“I often find the best inspiration for the year ahead is a quick look in the rearview mirror. That’s certainly true for the Obermann Center, where that mirror frames a panorama of fellow travelers—faculty, staff, students, and partners—in 2015-16…”
Fellows-in-Residence
From book projects to major grant proposals, our Fellows-in-Residence were busy!
Why I Give to Obermann
Obermann offers the impetus and the resources for people from across campus to come together to explore and create.
10th Anniversary of the Graduate Institute – A Working Symposium
To celebrate 10 years of the Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy, we held a two-day event with hands-on activities and engaging talks.
Interdisciplinary Research Grants
Media literacy, digital humanities, and Detroit on film were all underway at Obermann in Summer 2015.
Humanities Symposium: Don Quixote
This year’s Obermann Humanities Symposium asked, “Why is a 400-year-old novel one of the most plagiarized and reproduced of all time?”
Summer Research Seminar: Wittgenstein’s Lectures, Cambridge 1930–1933
David Stern and 17 visiting scholars conducted a wide-ranging discussion of Wittgenstein’s “middle period.”
Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy
This year’s Institute established a new partnership with the 1855 Johnson County Poor Farm.
Andrew W. Mellon Humanities Without Walls Alternative Academic Career Workshop
An opportunity for two UI graduate students to reframe their rich skill sets beyond the academy.
Working Groups
Obermann Working Groups provide a shared space for interdisciplinary exploration—an intellectual repast—a chance to create new intellectual partnerships.
Humanities & Public Life Book Series: An Obermann/UI Press Collaboration
Co-edited by Teresa Mangum, this new book series is a collaboration between the University of Iowa Press and the Obermann Center.
Andrew W. Mellon Digital Bridges for Humanistic Inquiry: A Grinnell College/UI Partnership
The Obermann Center is an active partner in this grant, which supports collaboration between the two institutions with a special emphasis on creative teaching with technology.
Obermann Conversations
Obermann Conversations seek to bring Obermann scholars into informal dialogue with both a public partner and an interdisciplinary audience.
Obermann Public Scholar Program: Supporting Life Design
Our Public Scholar created a groundbreaking course that not only brought in diverse speakers but also included senior community members.
Obermann Reaches Out to the World
Our funding and people power helped to support scholarly lectures, public art exhibits and performances, workshops, and conference attendance.
National Partnerships
The Obermann Center works closely with a number of national organizations to support research on campus while also advocating for the importance of research out in the world.
Project on Rhetoric of Inquiry
Prankster activists, a new journal, and several rhetoric seminars filled out POROI’s year.
Laura Spelman Rockefeller Grants
The Obermann Center supports the DeLTA Center’s projects in the area of children’s learning and development through the Laura Spelman Rockefeller grant.
Special Initiative: The Op Ed Project
This year, 20 UI faculty members spent an energetic weekend with workshop leaders from the Op Ed Project, learning to share their research with diverse public audiences.
Publications & Major Works
An impressive catalog of the reported publications and projects resulting from Obermann-funded initiatives.
Staff & Boards
Everyone who helps make the Obermann Center a special space on campus is key to our success!
