Why Iowa?

Explore how American institutions, values, gender and ethnic relations, artifacts, popular and fine arts, and everyday life have developed over time to define what we know as America.

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Critically examine the complex connections between past and present culture and history to understand the impact people have on American society.

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Prepare for a wide range of careers in the arts, education, and public service through interdisciplinary inquiry into the central role power and struggle have played in American culture.

News and announcements

In Memoriam: Dr. Lauren Rabinovitz

Monday, September 15, 2025
The Department of American Studies mourns the passing of our cherished colleague and friend, Dr. Lauren Rabinovitz.

Elizabeth Rodriguez Fielder receives funding to continue research and writing her manuscript

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Elizabeth Rodriguez Fielder is an assistant professor in the Department of English and in the Latinx Studies Program. She is a scholar of the 20th and 21st century transnational American literature and culture. She will continue research and writing her manuscript Corporis Fabrica: Encountering the Body through the Book, which seeks out the relationship between the development of anatomy science and moveable books. Rodriguez Fielder argues that their interconnected history has shaped how we understand our bodies.

Jose Fernandez receive funding to pursue summer research projects

Tuesday, June 17, 2025
Jose Fernandez is an assistant professor in the Latinx Studies program. Fernandez’s research interests include American, African American, and Latinx literary histories, Black and Latinx literatures after the 1960s; Latinx intellectual history; and Mexican American literature of the Borderlands. He will conduct archival research at three university library collections in California: the Tomas Rivera Papers at UC-Riverside, the Helena Maria Viramonted Papers at UC-Santa Barbara, and the Norma Alarcon Papers at the Bancroft Library at UC-Berkeley. This work will contribute to a book, A Publisher’s Revolution: Arte Publico Press and the Making of Latinx Literature.

Events

14th Annual Fulbright Intensive U.S. Student Program Workshop promotional image

14th Annual Fulbright Intensive U.S. Student Program Workshop

Friday, January 30, 2026 9:30am to 11:30am
Virtual
Join International Programs at the University of Iowa (UI) for the 14th Annual Fulbright Intensive U.S. Student Program Workshop.
All Majors Career Fair promotional image

All Majors Career Fair

Wednesday, February 25, 2026 12:00pm to 4:00pm
Iowa Memorial Union (IMU)

This job and internship fair will focus on recruiting students in ALL MAJORS! Typically about 100+ employers attend and 1,000+ students attend!

Visit careers.uiowa.edu/all-majors-career-fair for more details.

Floating Fridays American Studies Colloquium-Ashley Howard

Friday, March 6, 2026 4:00pm to 5:00pm
Jefferson Building
The Department of American Studies will host as series of research presentations by a faculty member, recent Department PhD, or American Studies graduate students. As experts and emerging scholars in fields devoted to the study of American culture in the U.S. and globally, we invite students and scholars, at any stage of research, to attend and participate in discussions of the core issues and challenges of our time.
Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research — 2025–26 Obermann Symposium promotional image

Cultivating Rurality: Building Community around Rural Research — 2025–26 Obermann Symposium

Thursday, March 26 to Friday, March 27, 2026 (all day)
Iowa City Public Library

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...

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