Date: Tuesday, March 24 | 12:30–1:30 p.m.
Location: Room 2520-D, University Capitol Centre (UCC), 200 South Capitol St., Iowa City, and via Zoom

Professor Mary Charlton holds a BS in nursing and MS and PhD degrees in epidemiology, all from the University of Iowa. She joined the faculty in the College of Public Health in 2013 and became the director of the Iowa Cancer Registry in 2020. She has focused particular attention on cancer risk and treatment in rural areas and on racial/ethnic disparities...

Directed by Brian R. Farrell, Daria Fisher Page, and Ryan T. Sakoda (UI College of Law), Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research will bring together scholars, community leaders from across the U.S., and professionals who work with rural populations and in rural spaces. During the symposium, attendees will be invited to collaborate in theorizing rurality, share how it impacts their work, examine how rurality is represented and celebrated, and begin to discuss challenges...

This is a keynote lecture for the 2025-2026 Obermann Symposium: "Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research."

Esther Pereen, University of Amsterdam: "Reimagining the Rural from Idyll to Hinterland: Exhausting Rural Childhoods”

Across the social and cultural realms, the rural is often imagined through idyllic and pastoral genres that allow it to be conceived as a refuge from globalization. Pereen's European Research Council–funded project RURAL IMAGINATIONS, concentrating on...

Directed by Brian R. Farrell, Daria Fisher Page, and Ryan T. Sakoda (UI College of Law), Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research will bring together scholars, community leaders from across the U.S., and professionals who work with rural populations and in rural spaces. During the symposium, attendees will be invited to collaborate in theorizing rurality, share how it impacts their work, examine how rurality is represented and celebrated, and begin to discuss challenges...

This is a keynote lecture for the 2025-2026 Obermann Symposium: "Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research."

Andy Mink, Smithsonian Institute: "More than 'Not Urban': Serving Rural Communities as Places and as People"

What are synonyms for rural? Country and small town? Rustic or backcountry? Pastoral or hick? Rural communities are an important part of American life and history, yet they are frequently seen in a deficit model defined by what they are not instead of what they...

Join us for a special evening that combines a short lecture with student peer discussion. Dr. Martín Carcasson of Colorado State University will explore how values shape public issues in the United States.

As the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, this moment invites reflection not only on the values that have shaped American life in the past, but also on the values we carry forward and the ones we hope will guide our shared future. Dr. Martín Carcasson of Colorado State University’s Center...

Tuesday, April 14, 12:00–1:00 p.m.
Location: Coralville Library, Schwab Auditorium, 1401 5th St, Coralville, and via Zoom

Join UIRA for an informative session on how artificial intelligence is transforming medical practice and patient care.

Presenters include James Blum, MD, Chief Health Information Officer and Associate Professor of Anesthesia, and Jason Misurac, MD, Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics–Nephrology, Dialysis, and Transplantation in the Stead Family Department of Pediatrics.

This new Obermann Center program offers modest yet swift support for those portions of research and creative endeavors by UI scholars that are important toward advancing a project but do not have enough funding from other sources. We will grant ten awards of $500 or less per academic year. Note that funds need to be spent by June 30 of each year.

Eligibility: Open to all University of Iowa faculty and staff researchers

Graduate students: Note that the Graduate College offers Small Grants for the...

Professor Emerita Niño-Murcia will discuss big and small ways in which language politics generate and perpetuate North American inequalities.

This lecture traces Professor Trachsel's studies on cross-species communication from analyses of ape language research in the early 2000’s to investigation of other interspecies language types, such as horse whispering and the telepathy professed by animal communicators. Her current research on human-wild animal relationships has entailed wolf-tracking in Yellowstone, a “women and wolves” workshop in the Boundary Waters, observation of feral horses out west, and visits to wildlife "encounter"...

The internet mews, barks, growls, and hisses with alleged evidence of cross-species attachment. These stories — from Genesis to Victorian animal painter Edwin Landseer’s narrative paintings to the latest videos and memes — entice audiences with the promise that we can bridge and bond across species difference. But they also document what it costs animals for humans to be near them. 

~ Sponsored by the Emeritus Faculty Council and the Office of the Provost ~

This talk will give an overview of three research initiatives that use VR technology. First, a series of studies that used large screen pedestrian and bicycling simulators to examine how two people coordinate their decisions and actions when crossing a stream of traffic. The studies reveal the powerful influence that others have on how we make consequential decisions in performing routine but potentially dangerous activities. Second, a series of studies looking at how mobile technology can help...