Professor Landon Hancock was recently awarded a prestigious International Affairs Fellowship for Tenured International Relations Scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations. Launched in 1967, this highly competitive award offers tenured academics practical policy-making experience through placements at a variety of US governmental agencies, Congress, or international organizations. Dr. Hancock’s project is on the role of accountability in peacebuilding, including issues of legitimacy and local ownership. For the 2021-22 year, he will serve as a Local Peacebuilding Advisor to the United ...

SPCS is delighted to announce that Dr. Ashley Nickels, Associate Professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, was awarded a prestigious Democracy Visiting Fellowship from the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Established in 2003, the Ash Center offers fellowships to faculty, doctoral, and postdoctoral students pursuing research on substantive democratic governance issues—including issues relevant to Dr. Nickels’s own award-winning work on democracy, power, and community organization. Dr. Nickels will be i...

Behind every great artist, there is a great teacher. Art educators foster the creative development of children and inspire young students to pursue artistic careers. Some students even go on to become art educators themselves, inspiring the next generation of artists. One such art educator is Maryann Rodin. Maryann is an elementary art teacher in the West Geauga school district. She graduated from Kent State in 1995 with her B.A. in Art Education and earned her M.A. in the Art of Teaching from Marygrove College in 2005.  Maryann has years of experience working as an art educator and has ...

Note: This is part one of a four-day series highlighting the pillars within the Division of Student Affairs and how they benefit the students at Kent State University. Today we are focusing on the Advocacy, Support, and Well-Being pillar, which includes the Office of the Dean of Students, Recreation and Wellness Services, Kent State of Well-Being, Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services (SRVSS), Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Parents and Family Engagement, the Crisis Advocacy Resources Education Support (CARES) Center, and Student Conduct. When Co...

Kent State University unexpectedly lost one of its most dedicated and longtime employees in July 2020. John Granny, director of Business Affairs for Kent State Geauga and the Twinsburg Academic Center, passed away suddenly after more than 30 years of service to the university.   “John’s genuine smile and welcoming demeanor made him a beloved member of our campus for the many years he called the Geauga Campus home,” said Angela Spalsbury, dean and chief administrative officer at Kent State University Geauga and the Twinsburg Academic Center Granny’s career at Kent State University i...

The Listening Eye is reawakening. This literary magazine, published by Kent State University at Geauga, has produced a new edition of original poetry, short stories, essays, and artwork every year since 1970. In 2020, it paused for the first time in 50 years — as so many of us held our collective breath through the worst of COVID-19 — but a renaissance is on its way. It’s notable to recognize how rare it is for a small campus to publish a prestigious creative writing journal, says Bonnie J. Shaker, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of English at Kent State Geauga. The nearest comparison might be Ken...

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Center for Peaceful Change (from which our current school evolved), the School of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University has teamed up with PeaceJam Great Lakes to host the Spring 2021 PeaceJam conference.  This virtual conference features keynote speaker, Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum. The conference kicks off with a virtual public talk (open to the public) on Friday, April 30, followed by the main PeaceJam conference on Saturday, May 1 (for high school students, their teachers, and mentors).  The event...

A new Kent State project, “For the Ages,” is bridging both art forms and generations: The art of film with the art of poetry The experiences and words of senior poets with the storytelling skills of young college students Media and Journalism Assistant Professor Dana White conceived the film poetry project after becoming deeply troubled by society’s disregard for elders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, she sought to create a project that would bring honor, comfort and a voice to elder communities, partnering with the Wick Poetry Center and Judson Manor Senior Living Community i...