By Titus W. Chalk

Pulitzer-prize winning poet Paul Muldoon and author Kiese Laymon, whose memoir Heavy won the 2019 Andrew Carnegie medal for nonfiction, are featured in this year’s University of Kentucky Visiting Writers Series, which will be held online. Laymon will be reading alongside distinguished writers Cinelle Barnes, Minda Honey and UK alumna Joy Priest.

The English Department’s MFA in Creative Writing in the College of Arts & Sciences sponsors the series. Given the health risks associated with live readings, organizers are taking this mainstay of campus literary life online.

“This shows our determination to continue the high calibre and diverse guests our Visiting Writers Series has become known for, in a virtual format,” said Frank X Walker, the new director of Creative Writing. “We’ll also be adding master classes and workshops to ensure

By Richard LeComte

Cagney Coomer has three big achievements under her belt:  She earned a doctorate in Biology from the University of Kentucky in the College of Arts & Sciences; she started a nonprofit to encourage kids to pursue science and technology; and her research unlocked the secrets of two genes in the eye – the subject of her dissertation.  

“I studied two genes that had been studied in other organs but their function in the retina was unknown,” said Coomer, who defended her work in July. “I found they’re involved in photoreceptor maintenance, survival and regeneration.”

And with that, Coomer advanced humanity’s knowledge of genes and the eye, under the guidance of her dissertation adviser, Ann C. Morris, associate professor of biology.

“It has been an absolute pleasure to work with Dr. Coomer over the past six years,” Morris said. “She has

By Whitney Hale

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 20, 2020) — The Kentucky Women Writers Conference – Virtual Edition runs Sept. 10–13, 2020, and is taking place entirely online.

Julie Wrinn, conference directory, recently wrote an op-ed in the Lexington Herald-Leader about how this event will be different in the context of the pandemic and the protests.The conference features writing workshops, readings and panel discussions. General admission is $25, with options for joining a small-group workshop or meeting with an agent for additional fees.

The conference will continue to include several signature free events, taking place at 7 o'clock, though each will look a little different this year. The

By Aimee Imlay, Matthew Wentz, and Adrian Ho

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 19, 2020) — The editorial collective of disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory announces the release of its 29th volume, available on the journal's website. The issue focuses on theories of populism and brings together a wide range of perspectives relating to the phenomenon, experience and study of populism.

The recent uptick in populism signals political, economic or social unrest across the globe. This issue presents conversations about the types and origins of populisms; the editors believe that the development and definition of populism is both historically and socially

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 18, 2020) — “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex.”

The words seem simple enough, but when they were ratified by the states 100 years ago, those words reflected the culmination of decades-long efforts by suffragists of all backgrounds.

On Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote — marking a monumental moment in history. But suffrage battles continued as women of color remained barred from casting ballots in states with intimidation tactics.

Today, it’s imperative that we — as a society — reflect on the women’s suffrage movement and those who made meaningful contributions. These figures include Laura Clay, who toured the United States

By Richard LeComte

On episode five of “Holler Back!,” Stacie Fugate and Michael Hamilton converse with Montgomery County High School senior Larah Helayne, a singer-songwriter whose activism for LGBTQ issues in Montgomery County, Kentucky, has brought her attention in Appalachia. During the podcast, Fugate talks to the teenager about her strong emotional reaction to hearing Helayne’s songs.

“I’m sitting in the audience and crying,” Fugate says. “It wasn’t just me; everybody around me is crying.”

That kind of emotional attachment to Appalachia and its people sparks the passion Fugate and Hamilton bring to “Holler Back!,” a podcast run by two Appalachian Studies minors in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky. The podcasts themselves are part of the programming of UK’s

By Jay Blanton

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 5, 2020) — University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto and faculty leaders in the African American and Africana Studies (AAAS) program on Wednesday announced the establishment of the proposed Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies — a multidisciplinary program that will highlight UK’s growing research around issues of race and racism.

Capilouto and AAAS faculty on Thursday announced an initial $250,000 investment as seed money to leverage additional investment to help the institute move forward with a critical series of initiatives. The creation of a new institute, ultimately, must receive approval from UK’s University Senate.

