The 2026 Provost’s Global Forum, Cinematic Connections in a Polarized World: How movies bring us together, will bring together experts from across the University of Iowa campus, the greater Iowa City area, and around the world for film screenings, keynote talks, and lively conversations about how movies foster connection across cultural, religious and generational divides.
Experts will convene in Iowa City April 21 – 23, 2026.
RSVP to let organizers know which sessions you’ll attend and to help determine the amount of refreshments needed for various breaks and meals.
Forum Website & Sessions Schedule
Audiences can expect engaging panels on topics ranging from food and music to friendship, romance, and sports—paired with Q&As featuring international speakers. This event invites anyone interested in global Jewish cinemas, storytelling, or cross-cultural dialogue to explore how films help us laugh together, learn together, and imagine more connected futures.
On the final day of the forum, will be the 2026 Joel Barkan Memorial Lecture.
Joel Barkan retired from the University of Iowa in 2005, after a career as a political science professor and the founding director of the Center for International and Comparative Studies (CICS), the predecessor to UI International Programs. Following his retirement, Barkan went on to have a second career in Washington, D.C., as a consultant with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the World Bank, and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Many of the university’s faculty, staff, and administrators knew him also as a creative program-builder who made lasting contributions to international studies at the university and to the regular discussion in Iowa City of changing political, economic, and social circumstances in the world. UI faculty members who were his colleagues and who teach international studies proposed that Joel Barkan be recognized in a named annual campus lecture. The first annual Joel Barkan Memorial Lecture was given in 2015.
This year’s Provost’s Global Forum is made possible through the generous support and financial contributions from the Stanley-University of Iowa Foundation Support Organization, UI International Programs, the UI Old Capitol Museum, the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and the Perry A. and Helen Judy Bond Fund. Activities for the forum are hosted in collaboration with the UI Old Capitol Museum.
Cosponsors: Departments of Cinematic Arts, English, History, Religious Studies, Spanish & Portuguese, Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures (LLLC), the Obermann Center for Advanced Studies, and the Office of Undergraduate Research
Collaborators: Jewish Studies Certificate, Global Memory Studies Humanities Lab