Our Sawyer Seminar draws from both critical perspectives and creative work in the arts, humanities, and social sciences to address how race and ethnicity have been represented historically. Through yearlong conversation and four exciting public symposia, we’ll consider how comics reflect and shape understanding of race and ethnicity in specific times and places.

For Maria Leonor Márquez Ponce, a Humanities for the Public Good internship at the University of Iowa Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives is more than a summer gig—it’s also a way to connect with her own past and to find inspiration for her future. “Sometimes looking back at history can surprise you. You learn so much and you are inspired by it,” Márquez Ponce shared. Considering that she never believed that a college degree would be attainable for her, much less a PhD, she has found a deep connection to this project and the people whose stories she is sharing.

Horacio Castellanos Moya, MFA in Spanish Creative Writing professor, publishes "El hombre amansado", Literatura Random House, 2022.

Invited by the Institute of Hispanic American Literature of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Horacio Castellanos Moya will talk about his work with academics Noé Jitrik (UBA), Celina Manzoni (UBA), Ezequiel de Rosso (UBA), Magdalena Perkovska (Hunter College), Marta Waldegaray (University of Reims Champagne), Alexandra Ortiz Wallner (University of Costa Rica) and Emanuela Jossa (University of Calabria).

Originally set to study abroad in Peru in fall 2020, Kristin Vogel, a senior undergraduate student pursuing a BA in anthropology and Spanish with a minor in history, found herself in a waiting game due to COVID-19. “My travel plans kept getting pushed back due to COVID,” said Vogel. “After a while, they finally said we were not able to travel to Peru as it was too much of a health safety risk given how the pandemic was playing out.”

The University of Iowa Council on Teaching named 29 teaching assistants as recipients of the 2021 Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. These awards have been given annually since 1988 to a select group of graduate teaching assistants who have effectively promoted learning and creativity both inside and outside the classroom while demonstrating enthusiasm and dedication to student success. “Teaching assistants are vital to our mission of student success,” says Executive Vice President and Provost Kevin Kregel. “I am grateful for their dedication to our students and I thank them for all that they do to exemplify excellence in our classrooms.”

Inés Sánchez Cruz, a Mexican poet living as a creative writing teacher in the United States, arrives at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid to teach a poetry workshop and investigate a recent find: the family archive of Joaquín Amigo, one of Lorca's friends, also violently murdered and disappeared at the beginning of the civil war. Inés carries a deep anguish apparently as a result of the power struggles in the academic field and the betrayal by a close friend, but the death of one of her colleagues activates a series of traumatic memories that intermingle with the investigations of the documents and letters from the family archive.

“Mariana combines creative writing with theater and dance. Writing is her voice but she is in constant dialogue with others. She makes the UI community stronger with her multidisciplinary understanding of creativity.” – Ana Merino, Professor of Spanish