The University of Iowa Obermann Center for Advanced Studies in the Office of the Vice President for Research will host two grants totaling nearly $1.6 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation starting Oct. 1.

With funding of $225,000, the 2019-20 Mellon Sawyer Seminar “Imagining Latinidades: Articulations of National Belonging” will be co-directed by UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Latina/o Studies Program faculty member Darrel Wanzer-Serrano (Department of Communication Studies), Rene Rocha (Department of Political Science), and Ariana Ruiz (Department of Spanish and Portuguese), and will operate in partnership with the Obermann Center.

The university also received a four-year, $1,341,000 grant to support the Obermann Center’s creation of a degree in the Graduate College in collaboration with humanities departments that choose to participate, such as African American studies, American studies, anthropology, the visual and performing arts, art history, cinematic arts, classics, communication studies, history, languages, literature, philosophy, religious studies, and rhetoric. Campus libraries and museums will also be likely partners.