Three University of Iowa College of Education leaders have received Better Futures for Iowans grants to support projects in dentistry, disability, and world language education. Through the outreach work of Saba Ali, Nicholas Colangelo, and James Stachowiak, Iowans benefit across the state.

Professor Jim Enloe and graduate fellow Teddy Marks from the University of Iowa Department of Anthropology will present “Middle and Late Stone Age in Arid Southern Africa: Excavations at Erb Tanks, Namibia” at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in the Biosphere Discovery Hub of the UI Museum of Natural History.

“Rewiring the Classroom” is a day-long symposium that will focus on critical applications of digital technologies in undergraduate classrooms, and will also give practical, hands-on learning opportunities with new technologies. The symposium takes place Feb. 23 and is free and open to the public.

Dan Beachy-Quick and Sally Keith, alumni of the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, will read from their poetry at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, in a free reading at Prairie Lights Books in downtown Iowa City. The reading also will be streamed live on the UI Writing University website.

The University of Iowa Department of Dance will present a faculty/graduate concert at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Feb. 21-23, in Space Place Theater in North Hall. The program will feature world premiere pieces from UI faculty and student choreographers. UI dance students will perform the works.

Hannah Walsh, a UI sophomore political science major from Spirit Lake, Iowa, was recently appointed to the Board of Regents, State of Iowa. Walsh is the lone student member on the nine-member board and is ready to be the voice of the students of the UI, Iowa State University, and University of Northern Iowa.

Wenfang Tang, a UI political science professor, says that compared with their predecessors, the new Chinese leaders seem to show more sophistication, confidence, and ambition in a CNN weekly column focusing on China's new austerity in response to directives from Beijing.

Are you ready to groove? The next free concert in the Arts Share/Community Foundation of Johnson County series will provide just the opportunity. “Groovin’ With Iowa Percussion,” led by University of Iowa School of Music faculty member Dan Moore, will take place at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 17, in Riverside Recital Hall on the UI campus.

University of Iowa College of Nursing Professor Joann "Jo" Eland and 18 students provided a helping hand in India over the winter break as part of a class that provides hospice and palliative care overseas.

Lucie Brock-Broido, author of three collections of poetry and recent Ida Beam Visiting Professor, will present a free reading at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, in the Frank Conroy Reading Room of the Glenn Schaeffer Library, adjacent to the Dey House.

The University of Iowa Department of Theatre Arts will present "MOLD" and "Dust and Ash," two one-act plays that take different looks at how our past affects us, at 8 p.m. Friday to Saturday, Feb. 22-23, and at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 24, in Theatre B of the UI Theatre Building.

The University of Iowa School of Music will present a free concert by the UI Symphony Band and the Iowa Honor Band (composed of the state's top high school musicians) at 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, in the Main Lounge of the Iowa Memorial Union.