Past Conferences
In honor of the 75th anniversary of the comic book super heroine Wonder Woman in 2016, Kent State University and the Cleveland Public Library will partner to celebrate the intersections of public literacy, comics, and feminism in a jointly sponsored symposium. The 2016 Wonder Woman Symposium partners two powerful public institutions in Northeast Ohio, taking up the historical trends that have changed the world of comics, American popular culture, and feminism. Centering on the figure of Wonder Woman and her heirs, this symposium will feature plenary addresses by major creators in the industry and historians of the comics world, and workshops by comics creators on creating graphic narratives and comics. This forum seeks to highlight both regional and national talent. Our celebration of Wonder Woman's anniversary pays respect to "herstory" while recognizing her perpetual relevance to our present day, and beyond.
Register now! (Free admission)
This conference is made possible, in part, by the Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this conference do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Full Schedule:
Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016
Cleveland Public Library, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, 325 Superior Ave, Cleveland OH 44114
6:00-6:30pm- Amanda Conner and Jimmy Palmiotti (via skype), Creative team of Harley Quinn, Starfire, and Harley Quinn and Power Girl
6:30-7:30pm- Phil Jimenez, Writer/Artist of Wonder Woman and Superwoman, and artist of Astonishing X-men, New X-men, Amazing Spider-Man and The Invisible
Carol & John's Comic Book Shop, 17462 Lorain Ave, Cleveland, OH 44111
8:00-10:00pm- Artist and Author Book Signing with Phil Jimenez, Cameron Stewart and other comics creators
Friday, Sept. 23, 2016
Cleveland Public Library, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, 325 Superior Ave, Cleveland OH 44114
3:00-4:00pm- Joan Ormrod, Co-editor of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics and co-editor of Superheroes and Identities
4:00-4:45pm- Cameron Stewart, Writer/Artist of Batgirl, Motor Crush and artist of Batman and Robin and Fight Club 2
5:00-6:00pm- Trina Robbins, Author of The Great Women Superheroes, Wonder Woman, and editor of Babes in Arms and The Complete Wimmen's Comix
6:15-7:00pm- Roundtable Discussion with Presenters
Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016
Cleveland Public Library, Louis Stokes Wing Auditorium, 325 Superior Ave, Cleveland OH 44114
9:30-10:00am- Coffee & Refreshments
10:00-11:00am- Genevieve Valentine, Author of Catwoman, Xena: Warrior Princess and the novels The Girls at the Kingfisher Club and Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti
11:15-12:15pm- Carol Tilley, Author of "Seducing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the Falsifications That Helped Condemn Comics" and a Will Eisner Comics Industry Awards Judge
12:15-2:00pm- Lunch and Wonder Woman Record Breaking Event (at the Eastman Garden)
2:00-3:00pm- Laura Siegel, Daughter of Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman. A former correspondent for CNN, she has won over 100 awards including 13 Emmys and 8 New York Festival Awards
3:15-4:15pm- Peter Coogan, Director of the Institute for Comics Studies and author of Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre and co-editor of What is a Superhero?
4:30-5:00pm- Audience Q&A with Christie Marston, granddaughter of William Moulton Marston, creator of Wonder Woman
5:00-5:45pm- Roundtable Discussion with Presenters
6:00-6:45pm- Meet and Greet with Presenters
In the News:
- Wonder Woman's role in feminist movement explored at Kent State symposium, Akron Beacon Journal
- Fifteen new things to do in Northeast Ohio through Sept. 22, Crain's Cleveland Business
- Harley Quinn, Just the Nice, Fun-Loving Psycho Next Door, The New York Times
- Wonder Woman to be honored in Cleveland Public Library symposium, Cleveland.com
- Unassuming Barber Shop: Who Is The Real Wonder Woman?, The Beat (comics blog)
- July 28, 2016: Jerry Siegel’s Daughter to Speak at Cleveland Symposium, Superman Homepage
Questions?
