By Tatyanna Pruitt

Growing up reading "The Hobbit" novels, Emily Dautenhahn never imagined she would get to visit the actual movie set of the trilogy. Her unexpected journey became a reality when she took a leap and decided to study abroad.

Dautenhahn, a senior double majoring in mathematics and history in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, decided she wanted to participate in an education abroad program the summer after her sophomore year, and began researching and filling out applications. She ultimately decided on a program in New Zealand.

"After choosing an internship program in New Zealand, I was delighted to hear that I had been placed with the

By Jenny Wells

Francis Su, a mathematician from Harvey Mudd College, will deliver a talk on how math helps people flourish at the University of Kentucky next week.

Hosted by the UK Department of Mathematics in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, the 2017-18 J.C. Eaves Lecture will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday, March 29, in Room 110 of the White Hall Classroom Building.  

Su, who is the outgoing president of the Mathematical Association of America, is known for his powerful speeches on how mathematics can help people achieve their human desires, such as truth and justice.

“Why does the practice of mathematics often fall short of our ideals and hopes? How can deeply human themes

By Susan Odom and Jenny Wells

Kentucky’s middle school girls and their parents or guardians are invited to register for the second annual Expanding Your Horizons conference at the University of Kentucky Saturday, April 21. This day of hands-on workshops will give middle school girls the chance to meet role models and get exposure to opportunities in the STEM disciplines. This is the second iteration of the conference, which is organized by members of the UK Colleges of Agriculture, Food and Environment; the UK College of Arts and Sciences; and the UK College of Engineering.

Sometime during the transition from middle school to high school, middle school

By Stephanie Swarts

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has selected 12 exceptional undergraduates as new scholars for the university’s Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 academic years. Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues, and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities.

Gaines Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of students’ junior and senior years; students in all disciplines and with any intended profession are given equal consideration.

UK’s 12 new Gaines Fellows are:

By Kaitlyn Summe

As part of the "Year of Civics and Citizenship," the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences will host guest speaker Sam Ford for a lecture regarding the Future of Work initiative in Kentucky: the power of narrative for imagining sustainable solutions. The free public talk will begin 4 p.m. Wednesday, March 28, in the William T. Young Library.

For a state at the front lines of economic disruption, the future of work can be a challenging subject. Ford will discuss how we can avoid dominant culture narratives becoming self-fulfilling prophecies as well as the roles questions of narrative and civic imagination play in economic development.

Ford is a

By Allison Cooper

Six students from the University of Kentucky will compete in Emory University’s Global Health Case Competition (GHCC) in Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, March 17. This is the fourth year that UK will compete in Emory’s competition. Students from three teams that participated in UK’s GHCC were selected to form a new team for the competition.

Emory’s competition brings 24 teams together from national and international schools to propose solutions to current real-world health issues. The teams are presented with a case involving a specific issue, and they have a week to create a realistic approach to solving it. This year, the teams will be working on a method to contain a deadly virus during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

UK faculty and other professionals in the state will assist the students, providing their expertise to advise the team. Professor

By Jenny Wells

Melissa Pittard, a senior lecturer in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Statistics, has received an award from the American Statistical Association. The Best Speed Session Award, which was given out as part of the 2017 Joint Statistical Meeting Conference, was given to Pittard for her presentation on statistics education. More than 480 presenters participated in the speed sessions.

"I am quite honored to win the award and was rather surprised," said Pittard, who received her doctoral degree from UK in 1999. "The other presentations were excellent. I usually just joke that I am really good at talking fast. 

”The topic of my presentation was using video presentations to assess student learning in large lectures

by Susan Odom

Kentucky’s middle school girls and their parents/guardians are invited to join us for the second annual Expanding Your Horizons Conference at the University of Kentucky campus on Saturday, April 21, 2018.  This day of hands-on workshops will give middle school girls the chance to meet STEM role models and get exposure to opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math. This is the second iteration of the conference, which is organized by members of the Colleges of Agriculture, Food, and Environment, the College of Arts & Sciences, and the College of Engineering.

Co-organizers, including Ellen Crocker (Forestry and Natural Resources) and Carmen Agouridis (Biosystems & Ag Engineering), joined forces to bring Expanding Your Horizons back to UK for a second time. The EYH team is back with more person – in particular

By Whitney Hale

A desire to become a physician-scientist has led University of Kentucky biology junior Joshua Preston to not only excel in the classroom and lab, but also garner one of the nation’s most coveted STEM scholarships as well as entry into several undergraduate research programs during his college studies.

Preston is UK’s most recent recipient of the Astronaut Scholarship from the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF). He is one of 45 recipients of the prestigious $10,000 scholarship, which is presented annually to outstanding college students majoring in science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). Candidates must be nominated by faculty of the participating universities based on their display of initiative, creativity

By Jenny Wells

 Chad Risko, an assistant professor of chemistryin the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences and researcher at the Center for Applied Energy Research, has been selected to receive a 2018 Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award. Risko is one of 31 academic scientists at 22 institutions to receive the honor this year.

Risko’s research is inspired by complex synthetic materials and the desire to

By Sarah Wood

When University of Kentucky students signed up for the MCL 591: Russian Radio class, they didn’t realize they would be reaching people 5,000 miles away.

Dedicated to the improvement of students’ linguistic and cultural knowledge, “Russian Radio” is a unique class offered by the UK College of Arts and Sciences. It is not a typical class, however. Instead of taking exams and conducting research, students in Russian Radio learn through live readings on UK’s independent student radio, WRFL-FM (88.1).

