Advising Update

• Have room for one more semester hour in your schedule? Check out these great off-cycle options for Fall 2022 (neither of these courses will be offered in Spring 2023)-- Working Internationally: Global Business and Communication or Global Research: Strategies and Skills.
• Run a new degree audit to make sure that your fall 22 courses are completing needed requirements.
• Important Dates: 
  
  • 8/29/22: Course drops on MyUI require advisor’s approval; course adds on MyUI require advisor and instructor/department approval 
  • 9/2/22: Last day to drop without a W and last day to drop individual courses for tuition/fee reduction 

International Studies Program Director Spotlight: Dr. Ariel

Dr. Ari Ariel is the Director of the International Studies Program and an Associate Professor of Instruction in International Studies and History. Read on to learn more about his personal and academic journey. 

Director of the International Studies Program since 2021, Dr. Ari Ariel comes to the University of Iowa with a fascinating mix of interests and areas of expertise. Luckily, International Studies has always offered a way to tie his many pursuits together.

Dr. Ariel earned his B.A. in International Studies from City College of New York. He tried to spend as much time traveling as possible, studying abroad in Israel and Yemen. He returned to Israel to complete his master’s degree in Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University in 2001. From there, he pursued his Ph.D. in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University, earning that degree in 2009.

In addition to teaching jobs at Bryn Mawr College, NYU, and Boston University, Dr. Ariel also worked in the food and wine industry, including cooking and food media. International Studies offered a way to connect his varied occupations and pursuits, encompassing his interests in culinary arts, history, languages, ethnicity and nationalism, and even his own family history.

“All those kept leading back to academia,” he says, noting that his position as Director of International Studies allows him to study topics he is passionate about as well as help students discover and research their own passions. Currently, Dr. Ariel is exploring ideas around cultural borrowing and appropriation: “I’m really interested in how cultural practices change, collide, and mix when people from different parts of the world interact,” he says.

Dr. Ariel sees International Studies as a way to broaden students’ horizons—not only by studying abroad, but by exploring the global connections that exist in any career field. “At this point in history, we are all really international. We all have global links and contacts whether we realize that or not,” says Dr. Ariel. An International Studies major or minor combines well with any program of study and offers students a way to gain global perspectives on their areas of interest. “It will be enlightening and will prepare you for the rest of your lives and careers in our global world.”

Student Organization Fair

International Writing Program

Every fall, the International Writing Program brings established and emerging creative writers (poets, fiction writers, dramatists, and nonfiction writers) from around the globe to the University of Iowa. This provides a unique chance for you to engage with these guests at book readings and discussions.

Every week different authors will be featured at events: choose to attend an event with a writer that comes from a country that interests you, has written on a topic that interests you, or just to engage with a published author. 

To know the topics/writers for each week, please sign up for the IWP email list here, and follow on IWP's Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @UIIWP for more about incoming residents plus event details when they become available! Check out the events listing with more details on Facebook @UIIWP.

IWP Event Series for Fall 22

Our Friday Fall Residency Reading Series in person at Shambaugh House:
5PM CT (GMT-6) on Fridays September 2, 9, 16, 23, & 30; October 7, 14, & 21. Readings take place in Shambaugh House (430 N. Clinton St., Iowa City).

Friday Panel Series online or in person:
Noon CT on Fridays September 2, 9, 16, 23, & 30; October 7, 14, & 21. Most dates livestreamed at bit.ly/fallresicpl or in person at the Iowa City Public Library (123 S. Linn St., Iowa City), Meeting Room A, further details below. Meets in University of Iowa Main Library Gallery on Friday, September 9 & 23; these dates may not be livestreamed.

Sunday Reading Series in person at Prairie Lights Books:
5 PM CT on Sundays August 28; September 11, 18, & 25; October 2, 9, 16, & 23. Readings take place in Prairie Lights Books (15 S Dubuque St., Iowa City).

Sunday International Film Screening Series, "Cinematheque":
7 PM CT on Sundays August 28; September 11, 18, & 25; October 2, 9, 16, & 23. Screenings take place in Room E105, Adler Journalism and Mass Communication Building, University of Iowa (15 S Dubuque St., Iowa City).

Upcoming Events and Other Opportunities

9/2: The Cost of Belonging: An Ethnography of Solidarity and Mobility in Beijing’s Koreatown

9/1 and 9/8 Study Abroad Information Session: Writing Greece: The Ancient World and Genre Fiction Art & History in a Mythic Land 

9/6-9/9: Black Excellence Week

9/9-9/10: 2022-23 Sawyer Seminar: Racial Reckoning through Comics

9/9: Hawks of Color with Jesus “Chuy” Renteria

9/13: Study Abroad Fair

Applications for Underrepresented Students in Sustainability Mentoring Program due September 7
More info here: https://sustainability.uiowa.edu/students/underrepresented-students-sustainability-mentoring-program