News
By Gail Hairston
University of Kentucky alumna Christine Ann Elder has been appointed the new United States Ambassador to the West African nation of Liberia.
At her welcoming ceremony, Ambassador Elder, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service expressed gratitude for the level of cooperation that currently exists between the two countries.
“The U.S. government wouldn’t have done what she has and [is] doing in the country without the cordial level of cooperation from the Liberian people and government,” Elder said.
Ambassador Elder was making reference to the numerous interventions that the U.S. government has been making in several sectors in Liberia, including governance, security, education, agriculture, health and others.
Although Liberia and the U.S. are traditional partners, Ambassador Elder described the current
By Whitney Hale
Last week the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved three new areas of study to pursue at the university. Starting this fall, UK students may choose two new bachelor's degrees in liberal studies and digital media and design. In addition, graduate students can pursue a new master's degree in research methods in education. The new major in liberal studies in the College of Arts and Sciences will allow students to: design individualized programs of study in the humanities, social sciences, and natural and mathematical sciences; develop a breadth of knowledge reflective of a liberal arts education; develop critical thinking and writing skills; and synthesize problem-solving strategies. The target audience for the degree is expected to be diverse,
By Samantha Ponder
University of Kentucky alumna Rebecca Adkins Fletcher is one of the editors of the new book "Appalachia Revisited: New Perspectives on Place, Tradition, and Progress," published by University Press of Kentucky (UPK). The book's contributors explore how the Appalachia region has changed in recent years.
"Appalachia Revisited" is the story of how the Appalachia region is being viewed within and beyond its borders. Fletcher and co-editor, William Schumann, gather both scholars and nonprofit practitioners to explore how Appalachia is being observed after some of its most recent changes.
Inside the new book, readers will find a variety of different topics that are being studied, including race and gender,
By Samantha Ponder
Recently, Comparative Political Studies (CPS), a highly recognized political science journal, published an article titled “Addressing the Gender Gap: The Effect of Compulsory Voting on Women's Electoral Engagement.”
The article was written by two University of Kentucky affiliates in the Department of Political Science of the College of Arts and Sciences, Assistant Professor Abby Córdova and co-author Gabriela Rangel, a UK fourth-year doctoral student and teaching assistant.
CPS is known for publishing the most up-to-date information on methodology, theory and
By Whitney Hale
University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that six UK students and alumni have been selected as recipients of Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships. The UK recipients are among more than 1,800 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2016-17 academic year through the prestigious program.
The Fulbright U.S. Student Program offers fellowships for U.S. graduating college seniors, graduate students, young professionals and artists to study, conduct research, and/or teach English abroad.
Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in
By Whitney Harder
University of Kentucky Professor Madhu Menon, of the Center for Computational Sciences and Department of Physics and Astronomy, has been awarded a $50,000 Short Term Innovative Research (STIR) grant from the U.S. Army Research Office.
The grant will fund Menon's work to synthesize the new 2D material he predicted using theoretical simulations. In February, he predicted that a new one atom-thick flat material — made up of silicon, boron and nitrogen — could upstage the wonder material graphene and advance digital technology.
Menon will collaborate with an experimental group at the University of Louisville, led by Professor Mahendra Sunkara
By Gail Hairston
Robert Olson’s “The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990s: Its Impact on Turkey and the Middle East” (University Press of Kentucky, 1996) was reissued recently by Mazda Publishers.
A University of Kentucky distinguished emeritus professor of history, Olson wrote a new five-page introduction about the current status of the Kurdish question in Middle East politics for the new volume. He also published “Turkish Air Force’s Role in the Development of Turkish and Kurdish Nationalism” (Kürt Tarih) in March 2016.
Olson gave the plenary talk “Fifth Years with the Kurds” at the Kurdish Studies Association meeting in Denver in November 2015. For his career-spanning interest in the peoples of the Middle East, Olson was awarded a “Lifetime Achievement Award in Recognition
By Whitney Hale, Mack McCormick
As the eyes of horse racing enthusiasts worldwide turn to New York and the Belmont Stakes this week, another storied racetrack prepares for its summer meet less than 200 miles north. The Saratoga Race Course owes much of its history to its sometimes forgotten founder, a brawler turned congressman, John Morrissey.
From gang member, political muscle and prizefighter to New York state senator, United States congressman and industry leader of the sport of kings — John Morrissey (1831–1878) was all of these and more. When the Morrissey family arrived in America in 1831, there were not many doors open for Irish immigrants, but he did not let his bloodline stop him. He was the kind of man who would challenge the infamous William Poole, better known as “Bill the Butcher,” just to make a name for
By Gail Hairston
Two touchstones in every child’s life are celebrated by parents and loved ones around the world with equal awe, expectation and enthusiasm – a baby’s first steps and a baby’s first words. Walking signifies a child’s growing strength and independence. But talking signifies a budding ability to share emotion and intellect, to understand others and to be understood in turn.
Communication in all its myriad manifestations — from singing a child’s lullaby to reading a literary masterpiece to sharing a joke — expands a person’s concept of self and is essential to the well-being of the individual and ultimately the survival of the species.
A group of linguistics scholars at the University of Kentucky excel in the study and teaching of this survival skill — as evidenced by global accolades, innovative research, practical applications,
By Whitney Hale
A duo of popular poets, Lisa Russ Spaar and Bianca Lynne Spriggs, will present workshops on the form as well as a joint reading of their poetry at the 2016 Kentucky Women Writers Conference running Sept. 16-17, in Lexington. The pair's work will also be among the topics of a free poetry workshop presented by the conference June 11, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Lisa Russ Spaar, one of three finalists for the 2015 Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, is the author of many collections of poetry, including "Glass Town," "Blue Venus," "Satin Cash," "
By Jennifer T. Allen
The 25th volume of Social Theory journal disClosure was recently released focusing on the topic of “Transnational Lives.” The issue’s theme brings together a variety of genres, including creative pieces, analytical articles, interviews and art, as it explores concepts related to the topic.