Please contact the organizers at wonderwomansymposium@gmail.com
Project Director: Professor Vera J. Camden
Project Coordinator: Valentino Zullo
Project Partners:
- Amy Dawson, Literature Department and Ohio Center for the Book Manager, Cleveland Public Library
- Jean Collins, Librarian, Literature Department and Ohio Center for the Book, Cleveland Public Library
Why the Humanities:
Answers from the Cognitive and Neurosciences
July 9-12, 2015
Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center
215 S. Depeyster St., Kent, Ohio 44240
For further information, contact whythehumanities@gmail.com
Register Now!View the Schedule
The purpose of this conference is to highlight and enhance the contributions that humanities education makes to personal well being, responsible citizenship, and social justice.
Recent studies in the cognitive and neurosciences indicate how humanities education can develop the following key cognitive and emotional capabilities that are essential not only for personal well being but also for responsible citizenship and social justice:
- Empathy, the ability to feel what others are feeling
- Mind Reading, the ability to understand the thoughts and intentions of others
- Metacognition, the ability to monitor and regulate one’s own perceptions and judgments of others
- Bias Correction, the ability to compensate for distortions in one’s judgments of others
- Self-Knowledge, the ability to recognize troublesome traits or motives in oneself
- Self-Other Overlap Recognition, the ability to apprehend similarities between oneself and others who appear very different from oneself
- Moral Judgment, the ability to form accurate and fair assessments of oneself and of others
Featured Speakers:
Nancy Easterlin
Research Professor of English at New Orleans University
She is the author of several books, including A Biocultural Approach to Literary Theory and Interpretation, employing cognitive and neuroscience in the analysis of literature.
Angus Fletcher
Associate Professor of English and Film Studies at The Ohio State University
His research focuses on the function of narrative and dramatic forms in fostering more tolerant, plural, cooperative societies—the kinds of societies that are more effective at developing progressive solutions to hunger, disease, and the other material problems of our biological world. He is the author of Evolving Hamlet and numerous articles.
Hunter Gehlbach
Associate Professor of Education at Harvard University
The author of numerous articles, he is an expert on the crucial social-cognition capability of perspective taking, on pedagogical strategies for developing it, and on designing questionnaires to measure this and other capabilities of social cognition.
Suzanne Keen
Professor of English and Dean at Washington and Lee University
She has conducted empirical research on how reading novels can activate and enhance empathy, sympathy, and other emotions and is the author of Empathy and the Novel, several other books, and numerous articles.
David Comer Kidd
PhD Candidate in Psychology at The New School for Social Research
His dissertation, the results of which were published last fall in a widely read and discussed article in Science, found that reading literary texts enhances people’s ability to infer other people’s mental states.
David Miall
Professor of English at the University of Alberta
He has conducted numerous empirical studies of literary reception and is the author of Literary Reading: Empirical and Theoretical Studies, in which he explains how reading literature can change readers’ capabilities and habits of cognition and feeling.
Keith Oatley
Novelist and Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Toronto
Among his many publications is Such Stuff as Dreams: The Psychology of Fiction, in which he offers empirically based explanations of how reading literature can increase empathy and other elements of emotional intelligence.
Natalie Phillips
Assistant Professor of English at Michigan State University
She is co-founder of the Digital Humanities and Literary Cognition Lab, which uses neuroscientific tools, such as fMRI and eye tracking, to explore the cognitive dynamics of literary reading.
G. Gabrielle Starr
Professor of English and Dean at New York University
She pursues research in neuroaesthetics, a relatively new field of inquiry that uses the tools of cognitive neuroscience to explore the contours of aesthetic experience. Her most recent book is Feeling Beauty: The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience.
Lisa Zunshine
Bush-Holbrook Professor of English at the University of Kentucky
She is the author of many articles and books, including Why We Read Fiction: Theory of Mind and the Novel, which explains how specific literary passages induce and possibly train readers to infer others’ mental states.
