I am a poet, nonfiction writer, translator, and editor, and much of my work concerns my travels abroad. I have written books on the 1990 World Cup in Italy, the wars of succession in the former Yugoslavia, and the spiritual home of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. As director of the International Writing Program, I have undertaken cultural diplomacy missions to more than fifty countries. And every fall I have the good luck to host thirty-some distinguished poets and writers from around the world.

Dr. Catherine Lammert is a postdoctoral research scholar in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Iowa. She earned her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Language and Literacy Studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 2019. Her dissertation titled Inquiry, Advocacy, and Practice-Based Research: Transformative Possibilities in Literacy Preservice Teacher Education explored ways to design and scale programs that support new teachers' racial literacy. Her current scholarship focuses on activist literacy teaching across the disciplines and teacher adaptiveness.

Barnhardt’s research focuses on how universities contribute to democracy and civic life, domestically and internationally, through the lens of university governance, administration, and policy and politics. This focus has prompted her to examine: campus-based activism and mobilization, stakeholder tactics, university leaders' public advocacy, campus climate perceptions, and private foundation activity in the higher education sector. She teaches graduate courses on higher education administration, policy, organizational behavior and management in postsecondary institutions, and research methods.

Professor Brian Farrell is a Lecturer in Law and Human Rights, Associate Director of the UI Center for Human Rights, and directs the undergraduate Human Rights Certificate program. He teaches international law, criminal law, and human rights courses. He is the director of the Citizen Lawyer Program and was a co-founder of the Innocence Project of Iowa. Professor Farrell also serves as an adjunct lecturer at the National University of Ireland Galway and is a member of the Iowa Supreme Court Access to Justice Commission.

My interests include environmental humanities; urban studies with an emphasis on African-American, American Indian, and Asian American history and cultures; and environmental justice. Alternatives to binary thought and violence have always driven my theoretical and practical commitments.

My research is interdisciplinary as it circulates at the crossroads of Francophone Studies (cultural theory, cinematic, visual, and performing arts of the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, and West Africa); Suzanne Césaire; postcolonial ecocriticism; slave memorials; comparative postcolonial museum studies; critical ocean studies; intangible cultural heritage in the Global South and UNESCO.

My primary teaching and research areas are Family Law and International Family Law, with a particular interest in cross-border children's law and children's rights. I chair the board of the US branch of International Social Service (ISS-USA) and have attended treaty negotiation and review meetings in The Hague and elsewhere on the Hague Children's Conventions.