What makes someone a leader?  Student attendees at the first Leaders Lunch Club of the semester suggested “someone who does the best for his team,” “anyone who does any form of coordination in an organization” and that “everyone leads themselves.”  “Leadership is not a title that’s given to you,” Sarah Spinner, Ph.D., J.D., director of the Kent State University Museum, said in response to these answers. “Someone doesn’t make you a leader. Leadership is how you choose to act.”   Kent State University’s Center for Student Involvement hosted its first Leaders Lunch Club of the...

The Department of Modern & Classical Language Studies presents:3rd annual French Film Festival (2026)Join us October 12th through October 16th for a celebration of contemporary French cinema. With the generous support of the Villa Albertine, we are excited to present six award-winning films that demonstrate the diversity and range of cinema in France today. Remember all screenings are free and open to the general public. We hope to see you there!Please see the links below for trailers and descriptions of each film. Each film will be followed by light refreshments and discussion with the pr...

Joy is stitched into everything Leah Thompkins creates – by design.  The Kent State University fashion design major and costume design minor describes her personal style as “anything that six-year-old me would think is really cool.” Her playful perspective comes to life through her work: a jacket that tells the story of two cats meeting over the phone to a skirt designed to look like apple slices and a children’s collection based on an original story, complete with matching plush animals.  ...

Devan Shimoyama is a visual artist based in Pittsburgh, P.A. and the 2026 Curlee Raven Holton and Raven Print Editions Fellow at Kent State University. Working primarily in painting and sculpture, his mixed-media pieces often explore depictions of the queer Black male form, the politics of queer culture and his own personal narratives. The Kent State School of Art Collections and Galleries are pleased to welcome Shimoyama's work in an exhibition on view in the CVA Gallery, located at 325 Terrace Drive, Kent, Ohio, from Oct. 20 through Nov. 20, 2026. Shimoyama will also deliver an artist l...

Kendall Myers has spent the past several years studying creatures that are easy to overlook. At only about 3 millimeters long, ambrosia beetles are tiny enough to fit on the tip of a finger. Myers, however, discovered that these invasive insects possess a remarkable tool for doing significant damage to hardwood trees with mandibles containing unusually high concentrations of metals that help them bore into wood. That research has now earned Myers national recognition. Myers, a recent Kent State University at Stark graduate, was named a 2026 Portz Scholar by the National Collegia...

  Kent State University undergraduate student, Hannah Fender and graduate student , Katelyn McClure, along with their research mentor, Dr. Phillip Hamrick, recently published a paper in the Journal of Cognition and Development demonstrating that development of language abilities in early childhood (9-50 months) is predicted by episodic memory abilities. Congratulations to the MALL lab!  ...