By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Tyler Patton exemplifies persistence: As a first-generation college student, he has weathered family and personal trauma, dropping out of college, a two-year stint in the U.S. Marine Corps and financial obstacles on the way to a University of Kentucky bachelor’s degree in English and perhaps on to law school.  

Now he’s poised to graduate in May and head off to law school. He credits one faculty member in particular — Michelle Sizemore, associate professor of English — as someone who came through when he needed help, guiding him toward the College of Arts and Sciences’ Finish Line Fund. 

“I have a class with Dr. Sizemore called Reading Dangerously, and she's been very helpful to me,” said Patton, who’s from Lexington and

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will welcome scholar Theresa L. Burriss to campus next week.

Burriss, who is the assistant vice president of community engagement and economic development at Emory & Henry College, will deliver a presentation titled “Appalachia and Eastern Europe: Cross-Cultural Collaborations” at 10 a.m. Monday, Nov. 20, in Taylor Education Building Room 158.

Burriss will discuss the some of the international collaborations in which she has been fortunate to be engaged since 2015. With a primary focus on Romania, Burriss will share her teaching and research experiences in this post-Communist country.

"The UK Appalachian Center and

By Rebekah Frazier 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 20, 2023) — Geologist Matt Crawford, a landslide researcher at the Kentucky Geological Survey and recipent of a doctorate in geological sciences from the University of Kentucky, took discoveries from Kentucky landslides to international collaborators in Sri Lanka last month.  

Crawford was part of the U.S. Geological Survey Landslide Disaster Assistance Team,

By Kody Kiser and Jay Blanton 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 13, 2023) — Another election season has concluded in Kentucky, which means an end — for the moment — to the constant, almost ubiquitous campaign ads.

Another face and voice that was a major presence in most media throughout Kentucky was Stephen Voss, a Univeristy of Kentucky political science professor. Voss is an expert on Kentucky political campaigns and he has been a guest on "Behind the Blue" several times sharing his deep, dispassionate analysis of campaigns and political strategy.

By Amanda Nelson 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 8, 2023) — At the University of Kentucky, STEM Experiences Camps are an opportunity for university faculty to engage with school-age youth to increase their interest and knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. 

Educators and others who seek to grow students’ interest in STEM celebrated National STEM Day on Nov. 8. Recently, the faculty, students, staff and community partners who collaborate on UK’s STEM Experiences Camps reflected on the impact of making positive STEM experiences accessible to youth. 

“STEM is all around us, everywhere you look. In schools, we are seeing more integration between these subjects and that’s great because that’s real life,”

By Sarah Geegan and Amy Jones-Timoney 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 15, 2023) — The University of Kentucky Office of the Provost has funded eight transformative projects, supporting an inaugural cohort of IMPACT Award recipients.  

Among the projects is the UK Hub for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. The proposed project will transform the educational and research capacity of AI/ML work at UK by building a centralized hub connecting AI/ML method consumers, users, and developers.

 The UK Hub for AI/ML will position UK researchers well for transdisciplinary work, stemming

By Jenny Wells-Hosley and Lauren Parsons 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 15, 2023) — More than 77,000 physical pages of Fayette County’s historical records, spanning from the late 1700s through 1865, are now digitized and publicly accessible online, thanks to a project led by University of Kentucky scholars, students and community partners. The project aims to help families and researchers piece together information and previously unknown

By Jackie Wilson

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 14, 2023) — "A Is for Affrilachia" by artist, writer, poet and University of Kentucky professor Frank X Walker is the grand prize winner of the 2023 Black Authors Matter Children’s Book Awards. Illustrated by Ron Davis (upfromsumdirt), "A Is for Affrilachia" was chosen for best overall book and content and also selected as the best book in the educational category.

The Black Authors Matter Children’s Book Awards were established to honor excellence in African American literature. A panel of authors evaluated more than 150 entries. In addition to the grand prize, submissions were

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Jennifer Cramer, professor of linguistics in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, is participating in the nationwide 2023-24 Weekend HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Leadership Institute for emerging leaders in higher education. She is among 63 higher education leaders chosen for the program. 

The HERS Leadership Institute is designed for faculty and staff who generally hold mid- to senior-level positions in higher education.  

Participants represent a range of racial and ethnic groups, gender identities, nationalities, veteran and disability statuses, religious affiliations, ages and years of experience in higher education, thereby broadening the range of perspectives and insights brought to each session. 

 "The goal of the

'A Night of Music and Poetry' will be  at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 15, in the Niles Gallery of the Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library. This event is free and open to the public.

Irina Voro, professor in the School of Music in the College of Fine Arts, and senior lecturer Anna Voskresensky of the Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures & Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences have organized the event. 

Sixteen students from the Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literature & Cultures will recite poetry in Russian and English, followed by 16 students from the College of Fine Arts performing piano ensemble compositions. This event features a diverse range of authors and composers and combines music and language to engage the audience in the experience of beauty through works of literature and music.

