Land Acknowledgement

The Cummings Center is located on lands that have been home to many diverse nations, including the Ohio Seneca and Cayuga, the Lenni Lenape (Delaware), the Miami, the Shawnee, the Wyandot (Wendat), the Ottawa (Odawa) and the Ojibwe Nations. These lands were ceded in the 1805 Treaty of Fort Industry and the forced removal of tribes through the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cummings Center pays respect to the land and lives of Indigenous Nations past and present, and is committed to a process of continual learning, reflection and reconciliation.
Read The University of Akron's Full Land Acknowledgement.

News and Events

Save the Date for the 2025 Benjamin Lecture

The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology is pleased to announce that Daniel T. Willingham, PhD will be our Featured Speaker for the 2025 Ludy T. Benjamin, Jr. Distinguished Lecture in the History of Psychology. Willingham is an acclaimed psychologist whose research has focused on the application of cognitive psychology to K-16 education.

The 2024 Benjamin Lecture will be held on Thursday, May 15, 2025. Learn more about the event.

Applications Now Open for the 2025 Baker Fellowship

The David B. Baker Fellowship in the History of Psychology supports student research at the Cummings Center's Archives of the History of American Psychology. The Fellowship supports travel expenses for one graduate or undergraduate student whose research will benefit from access to the Archives’ collections. One Fellowship of $2500 will be awarded annually.

Applications are open now through December 20, 2024. Learn more and submit your application.

Statement on Dr. Nicholas Cummings and Sexual Orientation Change Efforts

The Cummings Center for the History of Psychology is named for Drs. Nicholas and Dorothy Cummings, in recognition of their significant financial support for the Center. We at the Center acknowledge that Dr. Nicholas Cummings spoke and wrote in support of sexual orientation change efforts in therapeutic settings when requested by the client. Nicholas Cummings’ words and his stature gave legitimacy and encouragement to anti-LGBTQ+ organizations, and his public statements on sexual orientation retain the ongoing potential to cause harm.

Major organizations focused on mental health have found no empirical basis supporting sexual orientation change efforts and evidence indicates such practices cause harm. We at the Cummings Center stand firmly with these organizations in opposing sexual orientation change efforts, acknowledging their roots in stigma, prejudice, and hate. Read our full statement, as well as a history of Dr. Cummings’ statements and writings on sexual orientation.