“We don’t have exams in this class. Every week is like an exam when students try to read on the radio. This extra time is dedicated to a student’s deeper understanding of language, culture and connection to Russian,” said 

By Gail Hairston and Kathy Johnson

Karen Rignall of the University of Kentucky has received a $50,000 Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellowship to pursue her research “Stories of Place in a Changing Appalachia,” a project in Eastern Kentucky, to bring “stories of place” and other traditions to bear on local land-use planning.

The Whiting Foundation announced yesterday (Tuesday) a new cohort of seven Whiting Public Engagement Fellowships, including Rignall’s, to showcase how the humanities enrich our lives.

In a written statement, Whiting Foundation leaders declared, “Never before has an understanding of history, philosophy, literature, and culture been so important. The humanities — too often underappreciated outside of academia — bring to bear careful inquiry and deep context, and help us absorb the news

By Linda Perry

Having authored or edited more than 10 scholarly books and many articles, Gregory S. Parks ’01 ’04 (College of Arts and Sciences) often focuses on issues dealing with diversity on university campuses in the United States.

Parks is the associate dean for research, public engagement and faculty development and professor of law at Wake Forest University School of Law in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He earned a master’s degree and a doctorate in clinical psychology from UK. Parks also holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University (1996) and earned a law degree from Cornell University (2008).

His books include “The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America?” (Oxford University Press) and “Twelve Angry Men: True Stories of Being a Black Man in America” (The New Press), which was turned into an off-Broadway production in 2016. He is co-authoring a book

By Amy Jones-Timoney and Kody Kiser

After deployments that took him from North Carolina to Afghanistan to Alaska, Andrew Fadley, a University of Kentucky student veteran, discovered he had a passion for philosophy.

Since he started his degree at UK before joining the United States Army, the native of Marquette, Michigan, decided to return to Kentucky to finish what he started.

Watch why taking this new step in life means so much to him.

This video is the final production in a three-part series highlighting student veterans at the University of Kentucky. These student veterans were honored by UK Athletics during UK men's basketball games at Rupp Arena during the past

By Mack McCormick and Whitney Hale

Members of the Affrilachian Poets. Photos by Joseph Rey Au/Courtesy of the Affrilachian Poets.

When Frank X Walker coined the culturally encompassing term “Affrilachian” 25 years ago, he had no idea the group of colleagues who got their start inside a University of Kentucky elevator would transform into a radically influential social movement.

The Affrilachian Poets emerged out of a desire for solidarity and to advance the visibility of diverse voices through the cultivation of writing that is both challenging and evocative. This innovative band of artists and activists number nearly 40 today and continues to shape the literary and social landscapes of the Appalachian region and

By Kristie Law

The University of Kentucky Women's Forum announces 14 women have been nominated for the 2018 Sarah Bennett Holmes Award, one of UK's most prestigious awards for women. Women's Forum, who established the award in 1994, is currently celebrating over 26 years of open discussion and creativity while providing leadership development for all women employed at UK.

The Sarah Bennett Holmes Award honors a distinguished former dean of women at the University of Kentucky. Holmes, who was widowed at a young age, raised four children while completing her own education. She went on to have a successful career at UK where she inspired young women to persevere in the face of hardship and pursue their career goals. Among

By Blair Hoover Conner

Over the past two weeks, millions of people worldwide have gathered around televisions to watch athletes across the world compete for their respective countries in the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. For University of Kentucky students Beeson Shin and Wonjin Kim, watching the games is getting a glimpse of home.

Shin – a psychology senior – was born in Anyang, South Korea, two and a half hours from PyeongChang. Shin moved to the United States in 2012 and attended high school in Western Kentucky. In her college search, Shin was looking for schools with prominent science programs. She applied to UK, was accepted and shortly after began her journey as a Wildcat.

Beeson Shin on the bridge that connects Yeosu, Korea and Odongdo Island.

Kim – a junior chemistry major from Suwon, South Korea – came to the

By Gail Hairston, Amy Jones-Timoney, and Kody Kiser

Many people can say they’ve been “around the world,” but only a few of those have actually set foot on all seven continents.

University of Kentucky alumnus Jason Darnall (1999) can beat that boast by miles ... at a jog. From a standing start, it has taken less than six years for Darnall to run around the world, touching foot on all seven continents, including ice-bound Antarctica, one marathon at a time. Along the way, he has earned about $10,000 in charitable contributions to cancer and asthma research.

He started his world tour of marathons with resolve. The second marathon he ever ran was Boston, in April 2012. That’s when he learned about the other World Marathon Majors, the six biggest, most competitive marathons in the world — Boston, New York, Chicago, London, Tokyo and Berlin. Once he

By Gail Hairston

Watch the trailer for "Wide as the Wind" by Edward Stanton above.

A third international book award has been presented to University of Kentucky Professor Emeritus Edward Stanton for his young adult, prehistorical fiction novel “Wide as the Wind” (2016, Open Books Press).

He was recently awarded the Silver Feathered Quill Book Award in the category of teen fiction (13-18 years).

Stanton’s “Wide as the Wind” first won the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Young Adult Fiction, presented by the Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group. A few months later in

By Kathy Johnson

The Center for Equality and Social Justice at the University of Kentucky is hosting a conversation with Lexington Mayor Jim Gray as part of its Keys to Our Common Future conversation series. He speaks at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 20, in the Boone Center in UK's campus.

Gray will talk about political polarization in today's society and how opposite sides can work toward compromise.  After Lexington became a focus of national news when Confederate statues downtown were moved, Gray found himself in the middle of a national debate.  He will discuss what it is like to personally engage in controversial decisions and how citizens with differing views on issues can still live and work together.

The mission of the Center