LEXINGTON, Ky. -- The University of Kentucky’s Creative Writing Division in the English Department in the College of Arts and Sciences will host two nationally recognized writers as part of the UK Visiting Writers Series this spring semester.

The first event will be at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb.19, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. The featured reader is Kiese Laymon. The event is free and open to the public.

Laymon is the Libbie Shearn Moody Professor of English and Creative Writing at Rice University. Laymon is the author of "Long Division," which won the 2022 NAACP Image Award for fiction, and the essay collection "How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America," named a notable book of 2021 by the New York Times.

Laymon’s bestselling "Heavy: An American Memoir," won the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence

By Lindsay Travis 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 27, 2025) — Research conducted by an international team led by biologists at the University of Kentucky has found that the ability to regenerate complex tissue may be more widespread in mammals than previously thought — an important step toward figuring out why many most mammals, and humans in particular, have poor regenerative ability.  

Vertebrate regeneration is most commonly found in reptiles, amphibians and fish. In mammals it’s usually a limited ability:  deer regrowing antlers in the late spring or mice regrowing lost digit tips.

This latest study builds upon previous work using spiny mice by Ashley W. Seifert, Ph.D., a professor in the

By Beckman Foundation 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 24, 2025) — Growing up in Lexington, Kaitlyn Brock’s earliest exposure to research came from her stepmom, who was a student at the University of Kentucky participating in biology research. Now Brock and one of her four younger siblings attend UK. 

In 2022, the University of Kentucky was named a Beckman Scholars Program awardee. As one of just 14 institutions to receive the award, UK received funding support six scholar-mentor pairs over a three-year period. The Beckman Scholars Program provides

By Amy Jones-Timoney 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 23, 2025) — Not every University of Kentucky student takes the same path to success. Some start as recent high school graduates, but many others decide to attend college at different times of their lives. 

Deidra White decided to attend community college at the age of 37. After earning her associate’s degree at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, she jumped at the chance to enroll in in the undergraduate English program at UK. 

Last spring, White crossed the

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. --- Eight University of Kentucky undergraduates will present papers at the annual Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies, which will be held from Friday, Jan. 24, to Sunday, Jan. 26, on the UK campus. 

The students will present at 9 and 10:45 a.m. Jan. 26 at the Gatton Student Center. UK’s Global Asias Program is sponsoring two panels. A faculty member mentors each student. 

The panels are: 

Global Asias and Asian Film: 9 a.m.   

Chair: Akiko Takenaka, professor of history and director of the Global Asias Program.  

Discussant: Michelle Sizemore, associate professor of English and director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities.

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 17, 2025) — Frank X Walker, professor of English and African American and Africana Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, can now add two-time NAACP Image Award finalist to his expansive and impressive list of accolades.

The former Kentucky Poet Laureate’s book of

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Jennifer Cramer, Ph.D., is starting a term as board chair of Kentucky Humanities. Cramer is professor of linguistics at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences and Chellgren Endowed Professor with UK’s Chellgren Center. Her term runs through Dec. 31.  

Kentucky Humanities is an independent, nonprofit affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington, D.C. Kentucky Humanities is supported by the endowment and by private contributions. Cramer began serving on the board in 2020. Among its programs is Kentucky Reads, wherein the group selects a book each year for groups to share.  

“During her term on the 23-person volunteer board, Cramer has help set policies, award project grants to community organizations and participated in fundraising

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, KY. – When Carson Loring faced life-threatening melanoma, he found consolation in the philosophy of the 17th century philosopher Baruch Spinoza through Loring’s classes at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences. 

“I was struggling with the idea of death,” Loring said. “There was a chance that might happen to me. I’m not exactly religious, so I didn’t have God to comfort me. Spinoza gave me a concept of God I could understand. If God exists, He’s there in nature and in everything. It’s just something that stuck with me.”  

Now on the mend, Loring is graduating in December with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. His recovery and his engagement with philosophy have impressed his professors. 

"Carson has a keen sense of the high stakes

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 16, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Office of the Provost and numerous faculty and staff members marked the second year of the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation (IMPACT) Awards initiative on Sept. 26 with a reception for award recipients. 

The IMPACT Awards initiative is an internal funding program from the Office of the Provost, launched in February 2023 and designed to support innovation and transformation within UK’s colleges. The awards recognize the groundbreaking work conducted by faculty and staff across campus, and they create opportunities for transdisciplinary collaboration to occur between UK community members to help the university’s mission of advancing Kentucky.

Fifteen colleges, including UK Libraries and the Graduate School, are working collectively

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 12, 2024) — Applications are open for awards and funding opportunities offered by the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies program. These opportunities are open to any student participating in work and research in the Appalachian region.

