News from Obermann Center for Advanced Studies

ISSUE #2 | SPRING 2021

Black Lives on Screen Premiers

This spring semester, the Department of Cinematic Arts is hosting an online screening series, Black Lives on Screen, featuring the work of a diverse range of acclaimed African American and Black filmmakers, artists, and scholars. Intended to promote and celebrate the rich history and future of Black cinematic expression, the events will give UI classes, as well as individual students, staff, and faculty the opportunity to experience films ranging from the birth of cinema to the most recent documentaries, experimental shorts to mainstream blockbusters, and classic to marginalized or lost films.

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Graduate Institute on Engagement & the Academy Meets the Moment

Supporting the next generation of graduate students is at the heart of Humanities for the Public Good. That’s one reason why it was such a natural fit for our two HPG postdoctoral fellows, Ashley Cheyemi McNeil and Laura Perry, to take the lead on designing and co-directing the 2021 Obermann Graduate Institute on Engagement and the Academy this January. They describe their experience designing and facilitating this longstanding Obermann Center program, which is supported by the Graduate College.

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Sawyer Seminar Info Session

Feb. 12, 8:30 am | Add to calendar

Join us for this virtual information session if you're interested in submitting an application to direct a 2022–23 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation–funded Sawyer Seminar.

UI faculty interested in directing a 2022–23 Sawyer Seminar must submit a letter of intent to the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies (erin-hackathorn@uiowa.edu) by March 1, 2021. Final proposals will be due March 29 by 5:00 p.m. and should be submitted via the OVPR's online application .

Jason Rantanen: Patent Warrior

There has been an uptick in the filing of petitions for writs of mandamus in recent years, particularly in Texas courts and in cases involving big tech. Jason Rantanen, a UI Law Professor, spent his Fall 2020 Obermann Fellow-in-Residence appointment collecting and analyzing data about such cases. Rantanen, whose research area is intellectual property, specifically patent law, wants to help ensure that such cases are being decided objectively.

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Food Insecurity in Johnson County | An Obermann Conversation

Featured Video

As of five years ago, about 14% of Johnson County residents were considered food insecure, meaning that they had limited or uncertain access to certain and nutritious food. After nearly a year of COVID-19 affecting employment and housing, those numbers are much greater. Hear from UI and community experts about the current situation and ways that you can become involved.

We also put together a list of food pantries to which we hope you'll generously gift money and staples; you'll find it at the bottom of this page: obermann.uiowa.edu/programs/obermann-conversations/food-insecurity-johnson-county

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News & Achievements

Andrew Boge (2019 HPG intern) was selected as a 2021 National Humanities Without Walls Predoctoral Fellow.
Anny-Dominique Curtius (2020-21 HPG Advisory Board) published Suzanne Césaire: Archéologie littéraire et artistique d’une mémoire empêchée [Suzanne Césaire: Literary and artistic archeology of a hindered memory] (Karthala, 2020).
Sarah Bond (2020-21 HPG Advisory Board) published "A World-Famous Ancient Collection, on Display for the First Time, Awaits Visitors in Rome" in Hyperallergic.
Lance Bennett (2018 Graduate Institute) was named Assistant Director of Assessment at The University of Texas at Dallas.
Rachel Marie-Crane Williams (2019-21 HPG Advisory Board) was interviewed by the Daily Iowan about her debut graphic novel, Run Home If You Don't Want to Be Killed: The Detroit Uprising of 1943.