March 2017
Deadlines
Events
  • 3/3 - Newton documentary film screening
News & Achievements
  • Members of the Scholarship of Public Engagement Working Group Lia Plakans (Teaching & Learning), Rebecca Alper (postdoc, Temple University), Carolyn Colvin (Teaching & Learning), Mary Aquilino (Public Health), Linda Louko (Speech Pathology & Audiology), Tricia Zebrowski (Speech Pathology & Audiology), and Saba Rasheed Ali (Psych & Quant Foundations) published an article, "Socialization in the Institution: A Working Group's Journey to Bring Public Engagement into Focus on Campus," in the Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement. 
The Phenomena of Attention
Shaun Vecera focuses on distracted driving during Obermann residency 

Many of us believe we have a talent for multi-tasking, but Psychological & Brain Sciences Professor Shaun Vecera's current research indicates that in the realm of driving, this could be a deadly assumption. The Spring 2017 Obermann Fellow-in-Residence is studying individuals prone to risky driving and ways to help them pay greater attention. "When you move from one task to another," explains Vecera, "it takes energy. Your response time is slower when you've just done something else, which is why if you've checked your phone at a red light, it still affects your driving ability."
Lincoln Project Visits UI Campus 
Former UI President Coleman to return with project exploring future of public higher ed

An initiative of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences, the Lincoln Project is focused on current and changing financial models and how they have affected the ability of public universities to meet their educational, research, and public service missions.  By invitation of the Office of the President, Lincoln Project Co-Chair Mary Sue Coleman, former president of both the University of Iowa and the University of Michigan, and now president of the Association of American Universities, will lead a public forum at 4 p.m., Thursday, March 9, in room C20 of the Pomerantz Center, which will be moderated by Obermann Director Teresa Mangum. Jim Leach, former Iowa congressman and now a professor in the College of Law and Interim Director of the University of Iowa Museum of Art, was a member of the Lincoln Project committee and will join Coleman, along with President Harreld. 
Symposium Bears Fruit
The Latino Midwest inspires minor, new book, and a grant

Convening the right group of people at the right time can create not just a ripple effect but a tidal wave of creative, collaborative products. Claire Fox (English and Spanish & Portuguese, CLAS) has seen this firsthand. Since she co-directed The Latino Midwest, the 2012-13 Obermann Humanities Symposium, a new University of Iowa undergraduate minor has come into being, a related textbook featuring essays by scholars from the 2013 Obermann Summer Seminar is soon to be published, and year-long project was just awarded funding by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 
Johnson Co. Poor Farm Topic of March 22 Conversation
Graduate Institute Fellows share collaborations + new film

Situated just west of Iowa City, the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm is a unique site within the city limits. The Johnson County Board of Supervisors is currently considering future uses of the space, which already hosts small-scale farming with local partners that include food banks and recent immigrants. Via a grant offered by the Office of Outreach & Engagement, Obermann Graduate Fellows are imagining how to preserve the historical nature of the site and how to use the buildings for arts performance and exhibition. 

Learn more about their ideas and current work at the site during an Obermann Conversation on March 22 at 4:00 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library.  Following the discussion, former Obermann Graduate Fellow Anna Swanson will screen her short documentary about the history of the Graduate Institute, Taking It to the Streets: Ten Years of the Obermann Graduate Institute . 
Obermann Working Group Organizes Darwin Days
Anne Fausto-Sterling to speak on the evolution of gender

The Crossing the Social/Biological Divide Working Group is one of the organizing forces behind Iowa City's annual celebration of Darwin Days. This year's keynote speaker is Anne Fausto-Sterling,  the Nancy Duke Lewis Professor Emerita of Biology and Gender Studies in the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology and Biochemistry at Brown University. In addition to her keynote Saturday, March 4, at noon, she will participate in a roundtable and meet with students in a more intimate setting. 
Coming Up...