News
By Connie Sapienza
Front row (l to r): Alyssa Mertka, Meg Coppala, Hadeel Abdallah and Susie Smith. Middle row (l to r): Meghana Kudrimoti and Michael Regard. Back row (l to r); Beau Revlett, Ben Jones, Eric Poore and Nate Cortas. Not pictured: Sophia Decker and Amaris Wade
The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has selected 12 exceptional undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years. Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues, and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities.
Gaines Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of a student's junior and senior years, or for the last two years of a
By Loretta Stafford
University of Kentucky Confucius Institute (UKCI) is partnering with the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the UK College of Arts and Sciences to welcome University of Oregon Professor Stephen Durrant as the next speaker of the 2017 Distinguished Scholars Series. Durrant's lecture examining historiography in Chinese, Greek and Hebrew society will take place from 3:30-5:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, at the Alumni Gallery located in the William T. Young Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Stephen Durrant's lecture, "What Does It Mean to Write History? Perspectives From Ancient China, Greece and Israel," focuses on the earliest historical texts of each civilization, and investigates how those writings shape what follows. While there are many similarities between these traditions of historiography,
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By Amy Jones-Timoney, Gail Hairston, and Kody Kiser
Noor Alattar, an English doctoral student from Iraq, will never forget the words of encouragement her professor, Michelle Sizemore, shared with her when she first arrived at the University of Kentucky.
"Everything was new to me," Alattar said. "She would never just encourage you with empty words. She was more than welcoming."
In fact, that encouragement is why Alattar nominated Sizemore to win a 2017 Great Teacher Award. Watch why this English professor's words were so meaningful to Alattar by clicking
By Gail Hairston
Karen Kelsky, the successful founder and president of The Professor Is In, an academic-career consulting business, visits the University of Kentucky campus April 7.
Kelsky will have a busy schedule on Friday, mentoring graduate students, post-doctoral students, faculty and staff in preparing for successful careers both inside and outside academia. Her visit is part of the annual "Life After Grad School" series, organized by the Graduate Student Congress.
Once a tenured anthropology professor at the University of Oregon and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, she now runs her successful advising business, but is also a frequent columnist as well as a frequent source for other writer’s articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education. She is the author of “The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D.
By Jennifer Allen and Gail Hairston
Karen Petrone in the Department of History is the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ 2017-18 A&S Distinguished Professor.
“Since joining the faculty of the college in 1994, Petrone has established a record of outstanding teaching, scholarship and service that is recognized by her colleagues both here at UK and in the discipline of history,” said Mark Lawrence Kornbluh, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
In 1998, within four years of her arrival at UK, Petrone was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching. She has taught a wide variety of courses ranging from freshman survey offerings in European history to advanced graduate seminars in Russian history. She was very active in the college’s former Gender and Women’s Studies Program (now department) and was a leader in
By Gail Hairston
The third event for the College of Arts and Sciences Civic Life seminar series will be hosted by Professor of Sociology Carlos de la Torre and Professor of History Tracy Campbell. The event will be noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 5, in the UK Athletics Auditorium of the William T. Young Library. It is free and open to the public.
This week’s topic is “Populist Moments and the Future of Democracy Under Trump."
Donald Trump’s presidency is bringing American populism from the margins to the center of power. He uses populist rhetoric and strategies to confront “the establishment,” promising to end the neoliberal multicultural consensus that linked globalization and the cultural recognition of different identity groups such as women, Muslims, African Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans and the LGBTQ communities.
The Oxford
By Connie Sapienza
Later this month, the University of Kentucky will host "Expanding Your Horizons (EYH)," a conference that encourages middle school girls to consider studies in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Registration for the conference is currently open, and UK is also seeking student and postdoctoral volunteers to assist.
EYH, which will be held Saturday, April 29, in the Jacobs Science Building, seeks to provide middle school girls and their parents an inspiring environment in order to help both groups recognize and pursue opportunities in STEM. This will include memorable interactive workshop experiences, visible female role models in STEM fields and exposure to different career paths in STEM.
