When it comes to our collective understanding of the Northeast Ohio region, some Kent State University faculty in the Department of History feel that professional historians have too often ignored or marginalized Ohio and the Great Lakes region as a whole.

To address that, Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) and Kent State have announced a cooperation agreement enabling unique access and real-world experiences for students and faculty in the Department of History.

“The partnership between WRHS and the Department of History has numerous benefits, but one of the most important is bolstering our collective understanding of the history of the region,” said Kevin Adams, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of Kent State’s Department of History. “By pooling resources and expertise, our institutions look forward to uncovering new facets of our past for the benefit of scholars and the public alike.”

The agreement, in the form of a memorandum of understanding signed Feb. 17 at the Library at the WRHS Cleveland History Center, formalizes the mutual interaction and strengthens the existing relationship between WRHS staff members and Kent State faculty.

Kent State students will gain access to archival research materials for research projects, internships and jobs as well as research assistantships for graduate level students. One of the first student projects will be an oral history project focused on African American history in our region.

“This partnership provides a direct pathway by which Kent State history students at all levels can acquire essential knowledge and skills for careers in public history,” Adams said. “The experiences our students will have and the professional connections they will develop will prove invaluable as they transition into their lives after graduation.”

“The relationship between WRHS and Kent State has been long and fruitful, resulting in publications, exhibits and student internship projects, thanks to Kent State’s commitment to excellent scholarship and public history,” said Kelly Falcone-Hall, president and CEO of WRHS. “This agreement formalizes and builds upon a long tradition of working together for the benefit of students and our community.”

For Kent State faculty and WRHS staff, this agreement will bring unique teaching opportunities and collaborative research, including a focus on our industrial past and the history of the Rust Belt.

“Not only will the content expertise possessed by Kent State’s faculty enhance WRHS exhibits and events, but this partnership plays an important role in the history department’s development of a Center for Rust Belt Studies,” Adams said.

Founded in 1867, WRHS is a regional history organization with seven properties across Northeast Ohio. Included in its collections are 39 historic structures – seven of which are on the National Register of Historic Places – as well as more than 100,000 objects in its museum collections, an expansive library of published and primary source materials, an auto-aviation collection, a costume and textile collection, and more. WRHS presents exhibitions, programs and experiences that tell the dynamic stories of the people of Northeast Ohio through art, documents and artifacts from a variety of collections. Through its Heritage Management Program, WRHS is a resource for corporations and organizations. WRHS is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is a member of the America 250-Ohio Commission commemorating the semiquincentennial of the United States in 2026.

To learn more about WRHS, visit www.wrhs.org.

To learn more about Kent State’s Department of History, visit www.kent.edu/history.

# # #

Photo Caption:
Pictured on the Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel at Western Reserve Historical Society are (from left to right) Kevin Adams, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of Kent State University’s Department of History; Mandy Munro-Stasiuk, Ph.D., dean of Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Kelly Falcone-Hall, president and CEO of Western Reserve Historical Society.

Media Contacts:
Jim Maxwell, Kent State University, jmaxwel2@kent.edu, 330-672-8028
Kelly Falcone-Hall, Western Reserve Historical Society, kfalcone@wrhs.org, 216-721-5722, ext. 1507

When it comes to our collective understanding of the Northeast Ohio region, some Kent State University faculty in the Department of History feel that professional historians have too often ignored or marginalized Ohio and the Great Lakes region as a whole.

To address that, Western Reserve Historical Society (WRHS) and Kent State have announced a cooperation agreement enabling unique access and real-world experiences for students and faculty in the Department of History.

“The partnership between WRHS and the Department of History has numerous benefits, but one of the most important is bolstering our collective understanding of the history of the region,” said Kevin Adams, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of Kent State’s Department of History. “By pooling resources and expertise, our institutions look forward to uncovering new facets of our past for the benefit of scholars and the public alike.”

The agreement, in the form of a memorandum of understanding signed Feb. 17 at the Library at the WRHS Cleveland History Center, formalizes the mutual interaction and strengthens the existing relationship between WRHS staff members and Kent State faculty.

