eInside Events

Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony to Dedicate Kent State’s New Student Green Set for Oct. 18

Pictured above is the Student Green area under
construction. The new area will provide outdoor
programming space to student organizations on
campus.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Student Green at Kent State University will take place on Thursday, Oct. 18 at noon. The event will celebrate Kent State’s commitment to provide outdoor programming space to student organizations on campus. The event is free and open to the public and takes place at the new space in the Kent Student Center area, located at the heart of the campus.

Kent State President Lester A. Lefton will deliver remarks at the event, in addition to comments from three student representatives: Undergraduate Student Government Director of Programming Elizabeth Holton; Kent Interhall Council President Andy Sokolich; and Undergraduate Student Government Executive Director Evan Gildenblatt. In addition, Vice President for Enrollment Management and Student Affairs Greg Jarvie will invite participants to share in the ribbon-cutting event. The program also will include musical entertainment and refreshments.

The Student Green project with the expanded lawn area creates an attractive, student-centered space at a major “front door” to campus. The new Student Green extends from the recently renovated Risman Plaza to the lawn area south, creating a contiguous green space from the current student center plaza to Summit Street. It includes a performance stage that is intended to support student use. The stage projects back into the main campus with the new Student Green area and student center plaza serving as a backdrop.

Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to attend this ceremony to see the continual growth and progress of making Kent State’s campus an institution of the 21st century.

For more information about the ribbon-cutting ceremony for Kent State’s new Student Green, contact Katie Goldring at 330-672-2480 or kgoldrin@kent.edu.

Yong Zhao to Speak About World Class Education at Kent State on Oct. 25

Lecture is part of the Gerald H. Read Distinguished Lecture Series

Yong Zhao, Ph.D., presidential chair and
associate dean for Global Education in the
College of Education at the University of
Oregon will speak about world class
education at Kent State on Oct. 25.

Kent State University’s Gerald H. Read Center for International and Intercultural Education will feature Yong Zhao, Ph.D., presidential chair and associate dean for Global Education in the College of Education at the University of Oregon, on Thursday, Oct. 25, at the Kent Student Center Kiva at 7 p.m.

Zhao will speak about “World Class Education: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students.” This event is part of the Gerald H. Read Distinguished Lecture Series for 2012-2013 and is the Keynote speaker for the Celebrating College Teaching conference. The event is free and open to the public.

Zhao will discuss the need for globally competent, creative and entrepreneurial talents that will take advantage of the opportunities brought about by technology and globalization.

He is the author of two books, World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students and Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization. He has earned an Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association.

Kent State Regional Campuses Host Medievalism Conference

The 27th International Conference on Medievalism will
be hosted by Kent State University's Regional Campuses
from Oct. 18 – 20.

Kent State University’s Regional Campuses are hosting the 27th International Conference on Medievalism from Oct. 18 – 20, featuring presentations by an international array of scholars, film screenings, a video game workshop, medieval fighting demonstrations and craft classes. The conference will continue online as a cloud conference until Nov. 15.

“The International Conference on Medievalism always involves an international array of scholars,” says Carol Robinson, Ph.D., associate professor of English at Kent State University at Trumbull. “This year, there will be scholars representing countries as close as Canada and as far away as Finland and Australia.”

Keynote speaker Bruce Holsinger – author of several books, including Neomedievalism, Neoconservatism and the War on Terror, and a professor of English at the University of Virginia – presents “Archives of the Animal,” from a book of the same name. Keynote speaker Edna Edith Sayers – also an author of several books, including Oedipus Borealis: The Aberrant Body in Old Icelandic Myth and Saga, and a professor of English retired from Gallaudet University (Washington, D.C.) – provides a presentation titled “Narrative Eugenics: Disability in Old Norse Myth and Saga and Its Displacement in Post-Medieval Viking Narrative.”

The “brick and mortar” conference will be held at Kent State University at Stark and is sponsored by Kent State Stark, Kent State’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the Society for Creative Anachronism. The virtual Cloud Conference, will take place from Oct. 15 – Nov. 15, and is sponsored by Kent State Trumbull and the Medieval Electronic Multimedia Organization.

“The cloud conference is a new element of this conference,” notes Robinson. “It is a series of presentations posted online and made available for anyone who registers either for the entire conference or just this part of the conference. For each presentation, there will be a text-based discussion element for all to join. In addition, we hope to post video samplings of the ‘brick-n-mortar’ conference.

“This is a golden opportunity for scholars and students to discuss a variety of topics that address issues of diversity and medievalism in a professional setting that is outside the world of the credit course structure,” says Robinson. Admission is free to all students, and Robinson encourages them to attend.

