Interested in learning some useful phrases in the Russian language for free and with no grades involved?  Join the Russian Club at the University of Kentucky for free Russian classes.

Classes will meet at 8 p.m. Thursdays, beginning Sept. 20, in Room 145 of Patterson Officer Tower on the UK campus.  No prior knowledge of Russian is required.  Materials will be provided.  This is a non-credit course being offered to provide a taste of Russian for anyone interested. 

The course coincides with the UK College of Arts and Sciences' Year of Russia.  For more information visit www.facebook.com/FreeRussian.

Philosophy and Modern Life
Lecture Series
View the poster for the Series

Massimo Pigliucci, CUNY-Lehman College
“Answers for Aristotle: How Science and Philosophy Can Lead to
A More Meaningful Life”
Thursday, Sept. 20, 7:30 p.m.  W.T.Y. Library Auditorium
Co-sponsored with the Department of Entomology

Jeffrey Bishop, St. Louis University
“The Challenge of Transhumanism”
Wednesday, Oct. 10, 4:00 p.m.  Student Center 230
Co-sponsored with the Program for Bioethics, U.K. Medical Center

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Department of Psychology is excited to welcome professor Michelle Martel to its faculty!

Professor Martel joins us this fall studying preschool and childhood Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD) and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Her research looks to find developmental pathways to DBD and ADHD by studying not only early markers and traits, but also biological and environmental factors.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall 2012 semester.

Produced by Stephen Gordinier.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Department of Chemistry is excited to welcome professor Chris Richards to its faculty!

Professor Richards joins us this fall to research cell membrane receptors. His research group integrates nanotechnology, neuroscience, and biophysical chemistry, and is developing imaging techniques to investigate how these receptors are involved in the mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases and addiction.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall 2012 semester.

Produced by Stephen Gordinier.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Division of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media is excited to welcome professor Brian McNely to its faculty!

Professor McNely joins us this fall studying how people work and interact. He researches professional writing in digital environments, tracing the writing that people do in order to find out how they get things done, how they make meaning from the work they do, and how they share that meaning with others.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall 2012 semester.

Produced by Stephen Gordinier.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Department of History is excited to welcome professor Amy Murrell Taylor to its faculty!

Professor Taylor joins us this fall to study the history of the American South in the emancipation era, during and after the Civil War. Her research explores how the war and the end of slavery transformed southern society, culture, and identity.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall 2012 semester.

Produced by Stephen Gordinier.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Department of Political Science is excited to welcome professor Abby Córdova to its faculty!

Professor Córdova joins us this fall to continue her research on comparitive politics. She studies the effects of crime, poverty, and economic inequality on the democratic process in Latin America. Her field research has taken her to Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, and Guyana.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall 2012 semester.

Produced by Stephen Gordinier.

Dripsinum is the name of a place that isn't on any modern map - but, according to recent research, should be on the maps of the ancient Roman Empire. Archaeologists George Crothers and Paolo Visona returned from Italy this summer with data that indicates the whereabouts of the lost Roman settlement, said to be half the size of Pompeii - and another, older site below that!

Though written about in antiquity by medieval scholars and even Pliny the Elder, the features of the ancient city have only recently come to light: with the assistance of magnetic and radar images taken by Crothers and his team. In this podcast, the features of the site are described by Visona and Crothers, as well as the historical and cultural significance of these

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

When you hear the phrase “Crime and Punishment,” you may think of the famous novel by Fyodor Dostoyevsky – or, if you’re a student at the University of Kentucky, you may think about a unique course developed by Cynthia Ruder and Janet Stamatel. The course, titled “A&S 100-401: Crime and Punishment in Russia’s Realms,” will examine issues of crime and punishment from literary, social science, and creative perspectives in Russia and surrounding countries from the 1920s to the present. 

The course

by Sarah Geegan

English professor and 2011 National Book Award winner Nikky Finney was recently appointed the inaugural Guy Davenport Endowed English Professor, an award honoring one of UK's most distinguished professors.