Kent State students will gain access to archival research materials for research projects, internships and jobs as well as research assistantships for graduate level students. One of the first student projects will be an oral history project focused on African American history in our region.

“This partnership provides a direct pathway by which Kent State history students at all levels can acquire essential knowledge and skills for careers in public history,” Adams said. “The experiences our students will have and the professional connections they will develop will prove invaluable as they transition into their lives after graduation.”

“The relationship between WRHS and Kent State has been long and fruitful, resulting in publications, exhibits and student internship projects, thanks to Kent State’s commitment to excellent scholarship and public history,” said Kelly Falcone-Hall, president and CEO of WRHS. “This agreement formalizes and builds upon a long tradition of working together for the benefit of students and our community.”

For Kent State faculty and WRHS staff, this agreement will bring unique teaching opportunities and collaborative research, including a focus on our industrial past and the history of the Rust Belt.

“Not only will the content expertise possessed by Kent State’s faculty enhance WRHS exhibits and events, but this partnership plays an important role in the history department’s development of a Center for Rust Belt Studies,” Adams said.

Founded in 1867, WRHS is a regional history organization with seven properties across Northeast Ohio. Included in its collections are 39 historic structures – seven of which are on the National Register of Historic Places – as well as more than 100,000 objects in its museum collections, an expansive library of published and primary source materials, an auto-aviation collection, a costume and textile collection, and more. WRHS presents exhibitions, programs and experiences that tell the dynamic stories of the people of Northeast Ohio through art, documents and artifacts from a variety of collections. Through its Heritage Management Program, WRHS is a resource for corporations and organizations. WRHS is a Smithsonian Affiliate and is a member of the America 250-Ohio Commission commemorating the semiquincentennial of the United States in 2026.

To learn more about WRHS, visit www.wrhs.org.

To learn more about Kent State’s Department of History, visit www.kent.edu/history.

# # #

Photo Caption:
Pictured on the Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel at Western Reserve Historical Society are (from left to right) Kevin Adams, Ph.D., associate professor and chair of Kent State University’s Department of History; Mandy Munro-Stasiuk, Ph.D., dean of Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Kelly Falcone-Hall, president and CEO of Western Reserve Historical Society.

Media Contacts:
Jim Maxwell, Kent State University, jmaxwel2@kent.edu, 330-672-8028
Kelly Falcone-Hall, Western Reserve Historical Society, kfalcone@wrhs.org, 216-721-5722, ext. 1507

Nearly a half century ago, sparks from a passing train not only set fire to oil-slicked debris on the Cuyahoga River, which sent flames five-stories high, it ignited the river’s reputation as one of the most polluted in the United States. Since then, clean-up efforts have helped return the river to its natural state, and now visitors will have the opportunity to give it a voice, thanks to a grant awarded to the Wick Poetry Center in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $2 million in Creativity Connects grants as part of the National Endowment for the Art’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  Included in this announcement is a grant of $90,000 to the Wick Poetry Center for River Stanzas: A Collective Dreaming of the Cuyahoga. The Creativity Connects category advances the role of the arts in the nation’s creative ecosystem by supporting projects featuring partnerships between the arts and non-arts sectors. 

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” Chu said. “Through the work of organizations such as the Wick Poetry Center in Kent, Ohio, National Endowment for the Arts funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”  

With the River Stanzas project, an evolution of the award-winning Traveling Stanzas project, the Wick Poetry Center will examine and give voice to the many ways the river can sustain us creatively and teach us about our connection to the environment and our community.

“In June 2019 our community will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our river’s rebirth,” said David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center. “From the crisis of the river burning, we now have the opportunity to celebrate the success through poetry, art, and design, showcase our community’s vibrancy—its riverbanks and bike trails, its hiking paths and streetscapes and rise to the challenge of conveying what we’ve learned to the stewards of the next generation.”

In the summer of 2018 the Wick Poetry Center will conduct a series of intergenerational community forums and conversations around the value of the river in our lives, its history, and our shared future. They will be inspired to “dream the river” in its next 50 years.

