Taking an “interdisciplinary” approach in academe is seemingly one of those things that everyone claims to value, but no one actually does. The UK Committee on Social Theory was established to change that. It was built around grounding its participants in the perspectives, theories and assumptions of other disciplines to better understand and advance their own disciplines. And the heart of the program is Social Theory 600.

“Honestly, UK seems to be putting its money where its mouth is as regards interdisciplinarity to a degree that I have not seen at other universities,” declared Marion Rust, associate professor in the Department of English, who will be co-teaching ST 600

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky Chemistry Department Chair Mark Meier is noticeably enthusiastic when discussing the arrival of two new faculty members this fall.

Energy will be a central focus for new assistant professors Susan Odom and Doo Kim Young, as both have experience in energy and materials research and both will find a second home at UK's Center for Applied Energy Research (CAER), a multidisciplinary center whose energy research provides a focal point for coal and energy research in Kentucky.

According to Meier, most of the candidates were specifically interested in UK's chemistry department because of its close relationship with the CAER and 

During the 2011-2012 school year, A&S will be focusing on China in its Passport to the World program. In a recent StoryCorps interview, Dean Mark Kornbluh discusses the reasons for focusing on China.

https://www.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/Passport%20to%20the%20World%…

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Ph.D. Student

by Rebekah Tilley

photos by Richie Wireman

Archisman Ghosh’s fascination with astronomy was born on a roof in Calcutta. He still looks at the sky, but now he does it through a 20-inch telescope on the roof of UK’s parking structure #2.

A third-year graduate student in the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy, Ghosh focuses his scholarly work on String Theory, and through his Graduate Assistantship at the MacAdam Student Observatory is able to help young astronomy students experience the thrill of first laying their own eyes on a planet.

“My previous experience in astronomy was mainly from amateur activities – stargazing and backyard telescopes,” Ghosh said. “UK's MacAdam Student Observatory gave me an opportunity to have a more professional encounter with the subject. We have superior

by Erin Holaday Ziegler, Alicia Brab and Gwendolyn Schaefer

This has not been a summer by the pool for University of Kentucky rising junior Gwendolyn Schaefer who is participating in a seven-month study abroad experience in Amman, Jordan with AMIDEAST, a leading American nonprofit organization engaged in international education, training and development activities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Schaefer, an international studies and geography major, began the summer session in intensive Arabic language classes and will continue through the fall with Middle East and North African studies.  She has created a blog about her experiences, and the following is based upon online excerpts

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

Psychological research at the University of Kentucky indicates that feelings of disgust do not usually escalate to aggression in the same way that feelings of anger could.

UK doctoral student Ricky Pond has been interested in the feeling of disgust and its origins from the beginning of his doctoral work in psychology at UK.

With the overwhelming amount of psychological research available on anger and its effects on aggression, Pond decided to test a different negative emotion, one that wouldn't necessarily be associated with hostility.

"I wanted to focus on a negative emotion that leads to less aggression," Pond said. "And my experience with disgust was a good fit."

Pond's study, titled "

“Doing math” is usually pictured as a solitary activity involving a chalkboard and harsh florescent lights. Yet that could not be further from the truth.

“Contrary to stereotype, mathematics is a very social activity,” said mathematics professor Peter Perry, who was recently awarded the prestigious College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor Award for the 2010-2011 academic year. “It’s a lot more fun and works a lot better when you have other people to work with, talk things over with, bounce ideas off of and understand things.”

This group process of “doing math” extends throughout all levels of mathematical instruction – from basic undergraduate calculus classes to upper-level graduate

Ph.D. Student

By Megan Neff

Photos by Mark Cornelison

Like a lot of us out there, Justin Taylor didn’t have it easy when it came to math. But unlike the rest of the crowd, who grumbled through the required courses until the hallowed day of escape, he decided to make the struggle into a more challenging equation: a career.



However, the path to this decision did not follow any predetermined formula. After graduating from high school in the southeastern Missouri town of Sikeston, Taylor opted out of the two to four-year college route. Instead, he joined the Marine Corps and was stationed at Camp Pendleton near San Diego between 1998 and 2002. Here, he not only underwent a rigorous test of his physical endurance, but his mental strength, as well.



“A lot of my beliefs, my work ethic, and my

When Shannon Hincker started her undergraduate work at the University of Kentucky in 2004, she was a mathematics major.

After two years, she switched to the College of Arts & Sciences’ mathematical economics program.

With its combination of math, statistics and economics, the program was a good fit for Hincker and prepared her well for a job doing actuarial work for Mercer.

“I loved math,” Hincker said. “I still love math. However, I knew early on that I didn’t want to go into teaching so I was very interested in getting a background that was strong in math and strong in the business field, too. That way, I just figured I’d have a lot more choices when I was finished.”

Robert Molzon, who is in the math

On the evening news, it is not uncommon to see polls charting public opinion on a variety of topics. The number of polls tends to spike around presidential elections, especially with topics surrounding approval ratings, national issues, and the economy. The degree of voter anger, angst, or contentment prominently posted in the polls is often a barometer of the larger political climate. And as you can imagine, those polls and resulting nightly news conversations can spark heated, informative, and oddly entertaining debates on the state of national politics.