Plenary Session, Dix Room
Moving Forward: How to Advance the Humanities with the Cognitive and Neurosciences
Presiding: Mark Bracher, Professor of English, Kent State University
What teachers can get from the conference:
- Two continuing education units (tuition waived)
- Presentations by cognitive and neuroscience researchers on key cognitive capabilities fostered by humanities study
- Discussions of the personal and social benefits of these capabilities
- Workshops on the best educational practices for developing these capabilities
- Opportunities to initiate collaborative research projects with other teachers and/or university researchers
This conference is made possible, in part, by the Ohio Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this conference do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Generous support is also being provided by Kent State University’s College of Arts & Sciences, College of Education, Health and Human Services, the Departments of English, History, Modern and Classical Language Studies, Philosophy, Psychology, and Sociology, and the Institute for Applied Linguistics.
"Seeing the Disappeared" - Oct. 11-12, 2016
Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Geography, Department of Anthropology, the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, and the Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence will present “Documenting Violence: Seeing the Disappeared” from 7-9 p.m. on October 11th and 12th in the University Auditorium in Cartwright Hall on the Kent Campus. Research on violence in Guatemala, the former Yugoslavia, and the U.S., including the events of September 11, 2001, will be presented. The event is free and open to the public.
Full Schedule:
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
University Auditorium in Cartwright Hall, Kent Campus
7:00 - 9:00pm
- Dr. Catherine Nolin, associate professor and chair of the Department of Geography at the University of Northern British Columbia, will discuss her work on past and present state sponsored violence in Guatemala. Her 20 years of research has covered issues of femicide, indigenous land rights, migration, and human rights. Her research focuses on gendered and racialized experiences created by past and contemporary, state sponsored and developmental political violence in Guatemala. Her work applies a social justice framework for examining post-genocide memory, the search for the ‘disappeared’, femicide, violence related to resource extraction, and the role of indigenous consultation in Guatemalan Maya communities. Her critical approach also examines the transnational solidarities of forced, temporary, and permanent migrations of Guatemalans to Canada.
- Award-winning documentary photographer James Rodríguez (B.A. Geography, UCLA) will profile his documentation of uncovering mass graves, the forensics of identification, and the burial customs that reunite the ‘disappeared’ with family in post war Guatemala. His evocative photos will be on exhibit in Cartwright Hall, outside the auditorium on Tuesday from 3pm-11pm and Wednesday 10am-11pm. Based in Antigua, Guatemala and raised in Mexico City and Los Angeles, he has worked as a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyst in Los Angeles, a language teacher in Japan, and a human rights observer in Guatemala. His website, MiMundo.org, contains photo essays and archive photographs focusing on the social conflicts caused by resource extraction, land tenure disputes, post-war processes, and human rights abuses, in Guatemala and Latin America. He has documented the uncovering of the ‘disappeared’ through his photography of mass graves and burials in Guatemala, and the forensic analysis of the FAFG. His work has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Toronto Star, National Geographic.com, among others. His solo and joint photography exhibits have been featured throughout the world, including events sponsored by Amnesty International and Oxfam America.
- About his photo exhibit:
The brutal Guatemala civil war (1960-1996) left over 250,000 civilian victims. Thousands were forcibly disappeared, their corpses never found. Thanks to numerous exhumations and DNA analysis, the war victims are finally being identified and properly buried. This process has marked the beginning of an extraordinary healing process in both rural and urban families.
Yet for some, it goes beyond finding and burying a family member, as it is also evidence of heinous crimes committed during the war. On May 10, 2013, former de facto head of state Efrain Rios Montt, who ruled from 1982 to 1983, was convicted of Genocide and crimes against humanity. Even though the conviction was overturned shortly after due to a technicality, it marks the first time in world history a former head of state is tried for genocide in a national court. Currently, eight former high-ranking officers await trial for the largest case of mass disappearance in the history of Latin America after 533 corpses were exhumed in 2012 from mass graves in a former military installation.
The unforeseen and unpredictable shifts within the Guatemalan justice system, propelled by an UN-led anti-corruption coalition force that has empowered the district attorneys office, have shaken up the power structures and allowed for judicial processes that were thought to be impossible. The struggle for justice and social cohesion after the brutal crimes carried out by the State against the Guatemalan people during the war will undoubtedly take generations to heal. But at least some families can finally find closure in burying their loved ones after decades of uncertainty and hope that justice is carried out against the intellectual perpetrators.
