Register for Sept. 22 Virtual InkWell Academic Writing Workshop

We're still accepting applications for our September 22 daylong writing retreat, "Ready, Set, Flow: How to Make the Most of Your Writing Time This Fall." The retreat, led by Michelle Boyd of InkWell Academic Writing Retreats, is intended for faculty, academic staff, and graduate students engaged in academic writing projects across the UI. We'd love to have you join us!

Mellon Sawyer Seminar Wrap-Up + Videos Online

Our 2022-23 Racial Reckoning through Comics Mellon Sawyer Seminar brought together renowned comic artists like the Hernandez Brothers and Joe Sacco together with scholars, faculty, students, and the general public in a series of free, public events. More than 100 people attended presentations, exhibitions, interviews, and panels in person or online. Now, recordings of these events—as well as resources for further research—are available on our website.

The Seminar's postdoctoral scholar, Esther Claudio, reflected on the year-long experience: “Discussing racial representation in comics with admired scholars who are shaping the field and artists I have studied for decades was a dream come true. I’m proud to have worked with Corey, Ana, and Rachel, whose contributions have been foundational for the study of comics and social justice. This seminar has helped me to expand my research on racial justice and share it at Cambridge University, the San Diego Comic Con, and the Universidad de Alcalá (Spain). But above all, it has allowed me to enjoy the company of like-minded scholars and artists...and beat Joe Sacco at a post-conference game of pool!”

Register for our 9/28 Humanities 3MT!

The Obermann Center will host a Humanities Three-Minute Thesis (3MT) competition specially designed to feature the work of UI humanities graduate students on Thursday, September 28, 2023, from 3:00–5:00 p.m. at the Iowa City Public Library. This event challenges graduate students to articulate their complex research clearly and concisely to non-specialist audiences in three minutes or fewer. The presented research can be a student’s thesis or PhD work, research related to an internship or other outside project, or research pertaining to a specific class. The only requirement is that it is the student’s research and that it has a humanities focus.

The winner of the Obermann Humanities 3MT will directly advance to the final, campus-wide competition on November 10 and will be awarded $250.

Graduate students in the humanities and humanities-adjacent disciplines are eligible to register. Please help us to spread the word!

Ambrose, Diamantis, & Rodriguez-Rodriguez Receive Book Ends Awards

Congratulations to the following UI faculty, who received 2023-24 awards via the Obermann/OVPR Book Ends: Book Completion Workshop program.

• Katy Ambrose (School of Music, CLAS). Her book project, Horns, Hypocrisy, and History, "addresses the inequity in representation of People of Color in music history through a study of Black French Horn players in the United States."
• Mihailis Diamantis (College of Law). His book, Law and Philosophy of the Corporate Person, "is a sweeping survey of the theory and regulation of corporations [...] and offer[s] a methodology for lawyers and philosophers to engage each other."
• Ana M. Rodriguez-Rodriguez (Spanish & Portuguese, CLAS). Her book, Muslim-Christian Encounters on the Edges of the Spanish Empire (1565–1898), analyzes Spanish contacts with Islam in the Philippines during the three centuries when Spain ruled the archipelago and its impact on the perceptions and representations of racial and religious difference in the Spanish empire.

Applications for another round of Book Ends awards are due September 12, 2023. If you're interested in applying, please attend our virtual info session from 9:00-9:30 a.m. on Thursday, August 31.

IDRG Explores Healthy Aging across the Life Course

Health happens in families, and yet many health promotion interventions are not tailored for the family as a unit. Multigenerational households (i.e., families that consist of three or more generations) have become a more prevalent family structure in the U.S. and provide essential caregiving functions. This summer, as part of their Obermann Interdisciplinary Research Grant, "Healthy Aging across the Life Course: Engaging Multigenerational Families Living with Chronic Conditions," Ebonee Johnson (College of Public Health), Duhita Mahatmya (College of Education), and Kimberly Dukes (Internal Medicine) used the principles and practices of community engagement to better understand health and healthy aging in multigenerational families experiencing chronic illness and disability. 

The group writes, "Extant research on interventions or best practices to support the health and well-being of multigenerational families often focuses on the individual with the chronic illness, the caregiver, or specific dyads within the family (e.g., adult child and parent; grandparent and child). Less attention has been paid to multiple generations with relational dynamics and comorbid health needs as one unit."

In collaboration with counseling psychology doctoral student Jahnavi Pandya and Health Sciences Librarian Riley Samuelson, the group began a scoping review of the literature to examine what is currently known about family dynamics and health outcomes in multigenerational households. To enhance their community outreach efforts, they consulted with other faculty and community partners to explore ways to study health and develop interventions for multigenerational families. From these efforts, they unpacked their assumptions about the family structure and dynamics of multigenerational households to consider how sociodemographic and cultural factors influence how researchers and practitioners conceptualize these types of families. As they continue this work after their month-long IDRG residency, they will recruit additional families to understand their lived experiences and submit a proposal to NIH to secure funding for this line of research. 

Fall 2023 Obermann Faculty Fellows

We're thrilled to welcome three new Obermann Faculty Fellows this fall!

• Matthew Brown (English and Center for the Book) will work on his second book, The Novel and the Blank, an investigation of how the constraints of the print shop affected the literary culture and reading habits of colonial and early national America.
• Armando Duarte (Dance and Latin American Studies) will work on his current manuscript, O Samba no Corpo de um Brasileiro – Volume 1 - Mestres-Salas and Porta-Bandeiras (The Samba within the Brazilian body – Volume 1 – Master of Ceremonies and Flag Careers).
• Tong Li (Mathematics) will study the mathematical theory of problems arising from engineering, physical, and biological sciences. She will solve fundamental problems in the nonlinear partial differential equations models of chemotaxis, traffic flow, blood flow, and more. 

Applications for Spring 2024 Faculty Fellowships are due September 12, 2023.



Summer Writing & Research Workshop a Success!

This past June, 14 UI faculty members workshopped their writing-in-progress at our Summer 2023 Writing and Research Workshop, led by Naomi Greyser (American Studies, English, and GWSS) and Aimee Carillo Rowe (California State University, Northridge). Participants wrote in solitude and in community, received individualized feedback, and participated in structured and open-ended activities, including evidence-based approaches to deepening arguments and practices to enhance (or rekindle) research focus.

Megan Gogerty (Theatre Arts, CLAS) enthused afterward, "I and a dozen other scholars from a bunch of different disciplines read each other’s work, participated in inspiring and joyful conversation, wrestled with writing prompts (although it didn’t feel like wrestling, it felt like swimming deeply!) and just generally being in community with one another. I was exposed to ideas I’d never otherwise stumble upon; math! Law! Journalism! Anthropology! It was so delicious and affirming. I got great notes on my article, I got practical brass-tacks advice on how to be a scholar (did you know that you shouldn’t submit your article to two different journals at the same time? It’s not like plays, you guys!), and I got to witness these incredibly generous intellectuals make breakthrough after breakthrough. I’m feeling so motivated to suck the marrow out of my scholarship practice this summer. I’m very grateful to have had this incredible growth opportunity."

Photo credit: Jordan Ismaiel