by Katy Bennett, Amy Jones-Timoney

(March 20, 2014) — Hundreds of top students from across the state and region will make their way to Lexington this Friday through Saturday for the second of two University of Kentucky Merit Weekends. 

The University Registrar and Office of Undergraduate Admission host these two-day events every March so that some of the best and brightest can have a last look at campus before they decide where to attend college.

"Merit Weekends showcase the many opportunities available to outstanding students," said Don Witt,

by Sarah Geegan

(March 19, 2014) — Lexington Mayor Jim Gray will lead the next event in the "see tomorrow." Speaker Series at 4 p.m. Monday, March 24, in the William T. Young Library Auditorium.

As one core tenant of the plan focuses on UK's community impact, Gray will discuss "town and gown" relations between the university and the city.

"UK President Eli Capilouto and I often quote the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan who said that 'to create a great city, you create a great university, and you wait 200 years.' UK is nearly 150 years, and we’re seeing the fruits of that growth and partnership between university and community."

The former CEO of international construction firm Gray Construction, Gray became Lexington's mayor in 2011. He will be the fourth

by Whitney Hale, Whitney Harder

(March 18, 2014) — Bernard LaFayette Jr., an associate of Martin Luther King Jr. in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, will speak on his leadership experience in the voting rights movement in Selma, Ala., and participate in a book signing beginning 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at the University of Kentucky's Martin Luther King Center.

LaFayette, a prominent leader in the civil rights movement, was a cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a leader in the Nashville lunch counter sit-ins, a Freedom Rider, and the national coordinator of the Poor People’s Campaign.

At 22 years old LaFayette became director of the Alabama Voter Registration Project in Selma, the basis for his memoir

By Nolan Gray

(March 18, 2014) - Whether you’re haggling in the agora in 400 BCE, or sitting in traffic in 2014 CE, humanity seems to have a universal desire to understand truth, ethics, and the “good life.”

“Philosophy in the broadest sense is all about what’s true and what’s good. Yet philosophy is also about how we should ask questions about the good and the true,” said Eric Sanday, Associate Professor in the University of Kentucky’s Department of Philosophy. “A historical approach to these questions involves determining how ancient authors understood these issues.”

At the upcoming Lexington Workshop in Ancient Philosophy, academics from across the country will explore this very theme: what

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 18, 2014) — The quickly approaching deadline for submission of original manuscripts to the 2014 Dantzler fiction and Farquhar poetry contests is 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 26. The event is sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences Department of English. 

The contest is for University of Kentucky undergraduate students only. The winning prize in each category is $250. Fiction entries are limited to 3,000 words. Poetry entries are limited to five poems or three manuscript pages.

The Department of English has presented the Dantzler and Farquhar awards annually since 1953. Many of the winners have gone on to have successful literary careers.

Paper manuscripts should be submitted to Professor Gurney Norman, Department of English, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506. They can also be hand delivered

by Allison Perry

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 17, 2014) — After 39 years of working in the University of Kentucky's Department of Chemistry, you might suspect one would get bored with the work. But professor Allan Butterfield describes his current project as "one of the most intellectually stimulating projects I've ever worked on."

Butterfield, whose many titles include director of the UK Markey Cancer Center's Free Radical Biology in Cancer Shared Resource Facility, studies oxidative stress in the brain. This includes the effect of oxidative stress on the development of Alzheimer's disease, and, in collaboration with Daret St. Clair, Markey's associate director for basic research,  the study of chemotherapy-induced cognitive impairment (CICI), known

by Keith Hautala & Jennifer Edwards

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 17, 2014) — The University of Kentucky has announced eight awards for the first round of its eLearning Innovation Initiative (eLII) Program, totaling more than $500,000 in internally funded grants.

The eLII program was launched in September 2013 to improve instructional delivery and learning outcomes, with a $3 million investment over three years. The program is administered through a collaborative effort by the Office of the Provost, UK Analytics and Technologies, and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching.

“As new delivery models and teaching methods evolve across higher education, the University of Kentucky should be an active contributor and innovator,” said President Eli Capilouto. “The eLII program will give creative faculty the support to develop high-quality teaching

by Whitney Hale, Whitney Harder

(March 14, 2014) — The relationship between two of the world's largest powers, the U.S. and China, continues to expand and become increasingly multifaceted. The University of Kentucky's Confucius Institute, UK's gateway to China, will present a talk by David Adams, a former administrator of the Fulbright Scholar Program, on the importance of the countries' partnerships in education.

"Chinese-American Educational Exchanges: A Window on the Bilateral Relationship," will begin at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at the University of Kentucky Athletics Auditorium in William T. Young Library. The lecture is free and open to the public. A reception will

by Gail Hairston

(March 14, 2014) ― The natural beauty of the Elkhorn City/Russell Fork region of Pike County, Ky., is undeniable. It is home to part of the Breaks Interstate Park, referred to by some as the 'Grand Canyon of the South.' And yet tourism, especially adventure tourism, is still a slowly developing factor in the local economy. Locals want to know why.

The Elkhorn City Heritage Council is trying to promote recreational and outdoor tourism in the area. University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University students and faculty have been asked to assist in those efforts by gauging public opinion.

