the Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy to our Get It Done Lunchtime Workshop Series.