With conflict and wars happening all around the world, Kent State University wants to help professors, scientists and researchers who are in danger due to political reasons. “The Scholars at Risk Network is set up to help professors and scholars who are in conflict zones or who are suffering political oppression, get out of the country that they’re in and find refuge somewhere else,” Julie Mazzei, Ph.D., an associate professor and interim director in the School of Multidisciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities (SMSSH), said. The Scholars at Risk Network works with universities to help ...

Diane Smith, a reporter for the Record-Courier, took part in Kent State University’s Safe Space Ally Training, giving readers a first-person perspective on what the program involves. The training Smith took part in was hosted by Ken Ditlevson, director of Kent State’s LGBTQ+ Center, earlier this month during the city’s Rainbow Weekend. The training was open to the community and held at the Kent Free Library. In the Record-Courier article, Smith shared that participants learn a list of terminology “dos and don’ts,” how to convey respect as well as the appropriate way to ask about a...

From helping build safer and inclusive communities to opening new lines of communicating and sharing knowledge, technology touches nearly every facet of society. Students in the Kent State School of Emerging Media and Technology are working on the front lines of helping Northeast Ohio organizations solve problems through technology this semester in the capstone class Interdisciplinary Projects. In the class, juniors and seniors work in teams on a technology challenge or prompt for a real business, department or organization. Through the process, they learn skills in project management wh...

Each year during election season, an uptick in political content circulates online. David E. Silva, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Schools of Communication Studies and Emerging Media and Technology at Kent State University, is studying online conversations and shedding light on how online civility plays a role in building a stronger democracy.  “I think the heart of what I’m trying to do with my research is to look at how online discussion changes how the public thinks about normal behavior,” Silva said. “And that is played out in a bunch of different ways. When you add the technolo...

I attended the Kent State University summer commencement ceremony this past August and experienced tremendous joy watching the first cohort of new 12-month M.S. in Emerging Media & Technology (EMAT) graduate. This new graduate program replaced our Master of Digital Sciences program that graduated more than 1,000 students in the past decade. The commencement ceremony is always a joyful experience because we celebrate our students’ accomplishments and also see our students leave Kent State to flourish and put their education into practice. Our recent graduates are now working at area compani...