Mahatma Gandhi was one of the most original, impactful, and complex figures of the 20th century. WorldCanvass panelists reflected on Gandhi at 150.

Physicians, researchers, and advocates for Iowa’s most vulnerable populations addressed public health and the pandemic, the needs of marginalized and vulnerable populations, and the challenge of vaccine hesitancy.

Renowned author Yaa Gyasi was our guest for “The Ghanaian-American Experience in Literature and Art” on the first WorldCanvass of 2021. Joining her in this special writer-to-writer discussion was fellow author and graduate of the UI Writers’ Workshop D.K. Nnuro.

Joan Kjaer and guest panelists discussed the impact of COVID-19 and whether teaching and learning has been forever changed on this December 8 WorldCanvass.

On November 16, the 2020 International Impact Award and UI Global Student Awards were presented during WorldCanvass. Access the recording and read the media coverage.

On Thursday, October 22, host Joan Kjaer and guests held a robust discussion surrounding the present-day challenge of pursuing racial justice.

On February 21, expert guests from UI Hospitals and Clinics, the Iowa State Hygienic Lab, UI Student Health, and UI International Programs joined host Joan Kjaer to discuss the virus and its potential for harm here in Iowa as well as the measures the university is taking to inform, protect, and support its students, staff, faculty, and the surrounding community.

What does the museum of the 21st century look like?  What does it house?  What is its role in the community? Does it see itself differently than museums of the past? And how do galleries, libraries, archives, and museums capture the zeitgeist of the time and reinvent themselves as expectations change? Host Joan Kjaer and guest panelists covered these topics at the February 6 WorldCanvass program, "The Future of Museums."  

UI alum and world renowned opera singer Simon Estes was awarded the 2019 International Impact Award as part of this special program of WorldCanvass.

The October 9 WorldCanvass program covered an array of research breakthroughs taking place at the University of Iowa.

On Thursday, March 1, the internationally acclaimed Elias String Quartet took WorldCanvass inside the process of music-making.  In a performance-filled program called Translating Music, members of the quartet and Elizabeth Oakes, director of the University of Iowa String Quartet Residency Program in the School of Music, discussed what it takes to bring a piece to life by focusing on two themes—nationality in music and storytelling through music. This program was part of a week-long residency at the UI, which included a number of classroom and public engagements as well as a concert at Hancher Auditorium. 

Contemporary African artist Eric Adjetey Anang, internationally renowned for the Ghanaian ‘fantasy coffins’ he and generations before him have created, spent the fall 2017 semester as artist-in-residence at the UI Museum of Art. He joined UI faculty and African art scholars on the December 7 WorldCanvass in a program called “Art & the Afterlife.”