The interdisciplinary institute will establish research clusters across the campus and promote UK’s growing research and scholarship on topics

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 4, 2020) — It’s not every day members of an international team of scientists find themselves perplexed over unexpected data results. And it’s even less likely the team will turn to a student to help make sense of the findings. But this was what happened with University of Kentucky student Maryam Dehghanian.

Dehghanian, a doctoral candidate in the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy in the College of Arts and Sciences, has spent the last three years helping a team of NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) astronomers understand observations they made while studying a supermassive black hole at the center of NGC 5548, a nearby galaxy. The observations were made as part of NASA’s Space

By Olivia Bloss

In spring 2020, I had the opportunity to present my peace studies capstone research at a national conference in Washington, D.C. My research was inspired by experiences in the Peace Studies Program and a semester-long internship on Capitol Hill. This activity started my freshman year when I enrolled in Introduction to Peace Studies. Upon enrolling in the class, I didn’t have the slightest idea of what peace studies actually was. I quickly discovered that peace studies is unique in that it offers a holistic, interdisciplinary perspective on personal biases, civil conflicts, political unrest and state instability, which is extremely valuable for promoting peace and stability.

This class immediately drew me to studying peace, because as a global citizen, I believe it is important to appreciate societal differences without those differences resulting in acts

By Richard LeComte

Phillip Skipwith is plumbing the depths of the evolutionary processes that create species – and his subjects have scales.

“I want to understand how you go from having a ancestral lizard skull to having a derived snake skull,” he said. “That’s a big change.”

Big changes are in store for Skipwith himself this summer as he begins work as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences, where snakes and lizards – and evolutionary dynamics as seen through comparing the inner tissues of snakes lizards – will be his thing.

“I’m just an animal fanatic,” said Skipwith, who’s coming from a postdoctoral position at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. “What will be coming out of my lab will be mostly herpetology and molecular

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 27, 2020) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center has honored 12 students with its annual research awards. Nine graduate students received the James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia, and two graduate students and one undergraduate student received the center's Eller and Billings Student Research Award. 

“The Appalachian Center is thrilled to support these student researchers that represent nine departments across four colleges,” said Kathryn Engle, associate director of the Appalachian Center. “We look forward to learning from their work as they continue to produce cutting-edge research in and on the region.”

The James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on

By Madison Dyment

Sociology doctoral candidate Henry Zonio in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences was selected as the recipient of the 2019-2020 Graduate School Presidential Fellowship.

This competitive fellowship recognizes and rewards one graduate student annually for her or his  exceptional academic and research merit in their field of study.

Receiving this award allowed Zonio to advance in his field by giving him the ability to focus on completing ethnographic field observations and drafting his dissertation he will be defending this coming fall semester. Within sociology, Zonio focuses on social inequalities, the sociologies of childhood, education and religion. His dissertation is an ethnographic study on how Sunday school teaches children about race and gender, with the studies focusing on three racially homogenous churches, these

By Ann Blackford

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 13, 2020) — People often ask Christopher Decker of Los Angeles why his daughter Sophia Decker, whom he describes as an extremely gifted student in languages, chose to attend the University of Kentucky.

“I always respond by saying she fell in love with Latin and Ancient Greek," he said. "When I say there is only one accredited university in the U.S. where the classics faculty conduct class in the target language, people often guess it to be Harvard, Yale, Georgetown or Notre Dame. The correct answer is the University of Kentucky, and that is why Sophia chose to attend UK."

Christopher Decker and his wife, Theresa Decker, were so impressed by UK’s Latin program that they recently donated a $25,000 endowed fund to the UK Department of Modern and Classical

By Whitney Hale

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 1, 2020) — For the first time in its 42-year history, the Kentucky Women Writers Conference will take place online to ensure the health of its participants and presenters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The conference will go forward as scheduled Sept. 17-20 with headliner and celebrated poet Evie Shockley. All readings, discussions and workshops will be presented virtually. Several prominent Black writers will be featured as part of the event. 