Throughout the year, in collaboration with the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Akron and Kent Public Schools, Wick Poetry Center’s outreach team will lead field trips and workshops—“river walks” and “river talks”—aiming to bring the river to the city and the people of the city to the river.

With the design firm Each + Every, the Wick Poetry Center will create River Stanzas coloring and activity books and develop digital tools and creative stations for guided creative interaction and reflection in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center. Visitors will be guided through a simple process to tell their “river story.” These will be curated and included in an interactive, digital traveling exhibit launched in 2019, which will travel nationally with a suite of digital tools so that other communities around the world can give voice to their own environmental issues and history.

For more information on Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, visit www.kent.edu/wick.

                                                                                                                               ###

Photo Credit:
Kayaks line the shore of the Cuyahoga River in Kent, Ohio, as part of Crooked River Adventures, which is run by the Kent State Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

Media Contacts:
David Hassler, dhassle1@kent.edu, 330-672-1769
Kristin Anderson, kander63@kent.edu, 330-672-7907

Nearly a half century ago, sparks from a passing train not only set fire to oil-slicked debris on the Cuyahoga River, which sent flames five-stories high, it ignited the river’s reputation as one of the most polluted in the United States. Since then, clean-up efforts have helped return the river to its natural state, and now visitors will have the opportunity to give it a voice, thanks to a grant awarded to the Wick Poetry Center in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $2 million in Creativity Connects grants as part of the National Endowment for the Art’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  Included in this announcement is a grant of $90,000 to the Wick Poetry Center for River Stanzas: A Collective Dreaming of the Cuyahoga. The Creativity Connects category advances the role of the arts in the nation’s creative ecosystem by supporting projects featuring partnerships between the arts and non-arts sectors. 

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” Chu said. “Through the work of organizations such as the Wick Poetry Center in Kent, Ohio, National Endowment for the Arts funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”  

With the River Stanzas project, an evolution of the award-winning Traveling Stanzas project, the Wick Poetry Center will examine and give voice to the many ways the river can sustain us creatively and teach us about our connection to the environment and our community.

“In June 2019 our community will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our river’s rebirth,” said David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center. “From the crisis of the river burning, we now have the opportunity to celebrate the success through poetry, art, and design, showcase our community’s vibrancy—its riverbanks and bike trails, its hiking paths and streetscapes and rise to the challenge of conveying what we’ve learned to the stewards of the next generation.”

In the summer of 2018 the Wick Poetry Center will conduct a series of intergenerational community forums and conversations around the value of the river in our lives, its history, and our shared future. They will be inspired to “dream the river” in its next 50 years.

Throughout the year, in collaboration with the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Akron and Kent Public Schools, Wick Poetry Center’s outreach team will lead field trips and workshops—“river walks” and “river talks”—aiming to bring the river to the city and the people of the city to the river.

With the design firm Each + Every, the Wick Poetry Center will create River Stanzas coloring and activity books and develop digital tools and creative stations for guided creative interaction and reflection in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center. Visitors will be guided through a simple process to tell their “river story.” These will be curated and included in an interactive, digital traveling exhibit launched in 2019, which will travel nationally with a suite of digital tools so that other communities around the world can give voice to their own environmental issues and history.

For more information on Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, visit www.kent.edu/wick.

                                                                                                                               ###

Photo Credit:
Kayaks line the shore of the Cuyahoga River in Kent, Ohio, as part of Crooked River Adventures, which is run by the Kent State Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

Media Contacts:
David Hassler, dhassle1@kent.edu, 330-672-1769
Kristin Anderson, kander63@kent.edu, 330-672-7907

Nearly a half century ago, sparks from a passing train not only set fire to oil-slicked debris on the Cuyahoga River, which sent flames five-stories high, it ignited the river’s reputation as one of the most polluted in the United States. Since then, clean-up efforts have helped return the river to its natural state, and now visitors will have the opportunity to give it a voice, thanks to a grant awarded to the Wick Poetry Center in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $2 million in Creativity Connects grants as part of the National Endowment for the Art’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  Included in this announcement is a grant of $90,000 to the Wick Poetry Center for River Stanzas: A Collective Dreaming of the Cuyahoga. The Creativity Connects category advances the role of the arts in the nation’s creative ecosystem by supporting projects featuring partnerships between the arts and non-arts sectors. 

