Erin Hackathorn is the Obermann Center Director for Operations. She served as the Administrative Services Coordinator for the English Department for seven years. Erin is an active reader and vegetarian cook. A graduate of the University of Iowa, she lives in Oxford and enjoys spoiling her nephew.
Jenna assists with Obermann's communications and publicity, chiefly writing; editing; designing ads, flyers, and digital signage; and updating Obermann's websites. Previously she served as Deputy Managing Editor of The Iowa Review and as a writer for the UI College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. She has an MFA from the UI Nonfiction Writing Program and lives on a blueberry farm in rural Oxford with her husband and two llamas.
Jennifer oversees the Center's communications and plays a major role in facilitating the programs, community engagement, and event planning. An accomplished writer, she is the author of three books, Dan Eldon: Safari as a Way of Life (Chronicle Books, 2011) being the most recent. She has curated several exhibits and co-directed two short documentaries. Jennifer is a lifelong student of yoga and teaches locally.
Sarah Norvell is a junior at the University of Iowa, majoring in linguistics and international studies. A lover of travel and cultural experiences, she enjoys writing novels in her spare time.
Shannon Nolan is a senior at the University of Iowa double-majoring in journalism and mass communication and engaged social innovation with a focus in reimagining higher education. Shannon spends most of her time writing letters to J.K. Rowling, collecting postcards, and assistant teaching for her favorite classes. Shannon will be working with the Obermann Center and the Andrew W. Mellon Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry: A Grinnell College/University of Iowa team.
A Professor in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies, Mangum was appointed as Director of the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies in 2010. She is the author of Married, Middle-brow, and Militant: Sarah Grand and the New Woman Novel (1998); editor of A Cultural History of Women: Volume 5: The Age of Empire, 1800–1920 (Berg 2013); and guest editor of special issues of Philological Quarterly, Nineteenth-Century Contexts, Victorian Periodicals Review, and the Journal of Aging Studies. With Anne Valk of Brown University, she co-edits the book series Humanities and Public Life for the University of Iowa Press. A full bio appears at https://obermann.uiowa.edu/people/teresa-mangum.