“Our organization has a long and proud history of lifting up the voices of Black women, from our first conference in 1979 with Maya Angelou, Alice Walker and Toni Cade Bambara, to the establishment of The Sonia Sanchez Series in

By Jay Blanton and Kody Kiser

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 22, 2020) — Tracy Campbell is the E. Vernon Smith and Eloise C. Smith Professor of American History at the University of Kentucky. He has written well-received accounts of voter fraud in the country, a biography of the Gateway Arch and a compelling biography of Ed Prichard, a legendary name in Kentucky politics whose life was a story of tragedy and redemption.

Recently, Campbell’s latest book was published — "The Year of Peril: America in 1942." It is a month-by-month chronicle of 1942, a tumultuous and often unsettling year in which America fully engaged in World War II. The deeply researched and richly detailed book underscores the fragility of democracy, the challenge of mobilizing a

By Richard LeComte

National events burst into the curriculum of the University of Kentucky when precautions over the novel coronavirus drove instruction online. As the students of Julia Johnson’s large-lecture core creative writing class in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences saw their lives upended, she felt they needed an outlet to express their fears, emotions, and hopes.

“What we were experiencing being in quarantine and a global pandemic situation was something none of us had ever experienced before,” said Johnson, a poet and professor in the Department of English and MFA program in Creative Writing. “And to be a student during this — that adds another level to the experience.”

The result: Nascent poets and writers in both her undergraduate and graduate classes expressed themselves through haiku and other kinds of poetry. Some students then recorded

The College of Arts and Sciences is committed to learning and working environments that are diverse, inclusive, and equitable for students, staff, and faculty.

We stand in solidarity with those working to confront systemic racial injustice in our communities and in the United States. We recognize the disproportionate burden of racism and other forms of violence on many within our A&S community during this time. We affirm our support of faculty, students, staff, and alumni in standing against all forms of racism, discrimination, and bias.

During this time of pandemic and continued racism and violence that especially impact marginalized communities of color, we recognize the disproportionate impact on Black and African-American people. In the context of the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and here in Kentucky, Breonna Taylor and David McAtee, we affirm that

By Richard LeComte

Myles D. Moody, now the holder of a doctorate from the University of Kentucky, has been giving his knowledge back to students through the SPARK program – an effort to train undergraduates from under-represented backgrounds in sociological research.

“I’m passionate about research and I really wanted the opportunity to transfer those skills and knowledge to younger folks,” said Moody, who earned his doctorate in sociology in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences. “It’s been very rewarding for me. I love seeing light bulbs go off. And it even reinforces some things for me. It’s been great in that regard.”

Moody was a first-generation doctoral student in the Sociology Department and a research assistant at the new Center for Health Equity Transformation at UK. In the SPARK program, he led undergrads through the process of getting research on human

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 27, 2020) — The COVID-19 pandemic has turned life upside down for almost everyone, and University of Kentucky students had to quickly adapt to finish out a semester that was unlike any other in UK history. Maria Sanchez, who graduated from UK this May, was no stranger to these challenges. Sanchez chose to share her personal story of family, hard work and resiliency, and how she plans to use her skills and experiences to create a better tomorrow.

From Mexico to the United States

Sanchez has lived in Chicago for more than half of her life and identifies as a Chicagoan. However, she was originally born in Mexico City and lived in the city’s outskirts as a young child. Her father died when she was just 1 year old, leaving her mother as

By Richard LeComte

Even if students can’t travel to foreign lands this summer, they can extend their knowledge of languages through a series of courses offered online in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts & Sciences. 

“I think one really big advantage of online learning the lockdown – when students can’t leave their homes – is the ability to travel virtually,” said  Julie Human, assistant professor of French and Francophone Studies in UK’s Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures & Cultures Department (MCLLC). “You can explore the customs and ways of the Francophone world whenever you’re stuck at home inside your four walls.”

Classes in Spanish, French, German and other languages are offered online through UK this summer. 

“We have all the elementary levels of Spanish – levels 101,