For more information or to register, visit www.medievalism.net/conferences/ksu2012conference.html.

Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar to Speak About Inequality at Birth

Professor of Economics and Public Affairs
Janet Currie will visit Kent State University on
Oct. 15 and 16 as part of the Phi Beta Kappa
Visiting Scholar Program.

Janet Currie, Ph.D., Henry Putnam professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University, will visit Kent State University on Oct. 15 and 16 as part of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program. Currie will meet informally with students and faculty members, take part in classroom discussions and give a public lecture that is free and open to the entire academic community and general public.

Currie’s lecture, titled “Inequality at Birth: Some Causes and Consequences,” will take place on Monday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. in Room 100 at the College of Business Administration.

Recent research shows that health at birth is affected by many factors, including maternal education, behaviors and participation in social programs. In turn, endowments at birth are predictive of adult outcomes and of the outcomes of future generations. Exposure to environmental pollution is one potential determinant of health at birth that has received increasing attention. A large amount of literature outside of economics advocates for “environmental justice,” and argues that poor and minority families are disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards.

In this lecture, Currie will provide new evidence on this issue, showing that children born to less educated and minority mothers are more likely to be exposed to pollution in utero and that white, college-educated mothers are particularly responsive to changes in environmental amenities. She estimates that differences in exposure to toxic releases may explain six percent of the gap in incidence of low birth weight between infants of white, college-educated mothers, and infants of black high-school dropout mothers.

Currie is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar Program whose goal is to contribute to the intellectual life of universities with Phi Beta Kappa chapters. Each visiting scholar spends two days on campus exchanging ideas, experiences and research with faculty and students.

The College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business Administration and College of Public Health are sponsoring the visit and lecture. For more information, visit www.kent.edu/business or call 330-672-2367.

Kent State Celebrates Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer History Month

Kent State University's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender
and Queer (LGBTQ) Center is celebrating LGBTQ History Month
this October.

The Kent State University Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) Center is celebrating LGBTQ History Month this October.

Diverse discussion groups, games, art exhibits and speakers will be available throughout the months of October and November.

“It is vital for our students and our campus community to come together and celebrate LGBTQ icons and innovators whom, throughout history and even in the present, have been made invisible through mainstream heterosexism and cisgenderism. Understanding LGBTQ history and discrimination is the first step to making our campus safe for all queer-identified people,” says Roxie Patton, program coordinator for Kent State’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Center.

“Two Spirits” will be held Oct. 16, from 7-9 p.m. in Room 204 at the Kent Student Center. Filmmaker Lydia Nibley will explore the Navajo tradition of two-spirit people.

“The Fagbug” will visit the Kent Student Center on Oct. 23, from 7-10 p.m. in Room 204. Erin Davies, victim of a hate crime involving her car being vandalized, drives the car around the country to speak about hate crimes and homophobia.

On Oct. 24, the center will host the LGBTQ version of the game “Hollywood Squares” called “Stonewall Squares.” From 7-9 p.m. in Room 306 at the Kent Student Center, participants can answer trivia and win prizes.

Lastly, Queer Voices will celebrate LGBTQ student-submitted art in the Multicultural Lounge. The pieces will be on display all day on Nov. 14, and performances will be held from 7:30-10 p.m.

Hilary Jones to Lecture in Ritchie Hall

Hilary Jones, assistant professor of West Africa and Africa
Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, will
deliver a lecture on Thursday, Oct. 25, at Ritchie Hall.

The Department of Pan-African Studies welcomes Hilary Jones, assistant professor of West Africa and Africa Diaspora at the University of Maryland, College Park, for a lecture on Thursday, Oct. 25, at 7 p.m. in Room 214, Ritchie Hall.

Jones lecture is titled, “Hybridity and Creole Cultures in West Africa: Urban Life in 19th Century Senegal." Prior to her lecture, there will be a reception and a student exhibit on the upcoming 2012 election on the first floor Gallery Foyer of Ritchie Hall starting at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Jones’s research interests include 19th century Africa, French colonialism, the francophone Atlantic, histories of power and politics and women, and race and class. She is currently preparing a manuscript titled, The Métis of Senegal: Urban Life, Politics and French Colonialism in 19th Century Africa. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, Fulbright-Hays, The Center for African and Afro-American Studies at the University of Michigan, Africana Studies at University of Notre Dame and University of Maryland’s Graduate School.

The lecture is sponsored by the Ohio Humanities Council, Kent State’s Department of Pan-African Studies and Department of History.