Graduate students are eligible to apply for the James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia, and both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible to apply for the Eller

By Jackie Wilson

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 9, 2024) — Screen Door Press, dedicated to discovering exceptional and varied voices within Black literary traditions, has announced its first two winners: Avery Irons and Toni Ann Johnson. The new imprint published by the University Press of Kentucky will award a $5,000 prize to each author.

Edited by Crystal Wilkinson, Ph.D., UK English professor and former Kentucky poet laureate., Screen Door Press celebrates  fiction across a broad range of categories. The award is presented in partnership with the Thomas D. Clark Foundation, and the selected

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Frank Ettensohn, Ph.D., P.G., C.P.G., University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences  professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, has received two awards from the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. 

He received an honorary membership, which is given to participants who distinguished themselves in their service to the association. He also received the Eastern Section John T. Galey Award, the highest honor the group gives. The award recognizes geoscientists whose accomplishments and contributions to the profession have been directed toward the betterment of society. 

“The geological community generally and our department specifically have collectively benefited from the remarkable contributions professor Ettensohn has made during his nearly five decades

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Latin is a language as alive as alive can be — at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences.  

UK students don’t just read Latin; they have seminars where they speak Latin to each other and write papers in Latin. And thus the language, key to Western civilization, lives on.   

"We have a very unique program here,” said Milena Minkova, Ph.D., professor of classics in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures. “We don't just study Latin as normally taught in the curriculum. We study the whole Latin patrimony from antiquity until modern times in its continuity: these precious, precious treasures of works. And also, we do it in the target

By Robby Hardesty 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 26, 2024) — UK Libraries has opened the American Archive of Marina and Anastasia Tsvetaeva, one of the largest collections on the authors in the world outside of Russia and the most comprehensive in North America.

The archive comprises hundreds of scholarly and rare books on the Tsvetaev family, research materials related to the sisters’ work and literary legacies, as well as more than a dozen personal items belonging to Anastasia Tsvetaeva.

Marina

By Zoey Schwartz 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 22, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research recently announced the 22 undergraduate winners of the 60th annual Oswald Research and Creativity Awards. Chad Risko, faculty director of the Office of Undergraduate Research, and research ambassadors celebrated the winners and presented the awards.

Established in 1964 by then-UK President John Oswald, the Oswald Research and Creativity Competition aims to promote undergraduate research and creative endeavors across all academic disciplines.

The competition spans categories, including biological sciences, design (architecture,

By Ann Blackford 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 22,  2024) — Laura Farnsworth, a 2006 graduate from the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has been planning events since she was a UK student living in Blanding Tower and serving on the Resident Student Government committee.

It was a hop, skip and a jump from pizza and ice cream night at UK to a college internship with the Lexington Chamber of Commerce to the job she holds as director of development and events for the Downtown Lexington Partnership. Her experience has been built on a foundation of development, fundraising administration and event production.

Farnsworth has been with the partnership for the past

By Beckman Foundation 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 20, 2024) — University of Kentucky graduate Elaf Ghoneim was born and raised in Lexington. Her family, originally from Libya, established a tight-knit, community-oriented home that stressed service and advocacy. 

This upbringing cultivated her self-assuredness and instilled a deep sense of purpose, nurturing her two great passions: helping people and a love of science. Ghoneim aspires to pursue a career in medicine, where she hopes to help her community.

“In terms of service, my parents are

By Jennifer T. Allen

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Rosemary Calabro found her love of research as an undergrad examining nanoparticles in materials chemistry. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in Bloomington, she applied to many graduate schools searching for the perfect fit. That’s when she found professors Doo Young Kim and Dong-Sheng Yang at the University of Kentucky.  

“Dr. Yang’s lab historically had been all laser spectroscopy, and I was the first materials person in his group,” said Calabro, who earned her doctorate in chemistry at UK in 2020. “Dr. Kim’s group was more carbon materials, which is what I was interested in studying, so I was able to bridge two interests and be co-advised.” 

Calabro

By Jennifer T. Allen

LEXINGTON, Ky. – University of Kentucky researchers working on the Kentucky Hispanic Heritage Project recently launched a website with enhanced searching capabilities. The website, khhp.org, is a digital space dedicated to the history, culture, achievements and contemporary experience of people of Hispanic descent living in Kentucky. The site offers users a variety of ways to browse and search materials in the collection in both Spanish and English.  

“Kentucky is a much more culturally and linguistically diverse state than most people believe –both those from outside the state and even those who live within it,” said Ruth Brown, assistant professor in the Department of Hispanic Studies in

By Rick Childress 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 13, 2024) — When people breathe in radon gas, they are more likely to develop lung cancer, particularly when they also breathe tobacco smoke. Radon, a radioactive gas, occurs naturally when uranium breaks down in rock and soil.  

Radon is invisible — you cannot smell, see or taste the gas, and there are no immediate symptoms. Most exposure to radon occurs in the home after it seeps in through gaps and cracks around service pipes and in foundations. Because of Kentucky’s geologic makeup,