Research

Kent State University’s newest anthropologist, Assistant Professor Aldo Cimino, Ph.D., has made it his life’s work to understand the causes and consequences of hazing, including the possible generation of solidarity. He and his co-author recently published an article on this question in the journal Evolution and Human Behavior. 

ATHENA Akron, a women’s leadership organization in Summit County, Ohio, has named Angela Neal-Barnett, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences within the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State University, its winner of the 2022 ATHENA Akron Leadership Award. She will receive the award on Nov. 17 at the Hilton Akron/Fairlawn.

Many wonder if climate change is the reason we’ve had 'weather whiplash' or day-to-day dramatic changes from hot to cold or cold to hot. As a climate scientist, Cameron Lee, assistant professor in the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences at Kent State, gets asked this question a lot. Looking beyond just the average temperatures and statistical means, he decided to take a more analytical look at weather whiplash and add to a growing body of climate change literature examining temperature variability trends.

Timothy Assal, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Geography, was awarded a grant as a co-principal investigator on a multi-institutional project, “Vulnerability of lower-ecotone aspen forests to altered fire regimes and climate dynamics in the northern Great Basin” (a three-year $299,842 total award with $89,600 going to Kent State), which is funded by the Northwest Climate Adaption Science Center. This collaboration includes the United States Geological Survey in Boise, Idaho, Utah State University, and the United States Bureau of Land Management.

“You can’t expect journalists to do this type of hurdling long-term without holistic support that includes logistical elements," claims Assistant Professor and TV2 advisor Gretchen Hoak, "but also mental and emotional support."

The Kent State University College of Arts and Sciences congratulates James A. Tyner, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Geography and Director of the Institute for the Study and Prevention of Violence, who is a 2021 recipient of ‘Distinguished Scholarship Honors’ from the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

Jonathan V. Selinger, professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Kent State University’s Department of Physics, in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

Jonathan V. Selinger, professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar in Kent State University’s Department of Physics, in the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute, has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the journal Science.

In 2019, a team of researchers in Kent State’s Department of Anthropology published its “prize-winning” research article titled “Experimental replication shows knives manufactured from frozen human feces do not work” in the Journal of Archaeological Science. (Yes, the jokes are seemingly endless, but seriously folks, there is an important underlying message here about evidence-based research and fact-checking!)