But what trends can be found in poll numbers gathered in an increasingly media-saturated world? How do these poll numbers and nightly news conversations, for example, impact the way voters respond in presidential elections and how do voters react to pressing issues such as the economy?

UK political science doctoral

by Erin Holaday Ziegler

A University of Kentucky biology professor has been chosen as one of 22 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences for her innovative and groundbreaking retinal research with zebrafish.

Biologist Ann Morris will explore the mechanisms that drive the development and regeneration of retinal photoreceptors over the next four years without restriction.

"The Pew award is meant to give support to early stage investigations that show promise, and I am proud to represent UK in this endeavor," said Morris, whose Pew award is a first for UK in biomedical sciences. "Pew Foundation

Topical studies alum Susan Tomasky was drawn to the University of Kentucky because of its honors program but she also became deeply rooted in the College of Arts & Sciences political science department.

Tomasky began her studies at UK in 1970 after she moved from her hometown of Morgantown, W. Va.

She is currently the president of American Electric Power Transmission, which develops and builds transmission lines for new energy resources, including wind.

“I was really interested in the idea that the honors program was organized around introducing students to history, politics and art in small classes, inside a large

As a broad section of our world is experiencing economic and political upheaval, its peoples are migrating in search of security, stability and a shot at the good life. At the University of Kentucky, scholars are studying this massive immigration and its effects on various countries and cultures, and in the process have become part of an interdisciplinary migration of their own. The effects of this dual political and academic migration will be highlighted at the March 10-11 conference “Immigration Policy in an Anti-Immigrant Era” organized by the UK Quantitative Initiative for Policy and Social Research (QIPSR).

QIPSR is based in the College of Arts and Sciences, but was launched this year to benefit quantitative social scientists across UK by bringing world class scholars to campus, organizing workshops on grant writing and statistical methods, and creating opportunities

When her lifelong goal of becoming a zoologist began to fall apart early in her college career at Sogang University in Seoul, South Korea, Seung-yeon Yi felt academically directionless. “I basically failed. I tried really hard but I couldn’t get good grades and I thought I had to take a break and just look at myself and just try to find my purpose.” During that period of searching, Yi persuaded her family to allow her to travel to the United States, where she planned on doing service work with the Christian organization Youth With A Mission (YWAM) learning English and traveling to different countries. 

“Since I was a little kid, studying language and English was my thing. I used to carry around my notepad and study English,” Yi explained, “I liked English and learning language but I didn’t think of it as something

When Sam Powers travels, he buys a one-way ticket. He prefers it that way - as he searches for “Goat man” in Guatemala or participates in Buenos Aires’s annual pillow fight or motorbikes through Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, he wants the people he meets, not a return ticket, to determine his schedule.

In the past year, Powers has purchased quite a few one-way tickets, tickets that have taken him to 15 countries outside of the United States and introduced him to four new languages, including Khmer, Vietnamese, Thai, and Icelandic.

Powers documented his year long journey through his website. Filled with videos, daily travel commentaries, and stunning photography, this website is so recognized internationally, it won 

Strangely enough, Jennifer Cramer was a math major at the University of Kentucky when she first became infatuated with the art of language. Following this infatuation, which was ignited in her undergraduate French classes, she quickly shifted her major to French, but once she was there, found there was still something missing in her academic focus.

“Someone suggested I take a linguistics class,” recalls Cramer, who is now in her second semester as a lecturer in the University of Kentucky’s Linguistics Program. “I took the intro class and just fell in love.”

Like many undergraduate students, Cramer entered her first linguistics class rather blindly, without a full understanding of what the program entailed. The scientific study of human language – what did that even mean? As she soon discovered, linguistics

by Jenny Wells

Burt Davis, longtime associate director for the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research's Clean Fuels and Chemicals Group, has been awarded a $1.5 million grant from NASA – and has been named to the 2011 American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Fellows Program.

The NASA grant, "Relating FTS catalyst properties to performance," is a three-year proposal that is part of the Subsonic Fixed Wing program. Davis is the principal investigator and point of contact and researcher Gary Jacobs is a co-investigator.

The ACS Fellows Program was created by the ACS Board of Directors in December 2008 "to recognize members of ACS for outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the

by Erin Holady Ziegler

When rising University of Kentucky senior Joseph Mann arrived in Cape Town, South Africa in mid-May, he was ready to make a difference and ready for a challenge. Little did he know that his travel abroad experience would change the course of his life.

"You just need to come here," Mann laughed. "That's what I've told my friends and family. In the face of such adversity, there's hope. South Africans know that they have a bright future. Despite issues with service availability and government incapacity, they have faith."

Mann, a psychology and gender and women's studies major at UK, has a keen interest in human

Physics & Astronomy alum Dr. Anjan K. Gupta came to the University of Kentucky after earning bachelors and masters degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1995 in Kanpur, India.

Anjan is from a small city called Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, the most populated state in India.

“I wanted to go to the United States because I knew there would be many opportunities for research as a graduate student,” Anjan said. “I applied many places but I was interested in UK because they had a good condensed matter experimental department. I knew that’s what I wanted to pursue.”

Anjan said he found good teachers and mentors among the faculty in the physics and astronomy department, particularly Dr. Joseph Brill and Dr.