“Simple words such as ‘home’ or ‘religion’ take on an entirely new meaning when they are considered across transnational spaces,” said Catherine Gooch, co-editor of the issue and graduate student in the Department of English. “In addition, there are larger implications both on a personal and public level. If we think about our economic system and how globalization has caused capitalism to expand transnationally, around the world, we see how this economic expansion impacts everything from our personal lives to the higher education system.”
Dr. Mahmood
By Nathan Antetomaso
Five professors from the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences have received Simons Foundation Collaboration Grants for Mathematics. UK Department of Mathematics faculty members Richard Ehrenborg, Heide Gluesing-Luerssen, Margaret Readdy, Zhongwei Shen and Martha Yip will each receive five-year $35,000 grants.
The grants will fund travel and visitors that aim to support the "mathematical marketplace" by "substantially increasing collaborative contacts between mathematicians."
Professor Ehrenborg works in the area of combinatorics. His
(June 2, 2016) — Award-winning Native American poet Natalie Diazwill open the 2016 Kentucky Women Writers Conference, running Sept. 16-17, in Lexington. Diaz's work will also be among the topics of a free poetry workshop presented June 11, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Poet Natalie Diaz reads from her first poetry collection "When My Brother Was an Aztec."
Natalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection,
The University of Kentucky has received permission from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to conduct research with unmanned aerial systems (UAS), or drones, nationwide, following FAA regulations.
"UK is among the first universities in the country to receive this new FAA 'blanket' CoA," said Suzanne Smith, director of the UK Unmanned Systems Research Consortium and the Donald and Gertrude Lester Professor of Mechanical Engineering. "Now, UK faculty will be among the first to perform and publish their research on leading-edge autonomy technologies and applications, and the new scientific discoveries that are sure to result."
The FAA's public Certificate of Authorization (CoA) allows UK researchers to fly drones that are less than
The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that international studies junior Shauna Rust andforeign language and international economics junior Amaris Wade have been awarded theNational Security Education Program (NSEP) David L. Boren Scholarship for up to $20,000 toward the study of Russian and Chinese languages abroad. Rust and Wade are two of 165 undergraduate student award winners selected nationally from a pool of 820 applicants.
Boren Scholarships, an initiative of the National Security Education Program, provide funding opportunities for U.S
By Whitney Harder
An international team of scientists, including the University of Kentucky's Renbin Yan, has uncovered a new class of galaxies, called "red geysers," with supermassive black hole winds so hot and energetic that stars can't form.
Over the last few billion years, a mysterious kind of “galactic warming" has caused many galaxies to change from a lively place where new stars formed every now and then to a quiet place devoid of fresh young stars. But the mechanism that produces this dramatic transformation and keeps galaxies quiet has been one of the biggest unsolved mysteries in galaxy evolution.
"These galaxies have the necessary ingredients for forming new stars but they are not doing it — why?" said Yan, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at UK.
Researchers compare it to having deserts in densely
By Whitney Hale
In 1941, Kentucky was still in the grips of the Great Depression. Unemployment was high, and wages were hardly enough to support families, leaving many Kentuckians frustrated with the economic state of the Commonwealth. Kentucky had also fallen behind much of the nation in societal transitions, as women were still expected to be wives and mothers, while African Americans remained segregated. By the end of World War II, Kentucky had been transformed both economically and culturally, and those most affected were the citizens who remained on the homefront.
In "Committed to Victory: The Kentucky Home Front during World War II," published by University Press of Kentucky (UPK), historian and University of Kentucky alumnus Richard E. Holl details Kentucky’s fundamental economic, political and social changes from 1941 to 1945.
Kentuckians were
George Crothers, a University of Kentucky expert in prehistoric archaeology, has spent the better part of 30 years in the shadow-draped, surreal underworld of Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave system, searching for prehistoric as well as historic treasures of humanity’s adventures underground.
Although it’s one of those never-quite-finished projects — there are hundreds of miles of underground labyrinths and chambers, after all — the UK associate professor of anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences said much of his work and an extensive trail
by Gail Hairston
Jim Ridolfo of the University of Kentucky and co-editor William Hart-Davidson of Michigan State University (MSU) were recently awarded the Computers and Composition Distinguished Book Award for their book “Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities.”
The distinguished book award is given once a year at the Computers and Writing Conference by the Conference on College Composition and Communication for book-length works that contribute in substantial and innovative ways to the field of computers and composition.
Ridolfo is an associate professor and director of composition at the UK College of Arts and Sciences Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies. His second book, "Rhetoric and the Digital Humanities," was published by University of Chicago Press in January 2015.
Hart-Davidson is associate dean of graduate studies in
by Guy Spriggs
For almost 3 years, the Open Syllabus Project (OSP) has collected and analyzed syllabi to shed light on what texts are assigned in college courses. The Project boasts a catalog of 1.1 million syllabi, and its insights were chronicled in a January 2016 feature in the New York Times titled, “What a Million Syllabuses Can Teach Us.”
As the OSP continued the enormous task of looking through syllabi for resources and assignments, it also released the Syllabus Explorer, a search function which enables visitors to see what texts are most commonly assigned by location and field of study. It was around this time that UK sociology professor Edward Morris received a phone call from his mentor from graduate school.
“She sent me a link and said I had to check it out,” he explained. “I had no idea, because you don’t know when your work is being taught. I was