By Jennifer T. Allen

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 31, 2024) — Frank X Walker, celebrated poet and former Poet Laureate of Kentucky, recently released his latest collection of historical poetry, “Load in Nine Times,” published by Liveright. 

Walker, an English professor in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, draws upon the rich tapestry of Black Civil War soldiers’ experiences, including the stories of his own ancestors who enlisted in the Union Army for their freedom. Moving chronologically from the antebellum era through Reconstruction, Walker weaves together the voices of the U.S. Colored Troops, their families, slave owners and such historical figures as Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln and Margaret Garner. The result is a series of “persona poems.”

“This book feels like the

By Lindsey Piercy and Manuela Blanco Suarez

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 30, 2024) — Christal Badour, Ph.D., an associate professor of psychology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been honored as the 2024 Psychologist of the Year by the Kentucky Psychological Association.

The association, which advances psychology as

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Two University of Kentucky graduates from the College of Arts and Sciences recently participated in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program. The competitive employment opportunity allows young professionals to live and work in cities, towns and villages throughout Japan.  

Most participants serve as assistant language teachers and work in public and private schools throughout Japan; some work as coordinators for international relations as interpreters and translators. 

The

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Joseph Clark, associate professor of history in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, has started a fellowship with the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. 

Each fellow will work on an individual research project and can share ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences. As one of 31 fellows, Clark will work on the book project “Witchcraft and Contraband in the Early Modern Caribbean.”  

“During my time at the NHC I’ll be drafting my chapters and taking my work to seminars and workshops,” Clark said, “At the same time, I’ll be processing the archival research I’ve already completed in Spain and Mexico and figuring out what additional research I will need to undertake to complete the book.” 

Clark’s area of expertise lies

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky – Graciela Martinez can see the forest for the trees. 

Martinez, an Environmental and Sustainability Studies major in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, is joining several students in a year-long internship through UK’s Office of Sustainability. For her internship, she will be working with UK’s Urban Forest Initiative, which promotes the tree canopy on campus. 

This fall, Martinez said, she’ll be helping run the forest initiative and organize such events as Tree Week, which was in October. Then in the spring, like all interns, she’ll develop an individual project and report on it at an event. 

“I’ll be working on the planning side," said Martinez, who’s

By Haven L. Patrick 

LEXINGTON Ky. (Oct. 21, 2024) —The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research has selected the sixth annual 5-Minute Fast Track Research Competition finalists. These undergraduates vied in the competition’s preliminary round and were selected as Top 10 finalists to present their research during the final round from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, in the Healthy Kentucky Research Building’s Seminar Room 150.

Finalists will present their research in five minutes in front of a panel of judges and a live audience. This challenges students to develop their academic, presentation and research communication skills while also

By Erin Wickey 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 21, 2024) — In an era where American political discourse often unfolds online, a University of Kentucky researcher is examining  evolving communication strategies with a focus on social media.

Maggie Macdonald, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Political Science in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, studies elite political behavior in the United States. Most of her work has concentrated on congressional campaigns and how they use social media to achieve their electoral goals.

“I started graduate school in 2015 and decided to study Congress and Twitter,”

By Jennifer T. Allen 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Philip Mink, in the University of Kentucky Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been named director of the Office of State Archaeology and the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology. 

Mink has been at UK for 25 years, most recently serving as the assistant director of the Office of State Archaeology. He replaces longtime director George Crothers, who recently retired.  

“The work of these two entities is significant. It’s critical that we document the history of the Commonwealth and I think it’s especially important that this be done at the flagship university of the Commonwealth,”

By Brandon Brown 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 18, 2024) — As a mentor and role model, University of Kentucky alumna Connor Perry is using her title to inspire young girls across the Commonwealth, proving that dreams can become reality.  

Perry, a recent graduate of the UK College of Arts and Sciences, won the Miss Kentucky USA 2024 title in her first pageant competition.  

In recognition of National Kentucky Day, observed on Oct. 19 to mark the day Kentucky became a state in 1792, Perry shares what

One of public television’s most popular series, "Secrets of the Dead," brings its historical analysis to Kentucky.

The series, which uses the latest science to challenge prevailing ideas and share fresh perspectives on historical events, investigates an incident from Kentucky history known as the “Simpsonville Massacre,” when 22 Civil War soldiers from the 5th US Colored Cavalry on a cattle drive to Louisville were ambushed and slain by outlaws.

The episode “The Civil War’s Lost Massacre,” which was co-produced by KET, revisits the events of January 25, 1865, tracing the stories of several of the Kentucky soldiers and their families with help from guest historians, two of whom hail from Kentucky: Jerry Miller, a former state legislator from Louisville,

By Erin Wickey 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 16, 2024) — Groundbreaking innovation often leads to discoveries that not only revolutionize but enhance the quality of human life. UK Research Communications partnered with UK Innovate to spotlight faculty innovators with life-changing ideas at the University of Kentucky in a video series “I am a UK Innovator.” UK Innovate works collaboratively with innovators to strategically assess, protect and license early-stage technologies and co-create new technology startups.