Voro

By Ann Blackford 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 9, 2023) — University of Kentucky alumnus Jim Embry, known as a civil rights activist, eco-activist farmer, social justice advocate and public speaker, was awarded the James Beard Foundation Leadership Award earlier this year in Chicago.

The James Beard Foundation Awards recognizes leaders in America’s food culture that exemplify the James Beard Foundation’s core value of championing a standard of good food anchored in talent,

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 9, 2023) — For her intimate memoir, “We Are Too Many,” Hannah Pittard, English professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, is a Southern Book Prize finalist.

Designed to honor great Southern voices, the Southern Book Prize is awarded by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) to books published in 2023 that are Southern in nature — either set in the South, written by a Southern author or both.

Additionally, the 18 finalists received enthusiastic reviews from booksellers.

Now through Feb. 1,

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

This Saturday (Veterans Day) the University of Kentucky Air Force ROTC (AFROTC) Detachment 290 will remember and honor veterans and service personnel who are/were prisoners of war and/or missing in action (POW/MIA) through the revival of the POW/MIA run across Central Kentucky.

The student-led run is set to begin 6 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 11, at UK’s Buell Armory. Lexington Mayor Linda Gorton will speak just before the run begins. Participants will then run approximately 29 miles to the Vietnam War Memorial in Frankfort. 

Nearly 95 cadets and cadre are expected to participate, including 10 from University of Louisville’s Air Force ROTC Detachment 295.

All participants will run the first and last two

By Ryan Girves

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 3, 2023) — The University of Kentucky Office for Institutional Diversity, the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Inclusion and Internationalization in the College of Education are partnering with Lyric Theater and Cultural Arts Center to present a remarkable event commemorating the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. The celebration will feature performances from legendary hip-hop trailblazers and is free to the community. The event will take place at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10, at the historic Lyric Theatre.

Performers include:

The Sugarhill Gang

By Lindsay Travis 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 3, 2023) — From bettering life here on Earth to exploring what living off this planet could be like, Beckman Scholars at the University of Kentucky are advancing their branches of science through the prestigious program. 

The UK Beckman Scholars Program is named Scholars United by Chemistry: Cultivating Excellence through Science Stewardship. The Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation funds 15 months of mentored research for two UK undergraduate students in chemistry, biological sciences and associated interdisciplinary combinations.

SUCCESS is an extensive multidisciplinary program that revolves around chemistry as

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Starting Nov. 7, linguists will have an online atlas to track how people in Paraguay and adjacent countries mix and mingle such European Romance tongues as Spanish and Portuguese with Guaraní, a living language native to South Americans.   

Haralambos Symeonidis, professor of Spanish Linguistics in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, is instrumental in developing the Atlas Lingüístico Guaraní-Románico, which features maps of where and how Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani are used based on research among more than 400 people native to Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and other areas. Now that research will be available to scholars online. Symeonidis used research funds from the John Keller Endowed Professorship to start the project. 

 "We already had

By Erin Wickey 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 2, 2023) — The UNited In True Equity Research Priority Area (UNITE RPA) welcomed this year’s cohort of 21 graduate students to the UNITE Predoctoral Research Enhancement Program.

UNITE is led by Danelle Stevens-Watkins, Ph.D., an associate vice president for research, diversity and inclusion and acting dean of the University of Kentucky College of Education. She created the predoctoral program in 2022, with support from the Office of the Vice President for Research, Office of Institutional Diversity and The Graduate School, to engage scholars who enhance equity and inclusion in Ph.D. programs at UK and support them as they become academic leaders in their field.

“The UNITE Predoctoral Research Enhancement

By Avery Schanbacher

Internships can be a powerful way to interact with new career opportunities. Thanks to the availability of career counseling and organizations for leadership development in specific fields, University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences students have the opportunity to connect with a wide variety of roles that can help prepare them for their careers.

This summer, senior psychology and sociology major Kadija Conteh participated in an internship at the Converse World Headquarters in Boston, combining her passions for fashion and design in a marketing role. At UK, Kadija is a stylist for KRNL Lifestyle and Fashion magazine, and hopes to pursue a career in fashion and merchandising roles. We spoke with Kadija about her experiences working in the fashion industry, how she came across her position at Converse, and how that internship impacted her

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Gurneyfest, a two-day celebration of Gurney Norman, the acclaimed Appalachian writer and professor emeritus of English at the University of Kentucky, will be Nov. 17 and 18 on the UK campus. 

Events will include a musical performance, a master class, panel discussions and readings of Gurney’s work. Events are free, but registration is required; attendees can go to this website to register. 

Among the events are: 

A screening of a new documentary by Sean Anderson at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 17 at the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, in the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library.  

A musical performance by.

By Tatum Armstrong and Lindsey Piercy 

If you’re a big fan of spooky season, you’ve probably planned plenty of Halloween activities — like visiting the pumpkin patch and putting together a costume.

But even if you’re a Halloween enthusiast, there’s still a lot you may not know about the holiday.

Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby, a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, knows the spellbinding history of Oct. 31.

As a folklorist, Rouhier-Willoughby