Events & Deadlines
The following events are either sponsored or co-sponsored by the Obermann Center or highlight work close to that of our mission.
April 1 - DEADLINE for proposals for the 2022 National Humanities Conference. The conference will be held November 10-13 in Los Angeles, in collaboration with California Humanities.
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This issue:
Events & Deadlines
Seed Grants for HWW Grand Research Challenge
Give to Obermann This Month!
Support Artists & Scholars in Ukraine
What Do We Mean by Research Now? The Art(s) of Inquiry & Activism
Working Group Spotlight
Featured Video: Amsterdam, the Annex, and Space in Anne Frank's Diary
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Due May 3:
Letter of inquiry to apply for $10K HWW Grand Research Challenge seed grants
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In the third and final round of Humanities Without Walls' Grand Research Challenge, applicants are asked to build a commitment to methodologies of reciprocity and redistribution into their project design. In order to formulate clearly communicated proposal narratives (which are due in November 2022), the Obermann Center is offering $10,000 to groups that are working toward that proposal. These seed grant applications entail only a letter of inquiry and are due May 3. Topics are open, and groups that already have relationships with public partners are encouraged to consider this opportunity.
If you are considering this opportunity, we suggest that you review the following on the HWW site:
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Obermann Asks for Your Vote of Confidence!
Help us continue programs like Book Ends
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The mission of the Obermann Center is to provide programming and financial support to aid faculty research. We can do that even more generously and capaciously with your help. Starting now and culminating on March 30, we are seeking financial gifts to help us continue popular programs such as Obermann Working Groups and the Book Ends Book Completion Workshop.
We work to respond to the moment, featuring campus voices drawing on their research to respond to timely events, such as our recent Obermann Conversation about Ukraine, or last summer's workshops in Liberating Structures, a facilitation tool that has been adapted by many UI participants.
We know that "research" is misunderstood and even maligned outside the academy. We hope that you will join us in supporting the arts, scholarship, and research of University of Iowa faculty members. It seems more important than ever to recognize the invaluable role that teaching, learning, creativity, and discovery play in fostering an open, democratic society that honors multiple perspectives and embraces intellectual curiosity. Please give today.
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Support Artists & Scholars in Ukraine |
As the invasion of Ukraine grows more dire by the day, we've been deeply concerned about the plight of artists, scholars, and researchers, along with all of the others suffering in Ukraine. We've also noted the bravery of Russian academics, like the thousands of faculty, students, and alumni of Moscow State University who signed a public letter protesting the war in defiance of laws that forbid criticism of the invasion. With thanks to our own colleague Christopher Merrill, Director of the UI International Writing Program, we share this list of recommended ways to donate to artists, scholars, and cultural workers in Ukraine:
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Working Group Spotlight: Transform(ED) Justice Collaboratory
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In order to understand and amplify our Obermann Working Groups and their diverse activities, this spring we are spotlighting a number of newer groups. For this issue, we talk with Heather Erwin (Library & Information Science), co-director of the Transform(ED) Justice Collaboratory group.
Q: What excites you about this topic and the possibility for either future research or campus change?
A: Our group is all about building opportunities for collaboration, which is why we use the word "collaboratory" as part of our title. We are working to create ways for students to be involved in faculty-led research that will lead to policy changes both on campus and at the state and national levels. We are asking questions about the university’s engagement with the carceral system: Should the university have to buy furniture from Iowa Prison Industries? Should our college application ask about criminal history, and if it does, how are we using that information? We are also working to build campus/community partnerships and broader coalitions that further explore extended support services and research opportunities.
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What Do We Mean by Research Now? — The Art(s) of Inquiry & Activism |
Artistic Research has been defined by the Vienna Declaration on Artistic Research as “practice-based, practice-led research in the arts,” often an interdisciplinary creative research that acts as a “driver for critical thinking, creativity, and open innovation.” Many artists understand their art-making to be a means of asking soaring questions; of helping audiences grasp the complexity of wicked problems; of shocking, literally moving, or seducing participants into risking new solutions; of enacting the art of intervention.
On Tuesday, March 29, from 3:00 to 4:00 pm, we'll hear from four artists about how universities can support, celebrate, and reward artists when they turn from galleries to their communities. Our speakers are:
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Maryrose Flanigan, executive director of the Alliance for the Arts in Research Universities
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Denise Frazier, educator, performer, researcher of Africana Studies, and assistant director of the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University
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Carlos Jackson, visual artist, writer, Professor and Chair of Chicana/o Studies at University of California, Davis, and co-founder of Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer, a collaborative university-community partnership
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Lisa Yun Lee, cultural activist, Executive Director of the National Public Housing Museum, Associate Professor in Art History and Gender & Women's Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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Reading Anne Frank Together:
Amsterdam, the Annex, and the Space of the Diary
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As we prepare to welcome the Anne Frank sapling to the UI campus on April 29, people all over the community are reading Frank's Diary of a Young Girl. To provide context to the Diary, the tree planting ceremony team is hosting three events at the Iowa City Public Library around the book. The next one is Wednesday, March 30, at 7:00 pm, and looks at the role of diaries in literature, growing up, and the Holocaust. The event is free and open to all; no registration is required. Read more.
The recording above shares the March 8 event, in which local designer Heike Kumpf provides a history of Amsterdam and where the secret annex was located. She also gives a tour of the annex and helps readers better understand the spatial confinement under which Frank and her family lived for more than two years.
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