Guy Mattison Davenport, author, poet, painter and critic, retired in 1990 as a UK Distinguished Alumni Professor of English. Throughout his career, he received national and international recognition by several educational and professional institutions for his many achievements. Honoring this legacy, the endowed professorship was made possible through a generous donation to the College of Arts and Sciences, by Davenport's former

by Sarah Geegan

English professor and 2011 National Book Award winner Nikky Finney was recently appointed the inaugural Guy Davenport Endowed English Professor, an award honoring one of UK's most distinguished professors.

Guy Mattison Davenport, author, poet, painter and critic, retired in 1990 as a UK Distinguished Alumni Professor of English. Throughout his career, he received national and international recognition by several educational and professional institutions for his many achievements. Honoring this legacy, the endowed professorship was made possible through a generous donation to the College of Arts and Sciences, by Davenport'

by Whitney Hale

Last spring, Teach for America selected 27 recent graduates of the University of Kentucky to serve in America's inner cities and rural communities. The UK group, the largest in school history, is among 5,800 new corps members selected for Teach for America, a national program in which outstanding college graduates commit to teach for two years in disadvantaged urban and rural public schools.

Teach for America places its recruits in the nation's highest-need elementary and secondary schools in many of the country's lowest income communities, both rural and urban, in an effort to close the achievement gap between economically advantaged and disadvantaged children.

This year’s corps is the largest in Teach for America’s history.

First photo: Jennifer Osterhage crosses the finish line as the women's winner of the 2011 Louisville Sports Commission Half Marathon.
Second photo: As the winner, Jennifer was asked to hold the women's finish line tape at the summer 2012 Louisville Ironman (standing right). 

Jennifer Osterhage is a lecturer in the Department of Biology at UK that specializes in molecular biology, phylogenetics, and biology education. In addition to teaching an introductory biology course (BIO 148) and coordinating the Genetics laboratories, she is continuing a collaboration with other geneticists and ecologists at other institutions investigating the evolutionary relationships among the Homalopsidae, rear-fanged water snakes found throughout Southeast Asia.

Outside of all her

The University of Kentucky's Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences gives its graduate students the chance to explore a wide swath of the geosciences that take them many divergent routes but, in the end, they're all at home in EES.

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Lucas Rohrer is from Princeton, Kentucky, and received a B.A. in Chemistry from Asbury University.  Lucas received a 2012 Geological Society of America Student Research Grant for his M.S. thesis research on the evolution of the Appalachian mountains of the northeastern U.S. Lucas's research involves a lot of field work (i.e., hiking) in the woods of central Massachusetts. Like many geologists, the field work is what Lucas finds particularly stimulating.

Although he was a chemistry major as an undergraduate, Lucas was inspired to pursue a graduate degree in

by Sarah Geegan

Paul Chamberlin, professor in the UK Department of History, was featured in The New York Times today; his op-ed coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Munich Olympics massacre.

Chamberlin describes the massacre as, for most Westerners, "the most chilling example of international terrorism before 9/11." Palestinian militants killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team. Chamberlin argues that this incident and the lessons learned from it played an intricate role in shaping American views on terrorism for the next four decades.

"I argue that, despite the violence, some Palestinian

by Sarah Geegan

Each year, more than 500 UK students get involved through UK Athletics, programs that carry rich tradition. However, freshman Cailin Harris and sophomore Daniel Buckles took their involvement one step further, engaging in a program that upholds another aspect of the UK tradition — the UK Honors Program.

Buckles, a decathlete on the Men's Track and Field team estimated that he spends at least 20-25 extra hours per week between the two

by Sarah Geegan and Fran LeFort

UK alumna Diana Wall, recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on biodiversity, has been named the 2012 Mines Medalist, a national honor the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology awards annually to engineers and scientists who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and innovation.

Wall received her Ph.D. in plant pathology, from the UK College of Agriculture and her B.A. in biology from the