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

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Book Reading by Clare Kinberg

Monday, February 23, 2026 7:00pm to 8:30pm
Prairie Lights Books

Join the University of Iowa (UI) Jewish Studies Network, an International Programs affinity group, for a special event with author Clare Kinberg. Kinberg will read from her novel, By the Waters of Paradise: An American Story of Racism and Rupture in a Jewish Family, and share reflections on uncovering long-hidden truths within her family’s history.

Clare Kinberg is a white Jewish woman whose wife and daughters are descendants of the African diaspora. When she discovered her estranged Aunt Rose’s...

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.

This Ain’t No Riot!: Naming and Framing Unrest promotional image

This Ain’t No Riot!: Naming and Framing Unrest

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.
The Great American Bison Road Trip promotional image

The Great American Bison Road Trip

Sunday, March 15, 2026 1:30pm to 3:00pm
University of Iowa Museum of Natural History
Join the University of Iowa Museum of Natural History during their day as a stop on the national bronze bison road trip!
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