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” Chu said. “Through the work of organizations such as the Wick Poetry Center in Kent, Ohio, National Endowment for the Arts funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”  

With the River Stanzas project, an evolution of the award-winning Traveling Stanzas project, the Wick Poetry Center will examine and give voice to the many ways the river can sustain us creatively and teach us about our connection to the environment and our community.

“In June 2019 our community will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our river’s rebirth,” said David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center. “From the crisis of the river burning, we now have the opportunity to celebrate the success through poetry, art, and design, showcase our community’s vibrancy—its riverbanks and bike trails, its hiking paths and streetscapes and rise to the challenge of conveying what we’ve learned to the stewards of the next generation.”

In the summer of 2018 the Wick Poetry Center will conduct a series of intergenerational community forums and conversations around the value of the river in our lives, its history, and our shared future. They will be inspired to “dream the river” in its next 50 years.

Throughout the year, in collaboration with the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Akron and Kent Public Schools, Wick Poetry Center’s outreach team will lead field trips and workshops—“river walks” and “river talks”—aiming to bring the river to the city and the people of the city to the river.

With the design firm Each + Every, the Wick Poetry Center will create River Stanzas coloring and activity books and develop digital tools and creative stations for guided creative interaction and reflection in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center. Visitors will be guided through a simple process to tell their “river story.” These will be curated and included in an interactive, digital traveling exhibit launched in 2019, which will travel nationally with a suite of digital tools so that other communities around the world can give voice to their own environmental issues and history.

For more information on Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, visit www.kent.edu/wick.

                                                                                                                               ###

Photo Credit:
Kayaks line the shore of the Cuyahoga River in Kent, Ohio, as part of Crooked River Adventures, which is run by the Kent State Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

Media Contacts:
David Hassler, dhassle1@kent.edu, 330-672-1769
Kristin Anderson, kander63@kent.edu, 330-672-7907

Nearly a half century ago, sparks from a passing train not only set fire to oil-slicked debris on the Cuyahoga River, which sent flames five-stories high, it ignited the river’s reputation as one of the most polluted in the United States. Since then, clean-up efforts have helped return the river to its natural state, and now visitors will have the opportunity to give it a voice, thanks to a grant awarded to the Wick Poetry Center in Kent State University’s College of Arts and Sciences.

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Jane Chu has approved more than $2 million in Creativity Connects grants as part of the National Endowment for the Art’s second major funding announcement for fiscal year 2018.  Included in this announcement is a grant of $90,000 to the Wick Poetry Center for River Stanzas: A Collective Dreaming of the Cuyahoga. The Creativity Connects category advances the role of the arts in the nation’s creative ecosystem by supporting projects featuring partnerships between the arts and non-arts sectors. 

“The variety and quality of these projects speaks to the wealth of creativity and diversity in our country,” Chu said. “Through the work of organizations such as the Wick Poetry Center in Kent, Ohio, National Endowment for the Arts funding invests in local communities, helping people celebrate the arts wherever they are.”  

With the River Stanzas project, an evolution of the award-winning Traveling Stanzas project, the Wick Poetry Center will examine and give voice to the many ways the river can sustain us creatively and teach us about our connection to the environment and our community.

“In June 2019 our community will celebrate the 50th anniversary of our river’s rebirth,” said David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center. “From the crisis of the river burning, we now have the opportunity to celebrate the success through poetry, art, and design, showcase our community’s vibrancy—its riverbanks and bike trails, its hiking paths and streetscapes and rise to the challenge of conveying what we’ve learned to the stewards of the next generation.”

In the summer of 2018 the Wick Poetry Center will conduct a series of intergenerational community forums and conversations around the value of the river in our lives, its history, and our shared future. They will be inspired to “dream the river” in its next 50 years.