For more information, visit www.kent.edu/cas/pas or call 330-672-2300.

University Libraries Kicks Off Centennial Celebration

University Libraries centennial celebration begins Oct. 20
during Homecoming.

University Libraries will kick off its centennial celebration on Oct. 20 during Kent State’s Homecoming.

At 9 a.m., join staff and friends of the library to march in the Homecoming parade. Meeting place is behind the University Library.

From 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., enjoy festive food and fun before the game on the 1st floor Quiet Study Area. To R.S.V.P., visit http://bit.ly/LibraryCentennial or email mlovin@kent.edu.

The celebration continues with a Special Collections and Archives exhibit, "Meet Me at the Library: 100 Years of Libraries at Kent State University," located on the 1st and 12th floors of the University Library. The exhibit will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and on special hours after Homecoming through July 2013.

For more information, visit http://libguides.library.kent.edu/events.

Award-Winning Poet Ruth Schwartz Comes to Wick Poetry Center

Award-winning poet Ruth Schwartz will perform a reading
from her new book at Kent State University on Oct. 30.

The Wick Poetry Center’s Reading Series welcomes award-winning poet Ruth Schwartz to Kent State University. She will be performing a reading of her new work on Oct. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 306 ABC at the Kent Student Center.

“We are very excited to bring Ruth Schwartz to Kent State to read from her new book, Miraculum, released this fall,” says Jessica Jewell, Wick Poetry Center program coordinator. “A National Poetry Series winner, Schwartz's generous and musical poems explore levels of consciousness and healing.”

Schwartz has written four award-winning poetry books, most recently the 2004 Autumn House Poetry Prize recipient, Dear Good Naked Morning. Additionally, she has won more than a dozen national literary prizes, including two Chelsea Magazine Editor’s Awards and the New Letters Prize for Poetry.

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is known as National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The Kent State University Women’s Center and the Sexual Assault Response Team (SART) have put together a calendar of events for the month.

These events are opportunities for members of the Kent State community to learn more about Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), its warning signs and how to help a friend or family member who may be with an abusive partner. There will also be information on ways everyone can help prevent violence and abuse at Kent State.

The schedule of events is as follows:

Domestic Violence Awareness Tables
Tuesday, Oct. 16, and Monday, Oct. 22, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Kent Student Center

Love the Way You Lie
Tuesday, Oct. 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Student Multicultural Center

“You Throw Like a Girl”: A Conversation with Don McPherson
Monday, Oct. 22, at 7:30 p.m. at the auditorium at Cartwright Hall

Stalking and Internet Safety Awareness Activity
Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at the Kent Student Center

“Sextoberfest” Table
Friday, Nov. 2, 6-8 p.m., Room 204, Kent Student Center

For more information about other events and programs, call 330-672-8016 or visit www.kent.edu/sart/studentorganizations.

Poet Mayda del Valle to Speak at Guest of Honor University Artist/Lecture Series

Poet Mayda del Valle will speak at this year’s Guest of Honor
University Artist/Lecture Series on Oct. 17 at the Kent Student
Center Kiva.

Acclaimed poet and spoken word artist Mayda del Valle will speak at this year’s Guest of Honor University Artist/Lecture Series. The lecture will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 17, at the Kent Student Center Kiva. This event is free and open to the public.

“I invited Mayde del Valle to speak at Kent State for two reasons: first, to celebrate Hispanic Awareness Month, and secondly, to provide students specifically, but also faculty, staff and members of our community, with an opportunity to meet a young woman who is successful in her creative endeavors,” says Deborah Craig, Ph.D., coordinator of recruitment and scholarships for the Honors College.

Del Valle is the winner of the 2001 Nuyorican Grand Slam Championship and went on to win the 2001 National Poetry Slam Individual Championship. Del Valle is also the youngest person and first Latino to win the title. A native of the South Side of Chicago, she began performing her own writing while in high school and relocated to New York City after graduating from Williams College with a B.A. in art.

Del Valle also made an appearance on the HBO show “Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.” She also started a one-woman show, “The Insecurities of an Eagle,” which won her an Audience Favorite Award at New York City’s third annual Downtown Urban Theatre Festival. While an artist in residence at Youth Speaks, she recently premiered an excerpt of a new show “Salida” as part of the Living Word Festival.
She combines profoundly personal and thought-provoking work with the rhythm and pulse of hip-hop culture.

The Guest of Honor University Artist/Lecture Series is funded by the Office of the Provost and coordinated by the Honors College.

For additional questions or if you need special accommodations for disabilities, please notify the Honors College as soon as possible at 330-672-2312.