On May 13, President Barack Obama will welcome the rulers of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to the White House. According to the White House, the "gathering will be an opportunity for the leaders to discuss ways to enhance their partnership and deepen security cooperation." The unusual meeting comes at a critical moment in the history of these countries and members of the Arab League for a number of reasons. Iowa communities will be able to contextualize these transformations taking place in Arab countries this coming week during the 2015 Provost's Global Forum.

A unique law course has created an opportunity for Iowa students to build relationships with their counterparts on the other side of the world. The Selected Topics in Comparative Law Seminar — offered by the University of Iowa College of Law this spring — invited Iowa students to compare U.S. and Russian Law in collaboration with students taking a parallel course in Russia.

Roughly 500 people filled the IMU second-floor Ballroom to celebrate the life of Andrew Mogni’s at a vigil on Sunday evening. The stories told by family, friends, and UI officials painted a picture of Mogni that brought both laughter and tears to those who attended.

Members of organizations seeking to purchase new luxury automobiles in order to export them to China for resale are approaching University of Iowa students. Luxury cars that typically sell at around $50,000 to $80,000 in the United States can be sold for as much as two or three times those prices in China.

Jeffrey Ding, a University of Iowa junior from Iowa City, Iowa, has been getting a lot of good news lately. Ding, a Presidential Scholar and member of the UI Honors Program, was attending a panel discussion about graduate study in the United Kingdom on Friday, April 10, in the Blank Honors Center when the Q & A session abruptly turned from the potential of the Rhodes Scholarship to the reality of the Truman Scholarship.

In the run-up to the International Dance Day on April 29, UNESCO's official Dance Day Around the World webpage highlighted an Iowa City event Tuesday. InterDance, created nine years ago by Nora Garda, celebrates the world of dance in the state of Iowa. It features two days of free performances and workshops throughout central Iowa City on Friday and Saturday. The events include tango at Trumpet Blossom Café, 310 E. Prentiss St., performances by dance companies on the Pentacrest, and workshops featuring Afro-Caribbean-Indian dance at Gateway Dance Theater, 700 S. Dubuque St.

The 13th Iowa City International Documentary Film Festival will take place April 10-11, 2015 in 105 Adler Building. The festival, presented by undergraduates in the UI Cinema Department, features documentaries from both Iowans and national and international filmmakers. The students aim to showcase different documenting styles and methods, questioning what it means to make a documentary.

UI student Andrew Mogni passed away on Sunday morning, April 5, 2015, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Andrew sustained serious injuries after a fall in Rome on January 14.

With the Iowa women’s golf team recruiting four freshmen earlier in the fall season, including one from Canada and one from Spain, it seems as if Iowa’s latest recruitment is paying off.

As has been the case since the start of the Arab uprisings in 2011, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya and social media have played a key role not only reporting on these transformative events, but also providing radically different narratives about events in each country depending on the sectarian and ideological backgrounds of various actors. The complex relationship between the media and social change movements are receiving increased attention from academics and researchers, and the University of Iowa will introduce some of these scholars to the public in late April. In just over a month, Iowa City will welcome one of the nation’s most pre-eminent Middle East scholars, Dr. Mohammed el-Nawawy.

This May will again be the season of graduation, and students have been considering their plans for life after graduation. For international students, it can be an especially difficult time. They must decide whether stay in the United States, go back to their home countries, pursue more education, or begin to work.

For 15 years, Ukrainian musician Roman Turovsky has playing the music that settled deep in his heart many years before. Though initially compelled to remain in the shadows as a composer, Turovsky later sought the adrenaline of performance. At 7 p.m. March 15 at the Englert Theater, 221 E. Washington St., Turovsky will make his first appearance at the ninth-annual Russian Guitar Festival alongside other virtuosos in Russian guitar music. This will mark the second time for the Englert to host the event.