Research at the University of Iowa

The arts and the humanities in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are among The University of Iowa's greatest strengths.  National surveys regularly place Art and Art History, English, History, and Theater Arts among the best in the nation and rank the Writers’ Workshop and Printmaking at or near the very top.

A little reflection reminds us that programmatic success depends in great measure on the scholarly and artistic achievements of individual faculty members.  Iowa’s rich legacy in the fine arts flows from the work of faculty members including, Mauricio Lasansky, Byron Burford, Hans Breder, and Julius Schmidt.  Its tradition of theatrical excellence is built in part on the work of E. C. Mabie and Arnold Gillette.  The work of Sherman Paul and E.P. Kuhl add luster to Iowa’s reputation in literary studies just as the literary voices of Frank Conroy, Paul Engle, Marvin Bell and Donald Justice have secured Iowa’s reputation as a global hot spot for creative writing.

Meet a few contemporary heirs to this legacy of imaginative scholarship and creative work:

Doug Trevor, a professor of English, is a double-threat academic since he is both a scholar and an artist. He specializes in English literature during the age of Donne and Milton. For good measure he recently won the prestigious Iowa Short Fiction Award for his collection The Thin Tear in the Fabric of Space (available from UI Press).

During the 2005-2006 year, Ma Thida is in residence with Iowa’s International Writing Program.  Thida is a physician as well as an author.  She’s also a social activist who spent some six years in solitary confinement in her native Burma for writing stories critical of her government.

Julie Hochstrasser, an art historian, has written about 17^th Century Dutch still life-paintings with an intention of illuminating the social costs and pitfalls of global mercantile trade during the Dutch Golden Age. Her current work explores world art and explores ways in which a multidisciplinary approach to early modern works might broaden our understanding of contemporary globalization.

To help ensure continuation of its tradition, Iowa has created a number of in-house grants programs to support the work of its faculty.  The UI Arts and Humanities Initiative, a program dedicated solely to humanities research and work in the creative and performing arts, is regarded as a model program for Arts and Humanities support at U.S. public universities.

Here are a few additional facts that may help define—or call to memory—Iowa’s forward reaching history of excellence in the arts and humanities:

• The University pioneered the acceptance of creative work in lieu of academic theses from graduate students in the arts.
• To date, Iowa alums have earned at least 13 Pulitzers.
• The School of Journalism awarded the first doctoral degrees in the nation in mass communication.
• The Writers' Workshop was the first of its kind in the world, has been cited by the New York Times as the best creative writing program in the nation, and is a model for writing programs across the country.
• The International Writing Program is the first and only program of its kind in the world, bringing together writers from around the world.
• Original plays by students in the Playwrights Workshop were selected three years in a row for performance at the American College Theatre Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.  The UI is the only university ever to be present at three consecutive national festivals.
• Recent rankings include:
  • No. 1 in Creative Writing
  • No. 2 in Printmaking
  • No. 10 in Fine Arts (Master's Program)
  • No. 18 in Painting and Drawing
  • No. 27 in English
  • No. 27 in Political Science