How are you reflecting on the current pandemic through the lens of your research and art-making practice? This is the central question that we are posing to Obermann-connected scholars, artists, and partners through our new and growing video series, Pandemic Insights. A cross-disciplinary approach is vital to understanding the many ways that COVID-19 is impacting our world. How can we understand this period and the events we are all experiencing intimately and globally through the work of our colleagues? In these 15-20 minute videos, you'll hear from:

Jen Buckley (English) and Joyce Tsai (The Stanley Museum of Art and Art & Art History) about the importance of our local community arts scene and the role of museums now.

Lindsay Mattock (SLIS) and Aiden Bettine (History and SLIS) on the "archival impulse" in the time of pandemic.

Lydia Maunz (English) on the echo of WWI-era authors who wrote about grief and death and our current disconnect from dying.

Naomi Greyser (English, American Studies, and GWSS) on writing and the academic demand for productivity.

Mariola Espinosa (History and Global Health) on how her work on yellow fever echoes current events, including the racialization of a virus.

Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz (Communication Studies and GWSS) on using the language of emergency to try to curtail access to reproductive healthcare. 

Coming up in the series...voting rights, a view from labor, and the possible redesign of cities. 

• Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center - View a list of upcoming blood drives in Johnson County 

• American Red Cross - Give blood at the Iowa City Public Library on May 4, 1:00-6:00 p.m. - Sign up for a time slot 
   
• UIHC DeGowin Blood Center - Make an appointment to give blood at UIHC

Since the 1980s, global labor trends have shifted risk away from companies and on to individuals. The rise of temporary workers in the 1990s, followed by start-up culture, have put the onus of financial health on individual workers. Even in the arts, individuals are increasingly on their own as publishers and recording companies provide less security and promotional assistance. How do workers negotiate this world, especially when something really disruptive happens, such as the current pandemic, and there is no safety net?

Brain Ekdale, Spring 2020 Fellow-in-Residence and an associate professor in Journalism & Mass Communication, is working on a book about how digitization is affecting Kenya's scrappy, entrepreneurial work culture, known as jua kali.

"It was never my intention to be a solitary academic," says Dominic Dongilli, who entered the University of Iowa following a three-year career as a zookeeper. The native of Lincoln, NE, is pursuing a PhD in American Studies and a certificate in Gender, Women's, and Sexuality Studies, two departments he describes as having "expansive" views of career exploration.  After serving a year on the HPG Advisory Board and career exploration subcommittee, Dongilli joins the core HPG administrative team as we enter the second full year of the grant.