The Obermann Center for Advanced Studies is an intellectual community at the University of Iowa that supports artists, scholars, and researchers—independently and in cross-disciplinary collaborations—as they unearth the past, explain and engage the present, and invent the future.

They have recently curated a playlist of films about the pandemic, in which scholars and artists reflect on the COVID crisis:

Pandemic Insights Video Series
 

How are you reflecting on the current pandemic through the lens of your research and art-making practice? This is the central question that we are posing to Obermann-connected scholars, artists, and partners through our new and growing video series, Pandemic Insights. A cross-disciplinary approach is vital to understanding the many ways that COVID-19 is impacting our world. How can we understand this period and the events we are all experiencing intimately and globally through the work of our colleagues?

Covid-19 heightens our sense of how inextricably interwoven our institutions and systems are. To contextualize the breathtaking events of Spring 2020, we spent two months talking with University of Iowa experts from many areas.

The Pandemic Insights series includes conversations about the effects of the health crisis on the electoral process and workers' rights, the disparities in K12 education, and the unexpected roles of mayors and cities in combatting the virus. Together, the collection of videos is a window on the ways the pandemic is changing us.

View the Pandemic Insights Video Series on YouTube

Pandemic Insights - Topics & Participants

• Masks: History and Uses (Loyce Arthur, Paul Kalina, & Miriam Alarcon Avila)
• The Food System Under Pressure (Brandi Janssen & Carly Nichols)
• Kids, Tech, & Learning (Juan Pablo Hourcade & Ben Devane)
• Education Disparities (Ain Grooms & Laura Gray)
• Workers in Iowa (Robin Clark-Bennett & John McKerley)
• Cinema at a Standstill (Rebecca Fons & Christopher Harris)
• Meatpacking and Rural Communities (Lisa Ortiz & Kristi Nabhan-Warren)
• Understanding Uncertainty Through Refugee Experiences (Lisa Schlesinger & Lisa Heineman)
• Asian American Memoir (Ashley Cheyemi McNeil)
• Nationalistic Responses to Crisis (Michaela Hoenicke Moore)
• The Role of Cities (Charles Connerly & Lucie Laurian)
• Voting: Access & Rights (Caroline Tolbert & David Redlawsk)
• Reproductive Rights Under Pressure (Natalie Fixmer-Oraiz)
• Lessons from Medical History (Mariola Espinosa)
• Archiving a Pandemic (Lindsay Mattock & Aiden Bettine)
• Productivity, Writing, and Crisis (Naomi Greyser)
• Writing Grief (Lydia Maunz)
• The Role of Museums (Jen Buckley & Joyce Tsai)