Events & Deadlines
Oct. 20 - Information session for Graduate Engagement Corps - Zoom drop-in between 4:00 & 5:00 pm - An Office of Community Engagement opportunity
Oct. 27 - DEADLINE to apply for Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grant
registration
Oct. 29 - SUBMISSION DEADLINE for Imagining America's multimedia journal PUBLIC on the theme of "Water Ways and Movements"
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This issue:
Events & Deadlines
Obermann Awarded Mellon Sawyer Seminar
Welcoming the Anne Frank Tree
Graduate Institute Passes Torch to Graduate Engagement Corps
Spanish Literature Scholar Wins Humanities 3MT
News & Achievements
ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement Grants
Critical Race Theory Video
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Mellon Sawyer Seminar Awarded to UI Comics Scholars |
The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies in the Office of the Vice President for Research is pleased to announce the award of a grant totaling $225,000 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to host a Mellon Sawyer Seminar on “Racial Reckoning and Social Justice Through Comics” at the University across the academic year 2022-23. The Seminar will be co-directed by Corey Creekmur (Cinematic Arts; English; and Gender, Women’s, & Sexuality Studies), Ana Merino (Spanish & Portuguese), and Rachel Williams (Art & Art History; Gender, Women’s, & Sexuality Studies), who also co-directed the 2011 Obermann Humanities Symposium "Comics, Creativity, and Culture."
“We are honored to receive our third Andrew W. Mellon Sawyer Seminar Award," said UI President Barbara Wilson. "This project will connect artists and humanities scholars of comics, visual culture, and histories of race and representation in the U.S. and globally. We’re grateful for the Mellon Foundation’s continued support of the University of Iowa over the years.”
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Welcoming the Anne Frank Tree to Iowa |
On April 29, 2022, the thirteenth eponymous Anne Frank Tree will be planted on the northeast corner of the University of Iowa’s Pentacrest. The chestnut's arrival is thanks to the work of Frank scholar and UI German Department faculty member Dr. Kirsten Kumpf Baele. Her proposal to bring a tree to Iowa City—a sapling propagated from the horse chestnut growing outside the Amsterdam annex where Frank and her family hid for two years during WWII—was accepted a year and a half ago by the Anne Frank Center USA.
Beginning with an Obermann Conversation on October 18, "Why Anne Frank Still Matters," a series of events will help to position and welcome the sapling to our community. The exhibit Let Me Be Myself arrives at the Old Capitol Museum in January, and the Provost's Global Forum (Feb. 28 through Mar. 2) focuses on teaching Frank. The planting ceremony is being planned by a community-campus team that is committed to making it an inclusive, celebratory event, honoring Frank’s legacy as person who brought others together via her ebullient nature.
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Goodbye, Graduate Institute. Hello, Graduate Engagement Corps! |
The Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy is taking a farewell bow after serving more than 200 UI graduate students over 14 years. While it is hard to let this beloved program go, the Obermann Center is excited to pass the torch to our colleagues in the Office of Community Engagement. As public engagement becomes ever more part of the fabric of the graduate school experience, a new and broader program will take the place of the Institute. The Graduate Engagement Corps (GEC) shares the aims of the Institute: namely, to offer introductory training for developing and implementing publicly engaged teaching and research. Entry into the GEC is through participation in an orientation that is held twice per year. Registration for the first orientation (January 10-12, 2022) is open now. There will be a Zoom drop-in information session on October 20 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm.
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Bethanny Sudibyo Wins Humanities 3MT |
A PhD student in Spanish and Portuguese, Bethanny Sudibyo captured the top award at the third annual Obermann Humanities 3MT. Her presentation, "Imperial Imaginings: Representations of Religion, Race, and Gender in 19th-Century Spanish Philippine Novels," impressed the judges, who used a rubric to judge the students' communication skills. The runner-up was Victoria Burns (English), who shared her dissertation research on what she calls "the new audacity memoirs." Sudibyo took home a $250 prize and automatically advances to the campus-wide 3MT finals. |
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Bradley Cramer (Humanities Symposium, '15) and his co-PIs were awarded $4 million in NSF funding to study potential new sources of rare Earth elements.
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We are delighted that PS1, with whom Obermann has been happy to partner many times, has purchased the historic Close House. Congratulations!
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Leslie Schwalm (Fellow '15) was interviewed for a Washington Post article in August on colleges reopening under the continuing pandemic conditions.
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Sarah Bond (Summer Seminar '16) and Dr. Joel Christensen (Brandeis University) were awarded an Obermann Humanities Without Walls Seed Grant to develop their proposal, “Pasts Imperfect: Public Scholarship for a Global Antiquity.”
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Lina-Maria Murillo (Working Groups) was interviewed on “In The Thick” with Maria Hinojosa about cross-border abortion care. Her recent article in the Washington Post was selected as a must-read by the program's staff.
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The Daily Iowan created a video tribute to John Rapson (Working Group '20) and the recording of his final musical ensemble project, Esteban and the Children of the Sun.
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VIDEO: What Is Critical Race Theory? Perspectives from Business, Law, & Sociology
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This panel was co-hosted by the Iowa City Business Partnership and the Iowa City Public Library. It featured:
- Jennifer Banta, Director, Iowa City Business Partnership
- Victor Ray (Sociology)
- Adrien Wing (Law and Center for Human Rights)
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ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement Grants |
The American Council of Learned Societies invites applications for ACLS Sustaining Public Engagement Grants, a responsive funding program made possible by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative. These grants are designed to repair the damage done to publicly engaged humanities projects and programs by the social and economic disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic. The application deadline is December 7.
ACLS seeks proposals for grants that will support established publicly engaged humanities projects, initiatives, or programs in accredited U.S. colleges and universities. With $3.15 million provided under the SHARP initiative, ACLS will conduct a rigorous and inclusive peer review process to select up to 40 projects or programs for grants that will redress programming setbacks and/or reductions in internal capacity and staffing support on the part of faculty, staff, students, and community partners due to pandemic conditions.
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