DESIGNING THE FUTURE - A Yearlong Series

As changes in technology, population, climate, the economy, the organization of knowledge, and other systems gather speed, the need to predict and even to design the future accelerates as does the need to re-envision STEM as STEAM (sciences, technology, engineering, arts-humanities, and medicine). Through 2013-2014, a series of "futurists"—from the arts, humanities, social sciences, technology, health humanities, and beyond—will visit the University of Iowa campus. We look forward to hearing their perspectives on the forces spurring change, the possible futures before us, and opportunities to design the future through imaginative forms of education, collaboration, intervention, and invention.

The yearlong Obermann series wraps up April 28, 2014, with a visit from Christopher Newfield, Professor of American Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, one of the most lucid and influential voices in current national and international debates on the costs and responsibilities of higher education.