- About his photo exhibit:
- A discussion and reception will follow
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
University Auditorium in Cartwright Hall, Kent Campus
7:00 - 9:00pm
- Dr. Zoran Budimlija, head of the Laboratory for Surgical Pathology, Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania, will speak about the identification of victims in mass graves from the war in the former Yugoslavia as well as his role as a team leader of the 9-11 World Trade Center Human Identification Project while working in the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in New York City. He is a forensic pathologist and forensic DNA specialist from the Republic of Serbia. From 1992 to 2001 he was an instructor at the University of Novi Sad School of Medicine and a designated forensic pathologist in the identification of victims of the Yugoslav Wars. Between 2014 and 2016 he was a member of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, working on the identification of individuals in mass graves.
- Dr. Anthony Tosi, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Kent State University, will talk about his specialized forensic ‘Touch-DNA’ analysis of homicides in New York City. His work involves forensic genetics and primate evolution. He previously worked at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in New York City in the low-copy DNA (“Touch DNA”) group. He is one of only 25 people in the United States specifically trained to interpret low-copy DNA results and has testified to homicides in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx. He has held postdoctoral positions at Kyoto University, Japan, and New York University, USA. He is presently working with Dr. Linda Spurlock to develop a new Minor in Forensic Anthropology at Kent State University.
- Dr. Linda Spurlock, assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Kent State University, will present her work on 2-D and 3-D facial reconstructions, and postmortem sketches of unidentified crime victims. As a forensic facial reconstruction artist she assists coroner’s and medical examiner’s offices throughout northeast Ohio. She is also a biological anthropologist for the Ohio Mortuary Operational Response Team (OMORT).
- A discussion and reception will follow
Full Content
Natural/Designed Ecologies
Generously co-sponsored by Cleveland Water Alliance and Kent State University's College of Architecture and Environmental Design
Register Now! Submit a Poster Abstract
Kent State’s 5th annual Water and Land symposium will provide a forum for today’s understandings of natural systems and contemporary innovative design approaches for improving cities and society. Topics of conservation/recreation; living materials/fabrication; and sustainable/urbanism will create discussion on the limits of knowledge and the road to greater environmental responsibility. Held on October 4th and 5th 2017, this symposium will attract more than 300 attendees from the many universities, federal, state and regional agencies, and private companies that populate northeastern Ohio and surrounding states. This year we are delighted to have Tim Beatley, who is an internationally recognized researcher and author who has focused on the creation and maintenance of green cities and sustainable urban planning. He has focused on creative strategies that cities can use to reduce their ecological footprints, showing how we can make cities more livable places. Dr. Beatley developed the term ‘green urbanism’ and uses it to describe the planning process used to create a sustainable city.
The second day of the conference will highlight new approaches to a variety of environmental and social issues through distinguished speakers and formal and informal discussions. A plenary session will set the stage for breakout sessions and posters in the afternoon. Breakout sessions will focus on “Conservation and Recreation,” “Living Materials,” and “Sustainable Urbanism.” These breakout sessions will be linked to poster sessions and will provide an opportunity for more specific discussions focused on key underlying issues. Registration is free and open to the public.
