By Beckman Foundation 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 10, 2025) — Before Hena Kachroo had enrolled at the University of Kentucky, she had a model for what it meant to feel valued in a community. Growing up, she’d attended cultural events among the Indian community in Lexington, where her family’s culture, traditions and classical dance had created in her a sense of belonging and network of support.

The primary contributors to Kachroo’s decision to apply to the Beckman Scholars Program, which provides 15-month mentored research experiences to exceptional students in

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 7, 2025) — Anastasia Todd, assistant professor of gender and women’s studies in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, will give the inaugural Gaines Lecture for Outstanding Research in the Humanities. 

The Gaines Lecture for Outstanding Research in the Humanities spotlights groundbreaking work related to the Gaines Center’s annual theme, which for 2024-2025 is Health and the Humanities. 

“There’s so much amazing research happening in the humanities at UK and we wanted to recognize these achievements,” said Michelle Sizemore, Ph.D., director of the Gaines Center. “The lecture provides an important opportunity to showcase this work and to

By Allison Jones 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 5, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center is showcasing work of student and faculty researchers through its Sharing Work on Appalachia in Progress (SWAP) series.

Many of the presenters are recipients of the 2024 James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia and the UK Appalachian Center Eller & Billings Student Research Award.

The series will also highlight other scholars and students sharing their research. The presenters range from students at UK to international researchers.

The presentations will be noon-1:30

By Tom Musgrave 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 5, 2025) — Olivia Walton, a junior from Bardstown, Kentucky, has received an English-Speaking Union Scholarship.

The English-Speaking Union of the United States is a nonprofit, nonpolitical, educational service organization that promotes scholarship  through the effective use of English in an expanding global community. The Kentucky branch of the English-Speaking Union awards scholarships for juniors to take summer courses offered at three institutions in the United Kingdom: Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh universities.

The scholarship covers all

By Allison Jones

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 3, 2025) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center will continue AppalachiaCorps, a student internship program, for Summer 2025.

AppalachiaCorps pairs students with experiential learning experiences in Eastern Kentucky and the greater Appalachian region. The internship offers students the opportunity to network and prepare for future careers.

The internship covers up to 16 hours a week for up to 16 weeks during the summer, with flexible duration and hours. Students can also complete academic credit with the internship.

The program is currently accepting student inquiries

By Cassady Brockman 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- On certain afternoons, Alani Moore, a University of Kentucky sophomore neuroscience major from Atlanta, can be seen playing the grand piano in the atrium at the UK HealthCare Pavilion A through the Arts in HealthCare program.  

Moore, a Lunsford Scholar, once was a music performance minor. Despite dropping the minor, she is still passionate about music, and through UK Arts she gets to combine her interests in music and science by playing the piano for patients and visitors.  

“I’ve been playing (piano) for as long as I can remember,” she said. “I grew up playing in my church, so I definitely knew that (music) was something I wanted to take with me to college. The UK

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 3, 2025) — Three writers and educators with ties to the University of Kentucky will be inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.

The Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning has chosen Frank X Walker and Crystal Wilkinson — both professors of English and African American and Africana Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences — as two of this year’s four living inductees.

“I

By Ryan Girves 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 31, 2025) – This February, the University of Kentucky Martin Luther King Center, along with partners across campus, will celebrate Black History Month with a series of events and programs throughout the month. The events are open to the UK community and the public.

Jasmine Prince, associate director of the MLK Center, says this year’s theme is “Black Hands, Bold Futures: The Power of Labor, Innovation and Advocacy.”

“The last two years our committee has built the theme in alignment with the national theme for the month that is selected by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History,” Prince said. “The national

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

Update: Applications for the student awards has been extended to Friday, Feb. 14. 

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

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