October  2018
Events
Deadlines
News & Achievements
  • Jennifer New (Associate Director, Obermann Center) has an essay in the new anthology, Feminisms in Motion: Voices for Justice, Liberation, and Transformation (AK Press, 2018)
  • The Obermann Center awarded travel grants to attend the annual Imagining America conference in Chicago later this month to Lisa Covington (Interdisciplinary PhD), Kirsten Kumpf Baele (German), Anita Jung (Art & Art History), Kat Litchfield (Language, Literacy, & Culture), and Shu Wan (History). 
Apply for 2019 Obermann Graduate Institute 

"Everything I do in my professional life is informed by the Institute," says 2014 Obermann Graduate Fellow and current Stanley Museum of art curator Vero Smith. Learn more about Smith's work, including an exciting collaboration with local architects that will be on display this month. And then apply -- or encourage a student or friend to apply -- to be a 2019 Fellow. It will change your life!
Photos Capture Latinx High Schoolers' Experiences
Interdisciplinary Research Grants offer summer support for hybrid projects

As recipients of a Summer 2018 Interdisciplinary Research Grant, Gerta Bardhoshi (Counselor Education), Leslie Ann Locke (Educational Policy & Leadership), and Jeremy Swanston (Art & Art History) are engaged in a multi-phase project that seeks to give voice to rural Latinx high school  students' lived educational experiences, to engage in critical dialogue, and to promote policy development  in their partnering school. They are using Photovoice, a community-participatory method for collecting images and stories of the students' experiences. Swanston then develops students' work into posters. The group hopes that its findings will lead to curricular and policy changes at the school level, with cultural competency training for teachers and staff as an initial step. Learn more about their project.

This is just one example of the dynamic projects that researchers and artists engage in each summer at the Obermann Center as part of the Interdisciplinary Research Grants program. Applications for next summer are due November 7.
Critical Disabilities Studies Focus of 2019 Humanities Symposium
Applications open to direct 2020-21 Obermann Humanities Symposium
 
On April 4-6, 2019, at the  Misfitting: Disability Broadly Considered  symposium, leading disability scholars will discuss how their diverse disciplines offer insight into the meaning and experiences of differently abled bodies. Co-directed by Douglas Baynton (History) and Patricia Zebrowski (Communication Sciences & Disorders), the symposium includes a keynote by  Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, professor of English and bioethics at Emory University, and a performance by the comedian Nina G. 

Graduate students wanting to participate actively in the symposium can sign up for GRAD:7280, a 1-hour readings course with the symposium organizers and grad students from across campus, which meets on  Wednesdays from 3:30-5:00, March 13, March 27, April 3, and April 10. Participants will read work by symposium presenters and discuss ways to get the most from this and other conferences. Full participation in the conference (April 4-6) is required.

Interested in leading a future Humanities Symposium? The purpose of the annual Obermann Humanities Symposium is to explore an important topic that brings provocative speakers to campus while also highlighting UI scholars and scholarship. The proposed symposium may be interdisciplinary or dig deep into a specific field. We encourage creative formats that inspire lively exchange of ideas and ask organizers to include sessions open to all UI faculty members, staff, and students. Want to discuss an idea for a future symposium? Contact Erin Hackathorn (335-4034) to meet with our staff.
App
Faculty interested in applying to co-direct the 2020-21 Humanities Symposium should apply by October 9, 2018. to direct the 2020-21 Humanities Symposium are due Oct. 9. 
First Book Ends Recipients Awarded
Cram and Anderson will workshop books toward publication

Book Ends-Obermann/OVPRED Book Completion Workshop  supports UI faculty from disciplines in which publishing a monograph is required for tenure and promotion. This new award is designed to support faculty members transform promising manuscripts into important, field-changing, published books. 

The first two recipients of the award are E. Cram, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, and Björn Anderson, Associate Professor in the School of Art & Art History. Cram's book,  V iolent Inheritance and the Legacy of Sexual Modernity, examines spaces and performances of  memory in/of western lands to interpret the ongoing legacy of sexual modernity in shaping  cultures of violence in the Rocky Mountain region. Anderson's book, Negotiating Identity in Nabataean Arabia, examines the intersections of cultural identity in the kingdom of Nabataea, centered at Petra in southern Jordan. 
Applications for the next Book Ends award are due February 5, 2019. There will be an informational session on January 24 at 8:30 a.m. at the Obermann Center.
Learn More about Obermann
2017-18 Annual Report provides dive into the rich Obermann community

If you are curious to know more about how you might fit into the Obermann Center, we invite you to take a look at our recently released annual report. Here, you'll find an overview of our many programs and meet the scholars, artists, researchers, and community partners with whom we've worked in the past year. We hope you'll be inspired to join Obermann by applying to a program, joining a community conversation, or participating in a working group. There are many ways to start an Obermann journey!
Socks! Socks! Socks!
Obermann Center is collection site for sock drive
 
The week of November 11-16, the Obermann Center will have a bin where you can donate new women's, men's, and children's socks. This is part of a drive that Mary's Farm Sanctuary is organizing with Shelter House  during National Hunger & Homelessness Awareness Week. The socks will be distributed along with new coats.