March 20-23, a group of UK students will go door-to-door surveying residents of Elkhorn City to find out more about their visions of the community's economic future and community assets. A group

by Whitney Hale

(March 13, 2014) — Two University of Kentucky students have been awarded Critical Language Scholarships to study the Arabic and Turkish languages. Marketing and media arts and studies sophomore and Global Scholar Jordie Gamble will travel to Morocco for her Arabic language studies, while anthropology doctoral student Lydia Roll will return to Turkey for her second consecutive year of language coursework in Turkish.

The Critical

by Whitney Harder, Whitney Hale

(March 11, 2014) — Eugene Richards, a photographer, writer and filmmaker known for capturing moments of political activism and social issues in his work, will give the final presentation in the 2013-14 Robert C. May Endowment Photography Lecture Series with a lecture at 4 p.m. Friday, March 14, in Worsham Theater at the University of Kentucky Student Center. In conjunction with the talk, an exhibition of Richards' work will be on display March 14 through April 27, in the Art Museum at UK. The lecture and exhibition are free and open to the public.

Richards launched

by Carl Nathe

(March 12, 2014) — Encouraging sustainability practices and awareness of environmental issues is at the heart of a new Living Learning Program (LLP), which will make its debut this fall at the University of Kentucky.

Greenhouse is a partnership between the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment (CAFE) and the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S).  The co-directors from CAFE are  faculty members Carmen Agouridis, Department of 

by Katy Bennett, Student Activities Board

(March 12, 2014) — Time to take a bite of the world at the second annual International Dessert Contest hosted by the Student Activities Board’s Multicultural Affairs Committee. The event will be held at 6 p.m. today, Wednesday, March 12, in the Student Center Small Ballroom and will feature desserts worth a thousand bites.

Organizations that embody different cultures submit recipes that will be executed by UK Catering. A panel of judges as well as the audience will then judge the dishes, and a winner will be selected. This event serves as a fun way to educate people about different cultures and foods, and it also serves as a way for students to

by Gail Hairston

(March 11, 2014) — It’s tournament time in the world of collegiate basketball. For the athletes, coaches and fans of the sport, that means once again pulling on that unwashed-for-four-months T-shirt or making sure that lucky coin nestles in the front left pocket of your jeans or settling into that ancient easy chair gripping a certain brand of beer purchased only in March.

Sports superstitions and rituals are nothing new. Suspending belief for the moment, you might envision an ancient ancestor throwing a shiny rock into a rabbit hole and dinner popped out. The connection was made: Shiny rock equals rabbit stew. Now, the shiny rock may miss the next few targets, but inevitably the rock again brings meat to the campfire. By now, our ancient ancestor is convinced he possesses an exceptionally lucky rock, perhaps even a supernatural rock that gives

by Whitney Hale, Whitney Harder

(March 11, 2014) — University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections is illuminating the rich culture of Appalachia and challenging stereotypes of the region with its "Immigrants in the Coalfields" exhibit on display now in UK's Margaret I. King Building. The free exhibition will be open to the public 9 a.m.- 5 p.m. Monday through Friday until April 4.

Images, maps, documents and oral histories from UK Special Collections tell the story of Appalachia unheard to many, a mix of cultural, ethnic, and racial identities and a cultural mosaic illustrated in the coal camps of Eastern Kentucky.

Visitors to the exhibit first experience a national perspective of Appalachia, often

Recently Dr. Edward Morris was published in the online blog Gender & Society in which he discussed his lasest book titled Learning the Hard Way.  The book discusses the underperformance of boys in school by approaching actual students to view education from the boys' points of view.  It also investigates the gender gap that can be found in education.  The whole article can be found here.  

Video by UK Public Relations and Marketing. To view captions for this video, push play and click on the CC icon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

by Jenny Wells

(March 10, 2014) — In just a few weeks, the National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) will take place at the University of Kentucky, bringing a host of events and opportunities to campus.

Nearly 4,000 students and faculty mentors from across the country will be on campus for the conference April 3-5. These students, which include nearly 300 from UK, will present their research and creative endeavors through poster and oral presentations, as well as visual and performing arts performances. 

In addition to the presentations, NCUR will also offer speaker events, a

by Whitney Harder

(March 7, 2014) – 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 yesterday during a luncehon ceremony at the UK Student Center. Meg Marquis, staff, and Elisia Cohen, faculty, received the 2014 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 Awards have been among the most esteemed recognitions bestowed at UK and brings recognition for efforts that might otherwise go unnoticed.  

Meg Marquis, director of Student Services for the 

by Whitney Harder, Whitney Hale

(March 6, 2014) — The University of Kentucky’s King Library Press is sponsoring a lecture and workshop with Kathleen Walkup, director of the nation's first master's program for book art and creative writing, focusing on the work of mid-century women printers. The UK Special Collections Library will host, "Because Nobody Stopped Us: Women Printers at Mid-Century," for its 2014 Spring Book Arts Weekend beginning 7 p.m. Friday, March 7, in the Great Hall of the Margaret I. King Building. The lecture is free and open to the public.

4Walkup is a professor of

by Mallory Powell

(March 6, 2014) -- Nearly 700 researchers, students, policymakers and community members will gather at the Lexington Convention Center March 27 to share research, mentor junior faculty, and enhance collaborations in clinical and translational science, with special focus on addressing health disparities in Appalachia. The 9th Annual Spring Conference and 4th Annual Appalachian Translational Research Network (ATRN) Summit will be hosted by the University of Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS).

"This year’s theme will be health disparities, which fits well with CCTS efforts to boost research in