Course credit is available for UK undergraduate and graduate students interested in designing and leading workshops for the middle
By Gail Hairston
This spring’s Anthropology Colloquium/Inclusive Excellence Decolonizing the Academy Lecture is “Yo Amo Mi Pajón: Afro-Dominicanness and the Natural Hair Movement in the Dominican Republic and Beyond” presented by Kimberly Eison Simmons, associate professor of anthropology and African American studies and associate dean of the South Carolina Honors College at the University of South Carolina.
Simmons will speak at 5 p.m. today (Monday), April 3, in Room 118 White Hall Classroom Building on the University of Kentucky campus.
A reserved luncheon is slated with Simmons as the special guest with UK faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, in the Alumni Gallery of the William T. Young Library.
Immediately after Simmons’ lecture, there will be a dinner reception in the lobby just outside
By Gail Hairston
The University of Kentucky will send 59 undergraduate student-researchers to the 31st annual National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) at the University of Memphis April 6-8.
The UK group joins young researchers from around the world to showcase their research findings through poster and oral presentations. Each student will be given the opportunity to discuss their display and share their research results, illuminating how their work will have an impact on future research development. UK has been an active NCUR participant since the mid ’90s.
One of the first things these young researchers learn is that most research is not conducted in the traditional laboratory with bubbling beakers and flaming Bunsen burners. But modern research spans all disciplines and majors, and includes a wide variety of activities.
“For some
By Gail Hairston
Drury Bell took the $100 first place prize in the 51st annual Latin Prose Competition Contest and Katerina S. Banks tied for the third place $50 prize.
The Latin Prose Composition Contest consists of the translation of a passage of English into Latin. The contest is intended for advanced students of Latin who are in their third or fourth year of collegiate studies. It is organized by Eta Sigma Phi, the Honorary Society for Classical Studies.
“These outstanding students are bringing national recognition to our program in Classics, MCLLC, A&S, and to UK. I think that this extraordinary achievement merits great attention,” said Valerio Caldesi Valeri, assistant professor of classics and the Eta Sigma Phi advisor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages,
By Whitney Harder
Paidin Dermody, a University of Kentucky journalism and English sophomore with a minor in photography, has been named the Kentucky Kernel's editor for the 2017-2018 school year.
“I feel lucky — opportunity met preparation, and I now have the great responsibility of following a talented line of editors-in-chief to continue the storied history of the Kernel as one of the pre-eminent student publications in the country,” Dermody said in a Kernel story last week. “Good people and great journalism will deliver an evolved, enlightened and entertaining product to our readers.”
The Kernel Board selected Dermody, currently the managing editor, "for her detailed plan to expand the Kernel’s digital
By Lisa Lockman
Two University of Kentucky women who profoundly contribute to issues that affect women at the university and across the Commonwealth received the Sarah Bennett Holmes Award March 23 during a luncheon ceremony at the Woodford Reserve Club at Commonwealth Stadium. Kimberly Sayre, staff, and Christia Spears Brown, faculty, received the 2017 Sarah Bennett Holmes Award.
The award recognizes one female faculty member and one female staff member who promote growth and well-being of women at the university and across Kentucky. Created by the UK Women’s Forum, the Sarah Bennett Holmes Award has been among the most esteemed recognitions bestowed at UK and brings recognition for efforts that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Christia Spears Brown is a professor of developmental and social psychology in
By Gail Hairston
An international hero — a friend, ally and cellmate to the great Nelson Mandela in the global fight for equality and justice — has died at 87, and many in the University of Kentucky community grieve with the world. South African anti-apartheid leader Ahmed Kathrada, who dedicated his life to the belief that all men and women are born free and equal, died “peacefully in a Johannesburg hospital after a short period of illness, following surgery,” according to communications from his family.
Kathrada spent more than 26 years in prison‚ 18 on Robben Island. While in prison he earned four university degrees: a bachelor’s in history and criminology‚ one in African politics and library science‚ a bachelor honors degree in history and a second bachelor honors degree in African politics.