October 4-5, 2017
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
7:00-8:30 pm | Keynote Address Tim Beatley, University of Virginia (Cartwright Hall) |
8:45-9:45 pm | Poster Session 1, Reception (CAED, 132 S Lincoln St.) |
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center
215 S. Depeyster Street, Kent, OH 44240
8:30-9:00 am | Check In |
9:00-9:15 am | Opening Remarks |
9:15-10:00 am | "Conservation and Recreation" Keynote: Joshua Lawler, University of Washington |
10:00-10:45 am | Reid Coffman, Architecture, Kent State University |
Break | |
11:00-11:45 am | "Living Materials" Keynote: Mitchell Joachim, Terreform One |
11:45 am- 12:30 pm |
"Sustainable Urbanism" Keynote: James Fraser, Vanderbilt University |
12:30-1:30 pm | Lunch (on your own) |
1:30-2:45 pm | Poster Session 2 and Self-tour/Tours of CAED LEED platinum building (CAED, 132 S Lincoln St.) |
3:00-5:00 pm | Concurrent Sessions (outlined below) |
Conservation and RecreationDavid Ward, Biological Sciences, Kent State University, convening |
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3:00-3:30 pm | Working towards a greater good: the role of ecotourism in supporting the Sustainable Development Goals Kelly Bricker, University of Utah |
3:30-4:00 pm | Lisa Petit, Cuyahoga Valley National Park |
4:00-4:30 pm | Andrew Lepp, Recreation, Park, & Tourism Management, Kent State University |
4:30-5:00 pm | Panel Discussion |
Living MaterialsDiane Davis-Sikora, Architecture, Kent State University, convening |
|
3:00-3:30 pm | Laia Mogas Soldevila, Tufts University |
3:30-4:00 pm | Petra Gruber, University of Akron |
4:00-4:30 pm | Margarita Benitez, Fashion, Kent State University |
4:30-5:00 pm | Panel Discussion |
Sustainable UrbanismBeth Herndon, Geology and Kelly Turner, Geography, Kent State University, convening |
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3:00-3:30 pm | Daniel Bain, University of Pittsburgh |
3:30-4:00 pm | Kayla Perry, The Ohio State University |
4:00-4:30 pm | David Jurca, Architecture, Kent State University |
4:30-5:00 pm | Panel Discussion |
The Fourth Annual Neuroscience Symposium at Kent State University:
The Neuroscience of the Social Brain
This symposium features internationally renowned neuroscientists presenting leading-edge research on mechanisms underlying social behavior. Neuroscience research at Kent State University is supported by over 35 faculty from numerous departments and disciplines. This event is free and open to the public. Continuing Medical Education (CMEs) will be available. Sign-up at the registration table. Continuing Education Units (CEUs) are pending. Check back soon for details.
Register Now! | Call for Posters |
April 7-8, 2016
Kent State University Hotel and Conference Center
215 S. Depeyster Street, Kent, OH 44240
Thursday, April 7, 2016
7:00 Welcome
Paul DiCorleto, Ph.D., Vice President for Research and Sponsored Programs, Kent State University
7:10 Introduction of Keynote Speaker
James Blank, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Kent State University
7:15 p.m. Keynote Address- "Preclinical Discovery of Treatments for Autism"
Jacqueline N. Crawley, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis School of Medicine
Dr. Crawley is the Robert E. Chason Endowed Chair in Translational Research at the MIND Institute and an internationally recognized leader in behavioral neuroscience.
8:15 p.m. - 9:15 p.m. Reception and Poster Session
Friday, April 8, 2016
8:00 a.m. Check-in and continental breakfast
8:30 a.m. Welcome
James Blank, Ph.D., Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, Kent State University
8:35 a.m. Overview
Ernie Freeman, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Director of the School of Biomedical Sciences
Morning Session
8:45 a.m. “Empathy and the network architecture of the human brain”
Tony Jack, Ph.D., Department of Cognitive Science, Case Western Reserve University
(Introduced by David Fresco, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University)
9:30 a.m. “Translational social neuroscience: animal models to patients with autism”
Karen Parker, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science, Stanford School of Medicine
(Introduced by Doug Delahanty, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Vice President for Research and Faculty Development, Department of Psychological Sciences)
10:15 a.m. Coffee Break
10:30 a.m. “Oxytocin and the social brain: lessons from mutant mice”
Heather Caldwell, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University
(Introduced by Eric Mintz, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences)
11:15 a.m. “The monogamous brain”
Zuoxin Wang, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Florida State University
(Introduced by Colleen Novak, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences)
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
Afternoon Session
1:30 p.m. “Mouse models of autism to test hypotheses about causes and to discover effective treatments”
Jacqueline N. Crawley, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California Davis School of Medicine
(Introduced by Gemma Casadesus, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences)
2:15 p.m. Panel Discussion
Moderated by John Gunstad, Ph.D., Professor, Department of Psychological Sciences, Kent State University
2:50 p.m. Final Comments
Heather Caldwell, Ph.D., Symposium Chair, Associate Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Kent State University