Throughout the year, in collaboration with the Conservancy for Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Akron and Kent Public Schools, Wick Poetry Center’s outreach team will lead field trips and workshops—“river walks” and “river talks”—aiming to bring the river to the city and the people of the city to the river.

With the design firm Each + Every, the Wick Poetry Center will create River Stanzas coloring and activity books and develop digital tools and creative stations for guided creative interaction and reflection in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park visitor center. Visitors will be guided through a simple process to tell their “river story.” These will be curated and included in an interactive, digital traveling exhibit launched in 2019, which will travel nationally with a suite of digital tools so that other communities around the world can give voice to their own environmental issues and history.

For more information on Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center, visit www.kent.edu/wick.

                                                                                                                               ###

Photo Credit:
Kayaks line the shore of the Cuyahoga River in Kent, Ohio, as part of Crooked River Adventures, which is run by the Kent State Student Recreation and Wellness Center.

Media Contacts:
David Hassler, dhassle1@kent.edu, 330-672-1769
Kristin Anderson, kander63@kent.edu, 330-672-7907

Fossilized dinosaur feces, dating back 75-million years ago, has scientists rethinking the eating habits of certain dinosaurs. Instead of consuming plants, some herbivores from the Cretaceous period also snacked on crustaceans, including lobsters, crab and shrimp.

Kent State University’s Professor Emeritus Rodney Feldmann and Jessica Tashman, a doctoral student in the Department of Geology in Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences, authored the study along with Karen Chin, associate professor and curator of paleontology at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History.

Scientists found the fossilized feces during a dig at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. They believe the unexpected behavior of eating crustaceans is to consume protein and calcium, especially during breeding and egg-laying seasons.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Funding for the project came from both Colorado University Boulder and Kent State University.

Read more about the study from NPR’s Ideastream and CU Boulder Today.

Fossilized dinosaur feces, dating back 75-million years ago, has scientists rethinking the eating habits of certain dinosaurs. Instead of consuming plants, some herbivores from the Cretaceous period also snacked on crustaceans, including lobsters, crab and shrimp.

Kent State University’s Professor Emeritus Rodney Feldmann and Jessica Tashman, a doctoral student in the Department of Geology in Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences, authored the study along with Karen Chin, associate professor and curator of paleontology at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History.

Scientists found the fossilized feces during a dig at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. They believe the unexpected behavior of eating crustaceans is to consume protein and calcium, especially during breeding and egg-laying seasons.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Funding for the project came from both Colorado University Boulder and Kent State University.

Read more about the study from NPR’s Ideastream and CU Boulder Today.

Fossilized dinosaur feces, dating back 75-million years ago, has scientists rethinking the eating habits of certain dinosaurs. Instead of consuming plants, some herbivores from the Cretaceous period also snacked on crustaceans, including lobsters, crab and shrimp.

Kent State University’s Professor Emeritus Rodney Feldmann and Jessica Tashman, a doctoral student in the Department of Geology in Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences, authored the study along with Karen Chin, associate professor and curator of paleontology at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History.

Scientists found the fossilized feces during a dig at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. They believe the unexpected behavior of eating crustaceans is to consume protein and calcium, especially during breeding and egg-laying seasons.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Funding for the project came from both Colorado University Boulder and Kent State University.

Read more about the study from NPR’s Ideastream and CU Boulder Today.

Fossilized dinosaur feces, dating back 75-million years ago, has scientists rethinking the eating habits of certain dinosaurs. Instead of consuming plants, some herbivores from the Cretaceous period also snacked on crustaceans, including lobsters, crab and shrimp.

Kent State University’s Professor Emeritus Rodney Feldmann and Jessica Tashman, a doctoral student in the Department of Geology in Kent State’s College of Arts and Sciences, authored the study along with Karen Chin, associate professor and curator of paleontology at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History.

Scientists found the fossilized feces during a dig at the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. They believe the unexpected behavior of eating crustaceans is to consume protein and calcium, especially during breeding and egg-laying seasons.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. Funding for the project came from both Colorado University Boulder and Kent State University.

Read more about the study from NPR’s Ideastream and CU Boulder Today.