Nearly six
By Gail Hairston
The second in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ “Civic Life” panel series continues noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 29, in the UK Athletics Auditorium of the William T. Young Library. The panel discussion series focuses on a wide range of issues confronting society today.
Wednesday’s topic is “Emerging Trends in U.S. Defense and Human Rights” led by Associate Professor Clayton Thyne, Assistant Professor Jesse Johnson and Assistant Professor Jillienne Haglund, all members of the UK Department of Political Science.
Thyne is also director the college’s
By Jenny Wells
Zhongwei Shen, professor of mathematics in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), will deliver the college’s 2017 Distinguished Professor Lecture this week.
Shen, who is serving as the college’s 2016-17 Distinguished Professor, will deliver a lecture titled “Heterogeneous Media and Homogenization” at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 30, in William T. Young Library's UK Athletics Auditorium. A reception will follow the lecture.
This public lecture will describe a mathematical research program that investigates the quantitative homogenization theory of partial differential equations, which form the backbone of mathematical modeling in the physical science. The research is supported in part by the National Science Foundation.
“The
By Gail Hairston
UK Mock Trial Team: (males L-R) Nick Nash, Cody McGlothlin, John Wilson;
(females L-R) Anne Klette, Rachel Hampton, Hannah West, Lauren Williams and Kassie Satterly.
For the first time in the program's 10-year history, the University of Kentucky Mock Trial Team has earned a spot to compete in the American Mock Trial Association's (AMTA) National Championship Tournament, hosted this year by University of California, Los Angeles.
Since its inception in 2007, the UK Mock Trial Team has represented the university at mock trial competitions across the country. There are over 600 undergraduate teams in the United States, and this year, UK’s group is one of only 48 teams to earn a coveted spot at the NCT, putting UK among the top 8 percent of teams
By Jenny Wells
Ron Pen (right) played the fiddle at the UK College of Arts & Sciences
Appalachian Center's 40th Anniversary celebration.
The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center recently celebrated its 40th year on campus, recognizing the university’s partnership with the Appalachian region and honoring those who have contributed to the center’s development and success.
“A rich literary history from the likes of Harry Caudill, John Stephenson, Dwight Billings, Gurney Norman, Ron Eller, Ron Pen, Shaunna Scott, Frank X Walker, Mary Anglin, Eric Reece, Shannon Bell — just to name a few — helped give notoriety to the UK Appalachian Studies program,” said Chris Barton, director of the center. “Today, the center is considered a leader in
By Jenny Wells
A long-form essay by Jim Krupa, professor of biology in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is featured in the winter issue of Minding Nature, the Center for Humans and Nature’s journal.
In the essay, Krupa explores the play between environmental issues and politics, with a focus on endangered wildlife in the southwestern U.S. and Mexico.
The essay can be read at www.humansandnature.org/geronimos-pass.
UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK story and
By Connie Sapienza
Featuring world-renowned scientists, the University of Kentucky’s 2017 Naff Symposium will host four experts Friday, March 31, at the William T. Young Library auditorium. A poster session will be held in conjunction with the symposium at the Jacobs Science Building.
Presented by the Department of Chemistry in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, the annual symposium focuses on chemistry and molecular biology and is attended by students and faculty in the chemistry, biochemistry, biology, pharmacy, engineering, agriculture and medical fields from UK, as well as other colleges and universities in
By Gail Hairston
The languages and cultures of the world will be highlighted at the University of Kentucky March 25 at the Kentucky World Language Association World Language Showcase.
The UK College of Arts and Sciences departments of Hispanic Studies and Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures will play host to nearly 200 student-competitors from across Kentucky.
The students will display their proficiency in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish and French. UK faculty, graduate and undergraduate students will lead language and cultural sessions in Arabic, French, German, Latin, ancient Greek, Italian, Russian, Chinese, American Sign Language and Japanese. A presentation dedicated to using language professionally is also scheduled.
Representatives from GlobalLex, World Trade Center, Sister Cities, UK Education Abroad and Kentucky Refugee