On April 29, 2022, the University of Iowa will welcome a remarkable new tree to the Pentacrest: a sapling propagated from the old chestnut tree that grew behind the Amsterdam annex where Anne Frank...
This one-time institute took place in January 2020.
Recognizing that the graduate students served by our usual annual Graduate Institute need strong faculty mentors, the Obermann Center will offer a one-time Faculty Institute on Engagement & the Academy in January 2020 in place of our annual Graduate Institute on Engagement & the Academy. The Faculty Institute will take place January 13–16, 2020 (the week before spring semester classes begin). The focus will be on the pedagogy of engagement--in either or both undergraduate or graduate courses.
Learn More
Please contact Jennifer New at jennifer-new@uiowa.edu with any questions regarding this program.
Co-directors
The co-directors will be Teresa Mangum, Professor of Gender, Women's, & Sexuality Studies and English and Director of the Obermann Center, and Darryl Heller, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Gender, Women's, & Sexuality Studies, in collaboration with Jennifer New, Associate Director of the Obermann Center. Mangum and New were two of three founders of the Graduate Institute. In 2009, in collaboration with the Center for Teaching, Teresa and then UI Professor David Redlawsk led an earlier Faculty Institute. Heller, who has an MA in American Studies and a PhD in History, has spent over 20 years in human services, community development, and political activism in Washington DC, Boston, and New York City. Most recently, he brought his extensive work in communities together with his academic training and teaching experience as Director of the Indiana University South Bend Civil Rights Heritage Center (CRHC).
Objectives
The Institute will both support UI faculty members' community-engaged work and prepare them to be successful mentors for graduate students. We'll focus on ways to build publicly engaged assignments and pedagogy into teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Participants will also have opportunities to discuss effective, responsible strategies for integrating engaged practices into their art, scholarship, and research. The group will meet engagement professionals from across campus, including the Office of Outreach and Engagement. Sessions will also feature faculty, staff, and graduate students who have long and deep experience in collaborating with public partners as well as with community partners who can offer firsthand advice about the benefits and challenges of working with the University.
Eligibility
Faculty status. Preference will be given to faculty who regularly teach and actively mentor graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
Outcomes
One of the places where theory and practice along with intellectual interests and practical demands intersect is the classroom. Applicants should propose an experiment in engaged pedagogy--from a single community-based assignment to a project-based course to be developed with a partner organization--for a course you have taught or plan to teach in the next year or two. Throughout the week, we will also encourage participants to sketch out ideas that might eventually translate current or future publicly engaged projects into grant applications, but a revised course will be the only required outcome. Our goal is to provide an informed, supportive environment in which to stretch your thinking, your arts and research practices, and your intellectual community of scholars committed to a more collaborative, just campus, community, and world.
Stipend
Participants whose positions at the UI allow them to accept special compensation payments will receive a $500 stipend. Note that to receive the stipend, you must be available to attend the full institute, which will run 4 days. We will also ask you to meet in the fall to share the outcomes of the institute with the group and other engaged colleagues on campus. We'll be eager to hear how the Institute has affected your thinking about your teaching as well as your research or arts practice. This will also be a chance for us to share opportunities for further support on campus and/or external funding to support your engaged projects.