The Obermann Center's Advisory Board has proven to be a valuable sounding board and source of ideas and advice. Members serve three-year terms and meet once per month. The charge of the Advisory Board is to make recommendations to the Vice President for Research and the Director of the Obermann Center on major matters of policy regarding the mission and direction of the Center; to advise the Vice President and Director how the Center can best serve the research and creative needs of the faculty of the University; to advise the Vice President and the Director on programs and projects at the Center; to assist in the review of proposals for Center grants; and to help publicize opportunities available at the Center.
Members of the 2023–24 Advisory Board:
Cynthia Chou
Cynthia Chou is Professor of Anthropology and C. Maxwell & Elizabeth M. Stanley Family Chair of Asian Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences; she also serves on the advisory board of the UI Center for Human Rights. She is a socio-cultural anthropologist with teaching and research interests across all of Southeast Asia, with specific expertise in the area of the Malay World.
Mary Beth Easley
Mary Beth Easley is Associate Professor of Directing, chair of the Department of Theatre Arts, and Head of Directing. She focuses on new play development, intercultural theatre expression, and outreach to under-represented urban and rural communities, where she utilizes devised theatre as a means to deepen awareness and foment change.
Claire Fox
Claire F. Fox is Professor in the Departments of English and Spanish & Portuguese. Her interests include literary and cultural studies of the Americas, Latina/o American literature and culture, Mexican and U.S.-Mexican border arts and culture, visual culture, and cultural policy.
Blaine Greteman
Blaine Greteman is Professor in the Department of English. His teaching and research focus on early modern book history, poetry, and drama, including Milton and Shakespeare. He also directs Iowa’s General Education Literature program, where he supervises the instruction of about 1,500 undergraduates each semester.
Naomi Greyser (ex-officio)
Naomi Greyser is associate professor of American studies, English, and gender, women’s & sexuality studies at the University of Iowa, as well as director of POROI, Iowa’s Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry. Greyser is the author of On Sympathetic Grounds: Race, Gender, and Affective Geographies in Nineteenth-Century North America (Oxford University Press, 2017). She is also senior head writing coach at the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity.
Cory Gundlach
Cory Gundlach is Curator of African Art at the UI Stanley Museum of Art.
Ebonee Johnson
Ebonee Johnson is Assistant Professor of Community and Behavioral Health in the College of Public Health. Her research engages communities in order to investigate disparities in biopsychosocial outcomes for populations living with or at risk of developing chronic illness and disability.
Kristy Nabhan-Warren
Kristy Nabhan-Warren is an Associate Vice President for Research in the Office of the Vice President for Research. She is also Professor and V.O. and Elizabeth Kahl Figge Chair in Catholic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies, and a professor in the Department of Gender, Women's and Sexuality Studies. She is committed to making scholarship meaningful to non-academics as well as academics, and prides herself on writing for a wide audience. She embraces a Humanities for the Public Good approach to her research, writing, and dissemination of information.
Maurine Neiman
Maurine Neiman is Professor in the departments of Biology and Gender, Women's, & Sexuality Studies, as well as Provost Faculty Fellow for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Her research interests include biological diversity and the simultaneous operation of adaptive and non-adaptive evolutionary processes within organisms, populations, and lineages.
Roland Racevskis (ex-officio)
Roland Racevskis oversees programs in the Arts and Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. In his role as Associate Dean, he directs faculty recruitment as well as faculty reviews. He also collaborates with the other Associate Deans to implement the CLAS strategic plan as it pertains to the Arts and Humanities. Racevskis seeks opportunities to learn more about faculty scholarship and teaching and to support high-impact creative and scholarly activities in the college. He is also a professor in the Department of French & Italian.
Victor Ray
Victor Ray is F. Wendell Miller Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology & Criminology and African American Studies, as well as Director of Graduate Studies in African American Studies. His research applies critical race theory to classic sociological questions to show how race shapes social processes typically considered race-neutral, such as organizational policy. He is also an active public scholar, publishing commentary in outlets such as The Washington Post, Newsweek, and Boston Review. Ray's work has been funded by the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation, among others.
Stephen Warren
Stephen Warren is Professor in the History Department and the Chair of the American Studies Department. As both a teacher and a scholar, Warren emphasizes that the past is never safely historical. In the classes he teaches, he asks his students to view academic research with a fresh perspective; as avenues for serving the world rather than knowledge that is peculiar and limited to the college classroom.