CLAS Creativity and Compassion

Dear CLAS Faculty and Staff:

Among all of the daunting challenges, disappointments, and frustrations thrust upon our college by the coronavirus crisis, there are also wonderful bright spots of innovation and achievement in response to the campus shutdown and the broader pandemic emergency. I'm writing to share a few of those with you. If you have examples of your own, please send them to clas-strategic-communications@uiowa.edu. Thanks!

First, let's just point out the sheer amount of work you did to achieve all-online instruction throughout CLAS, on an extremely tight timeline:

• CLAS faculty, graduate assistants, and staff converted 1,578 Courses, with 4,079 Sections, to online instruction.

Faculty and students have found innovative ways to convert public-facing projects to an online format:

• An International Studies course taught by Peter Gerlach, "Service Learning: Community Engaged Learning with Refugees and Immigrants in Iowa," turned what was going to be a panel discussion into a Coronavirus Awareness Webinar for Refugees and Immigrants in Iowa. Participants included the mayor of Iowa City, Iowa's State Refugee Coordinator, and other experts. https://youtu.be/wjbEV0xMKfo
  
  
• The Department of History was slated to host the 2020 Meeting of the Association of Ancient Historians on the UI campus in late April. A national conference like this brings great visibility for Iowa, and co-chairs Rosemary Moore and Sarah Bond pulled off a successful meeting in an all-virtual format. https://clas.uiowa.edu/history/news-events/global-antiquity-2020-meeting-association-ancient-historians
  
  
• The Department of Classics hosted their annual Homerathon—a complete public reading of the Odyssey—online this year. https://clas.uiowa.edu/classics/homerathon
  
  
• Department of Cinematic Arts students and Professor Christopher Harris presented an online version of the 17th annual ICDOCS—the Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival—complete with live-streamed world debuts of innovative films, world-class artist jurors, and interviews. https://icdocs.wordpress.com/
  
  
• The Department of Dance will be live-streaming its annual BFA Dance Concert. https://arts.uiowa.edu/events/virtual-bfa-concert/2020-05-07

Our students are having an impact with imaginative projects:

• Katy Kline, a senior in the Engaged Social Innovation track of the Interdepartmental Studies major, was working on a capstone project of creating an entrepreneurship program for middle school students. She converted it into a weekly newsletter sent to parents of Iowa City middle-school students, distributed by the school district and featuring educational activities and fun topics for kids  at home. Parents tell us it's extremely welcome and helpful! https://www.eagers4kids.com/newsletter
  
  
• The students and staff of the Iowa Youth Writing Project—housed in the Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing—have taken the program's work in Iowa City-area K-12 schools online. https://dailyiowan.com/2020/04/08/iowa-youth-writing-project-aims-to-inspire-k-12-students-digitally-as-schools-are-closed/
  
  
• Allie Stutting, a senior History major, created Iowa City Errand-ers, which organized students to help deliver groceries and meet other needs for area residents. https://dailyiowan.com/2020/04/09/hawks-helping-hawks-ic-errand-ers-deliver-groceries-to-those-at-risk-for-covid-19/ 

CLAS expertise is helping news outlets report on the coronavirus crisis:

• Professor of Anthropology Emily Wentzell—who is Director of the International Studies program in the Division of Interdisciplinary Programs—joined College of Public Health Dean Edith Parker and others for this Iowa Public Radio segment, "Health Experts Answer COVID-19 Questions." https://www.iowapublicradio.org/post/health-experts-answer-covid-19-questions
  
  
• The Gazette interviewed Emily Kroska of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences about mental health aspects of the crisis. https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/health/university-of-iowa-psychologist-emily-kroska-mental-health-coronavirus-20200403 
  
  
• History Professor Colin Gordon published "Corona: The Inequality Virus" in Jacobin Magazine. https://jacobinmag.com/2020/03/coronavirus-inequality-covid-19-work-education-health-disparities-poverty

We're getting reports of new research efforts focused on the coronavirus (please send more examples!):

• The Developmental Studies Hybridoma Bank—an NIH resource housed in the Department of Biology—has pivoted its mission to distributing antibodies to researchers racing to learn more about the coronavirus. https://biology.uiowa.edu/about/news/nih-bank-ui-department-biology-plays-critical-role-coronavirus-research
  
  

• The Computational Epidemiology group led by Professor of Computer Science Sriram Pemmaraju is doing modeling and simulations for within-hospital spread of COVID-19. This is to inform CDC guidance for hospitals and is part of a "Healthcare Systems" initiative that the CDC has recently constituted.

• The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies has produced a "Pandemic Insights" series of video discussions with humanities faculty reflecting on the crisis through the lens of their disciplines. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsNGRdSNTLgg0XeExLn7pavjypuCMaKux

And we're always focused on our teaching mission:

• Here's an Obermann Center discussion with Professors Lisa Heineman, Lina-Maria Murillo, and Brady G’Sell about teaching the humanities online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT6BOU8vxPA

As always, thank you for your creative and hard work. You are inspiring, and I look forward to learning more about how CLAS faculty, staff, and students are responding in positive ways to the coronavirus crisis. Please send your examples to clas-strategic-communications@uiowa.edu.

All the best,

Dean Steve Goddard
UI Alumni Association Dean's Chair
   in the Liberal Arts and Sciences