In this Q&A

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Beth Connors-Manke started the nonfiction journal The Canelands audaciously with the theme of “love.” The topic, for one thing, is vast. 

“The Canelands offers you a thicket of ruminations, dense and sometimes difficult to pass through: love’s genealogies, love in friendship, love amidst catastrophe, love as a gift, love that empties the self, love in you and in old age,” Connors-Manke writes in A Note From the Editor for the first issue of the journal. “See what you can find.”

The University of Kentucky’s Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies, part of the College of Arts and Sciences, published the 200-copy edition of The Canelands in the summer of 2024. Funding comes from the department and the College, she said. Connors-Manke, as editor in chief, led a student staff in selecting articles, designing and

By Hayden Gooding 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 12, 2024) — Elizabeth King and Ethan Morgan were crowned 2024 University of Kentucky Homecoming queen and king during the halftime ceremonies at the UK vs. Vanderbilt Homecoming football game at Kroger Field Saturday night.

King, from Georgetown, Kentucky, is a junior pursuing dual degrees in finance and flute performance. She is a Gatton College of Business and Economics ambassador, a mentor for the college’s Women in Finance Initiative, principal flutist for the UK Wind Symphony, member

By Dave Melanson 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 11, 2024) — Longtime University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research investigator Jim Hower, Ph.D., has contributed a chapter to the recently published book, “Rare Earth Elements: Sustainable Recovery, Processing, and Purification.”

Hower, who also has an appointment in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, is one of the world’s top coal petrographers and rare earth element researchers.

Rare earth elements are among the critical materials that are considered the building blocks for modern society. These elements are used in the development of all the

By Jesi Jones-Bowman 

LEXINGTON, Ky (Oct. 10, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Office of Undergraduate Research has selected 15 undergraduates for the 2024-25 Undergraduate Research Ambassador program.

The program’s mission is to increase awareness and create opportunities for students to  engage in research. Ambassadors must demonstrate academic excellence, leadership potential and be involved in mentored research. This year’s ambassadors represent four colleges, nine disciplines and 10 research areas.

The student leaders’ goal is to make undergraduate research more accessible. Ambassadors promote undergraduate research involvement through

By Lindsay Travis 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 10, 2024) — A team of chemists from the University of Kentucky will advance its research on how air pollution from wildfire and combustion emissions affect the environment thanks to a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

Marcelo Guzman, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences, a Lewis Honors College faculty fellow and lead chemist in the Environmental Chemistry Laboratory, is the principal investigator of the nearly $571,000 grant.

This three-year laboratory study focuses on the chemical interactions of

By Brandon Brown 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 10, 2024) — It’s University of Kentucky Homecoming week — a time when the UK community comes together to celebrate and honor its alumni. This week, UKNow is shining a spotlight on just a few of the thousands of alumni who embody the university’s mission to advance Kentucky. 

Today’s spotlight is on Connor Perry, a 2023 graduate of the UK College of Arts and Sciences, originally from Lexington, Kentucky. Perry is the current Miss Kentucky USA 2024. Perry is the primary ballet

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 8, 2024) — It’s University of Kentucky Homecoming week — a time when the UK community comes together to celebrate and honor its alumni. This week, UKNow is shining a spotlight on just a few of the thousands of alumni who embody the university’s mission to advance Kentucky. Spanning generations, these Wildcats are making lasting impacts in the Commonwealth and beyond through their careers and service to their communities.

Today’s spotlight is on Laura Farnsworth, a 2006 graduate from the UK College of Arts and

By Blair Hoover Conner and Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 7, 2024) — It’s University of Kentucky Homecoming week — a time when the UK community comes together to celebrate and honor its alumni. This week, UKNow is shining a spotlight on just a few of the thousands of alumni who embody the university’s mission to advance Kentucky. 

Colby Hall, a 2015 graduate of the UK

By Makenna Deaton 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 7, 2024) — Joseph Takahashi, Ph.D., the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience, investigator emeritus in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and chair of the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, will deliver the annual Thomas Hunt Morgan Lectures at the University of Kentucky.

The first lecture, “Circadian Clocks and Their Impact on Metabolism, Aging, and Longevity,” will be 2 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Thomas Hunt Morgan Biological Science Building in room 116.

The second lecture, “The Time of Your Life: How Circadian Clocks Promote Healthy Aging and Longevity,” will be 1 p.m. Oct. 25 at the Thomas Hunt Morgan