University staff, faculty, students, and alumni are accomplishing great things every day. See who’s making news with awards, publications, promotion and tenure, and more.

David Dowling will present “Escaping the Shallows: Deep Reading’s Revival in the Digital Age” from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 25 for the Public Digital Humanities for Lunch series.

University of Iowa research has resulted in a discovery that may help physicians and other researchers to better understand normal inner ear development as well as diseases of the inner ear.

Iowa Writers’ Workshop alumni Lauren Shapiro and Kevin González will read from their work at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 2, 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.

R. Clifton Spargo, currently an Arts Fellow and MFA candidate at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, will read from his new novel, "Beautiful Fools: The Last Affair of Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald," at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, 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.

The University of Iowa School of Social Work in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the first annual National Poetry Contest for Social Workers. The purpose of the contest was to acknowledge the creative talent of social workers and to draw attention to social work as a profession.

Bennett Sims, graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will read from "A Questionable Shape" at 7 p.m. Wednesday, May 1, 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.

The University of Iowa Center for New Music will present Composers Workshop II, a free concert featuring the work of composition students in the UI School of Music, at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, April 28, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

Iowa Writers' Workshop alumna Erica Bernheim and Chris Dombrowski will read from their poetry at 7 p.m. Monday, April 29, 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.

Russell Banks, an Ida Beam Visiting Professor at the University of Iowa, will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 25, in Room 1505 of the Seamans Center for the Engineering Arts and Sciences on the UI campus.

Through federally approved tours, the UI Alumni Association helps travelers explore the cultural, literary, artistic, and historic riches of Cuba.

After spending spring break in Las Vegas, UI students in a class that focuses on downtown Las Vegas have come up with something they believe will enhance the area as part of David Gould's "Reimagining Downtown" project—a vegan food truck.