Six undergraduate playwrights will have their plays brought to life at the University of Iowa Ten Minute Play Festival. The festival, presented by the Department of Theatre Arts, will hold its first performances at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 13, in Theatre B of the UI Theatre Building. Additional shows will be held Feb. 14-16.

Award-winning Ethiopian-American novelist and writer Dinaw Mengestu will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

As the 20th University of Iowa Dance Marathon approaches Friday, Feb. 7, alumni reflect on the many ways the organization has impacted their lives.

The University of Iowa Center for New Music, housed within the UI School of Music, will present a free performance by the CNM Ensemble at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

Bernard Cooper, visiting professor in the University of Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program, will read from his work at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.

American painter Lisa Sanditz, visiting artist in painting and drawing in the University of Iowa School of Art and Art History, will give a public lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, in Room 116 of Art Building West.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free performance by John McGrosso, first violinist of the Arianna String Quartet, and Réne Lecuona, UI professor of piano, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 16, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

An examination of predicted societal advances that never came to pass includes a shorter work week; in fact, the opposite has happened, notes UI professor Ben Hunnicutt, “Americans are working about five weeks a year longer than they did in 1976."

The University of Iowa Public Policy Center has received three grants totaling $17.2 million to fund automotive safety research and the development and implementation of a national education campaign to help drivers understand the safety systems in their vehicles.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Research Symposium will highlight 11 College of Education student poster projects, and Philip Kutzko, a professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of Mathematics, will give the keynote address entitled “Becoming America: Dr. King’s Beloved Community,” Friday, Feb. 7.

UI professor Ingo Titze and colleagues studied the accuracy and effectiveness of voice voting, concluding that this type of vote is extremely unreliable and that even just one boisterous participant can distort the perceptions of a judge.

Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate Marian Clark will read from her memoir, "Sixty-Something and Flying Solo: A Retiree Sorts it Out in Iowa," at 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the University of Iowa Writing University website.