By Richard LeComte

Teaching his first classes at UK in fall 2019, Eladio Bobadilla fresh from his doctoral studies at Duke—saw a lot of eager students waiting for him to share his perspectives on Latinx history. For many students in the class, Bobadilla was teaching something essential: their own histories. 

“It was pretty amazing because a couple of the classes were largely Latino students who were really excited to have someone who looked like them teach them about their histories,” Bobadilla said. “So that was a lot of fun for me. And it was exciting for them to find someone who cares about their history.”

As part of a cluster hire program to bring new Latinx faculty to campus, the College of Arts and Sciences brought aboard two assistant professors:

Dean's Letter

News & Notes

20th Anniversary Hall of Fame

Energizing a Career
Robert Stokes’ physics degree took his career from space science to energy technology

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

A new book by researchers in the University of Kentucky's Center for Research on Violence Against Women (CRVAW) explores adjudication options on sexual misconduct on college campuses.

Published in January by Cognella, "Adjudicating Campus Sexual Misconduct and Assault" was edited by CRVAW Director Diane Follingstad and Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair Claire Renzetti.

"There is considerable confusion around policies and procedures for addressing campus sexual misconduct and assault and a good deal of diversity across campuses," said Renzetti, who is also professor and chair of the UK Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences. "One of our goals has been to provide some clarity

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

The University of Kentucky Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) will host an open house next week, giving students and the public an opportunity to learn more about the environmental and geological research taking place on campus.

The open house will be held 4-6 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Slone Research Building, located at 121 Washington Ave. on campus.

What attendees can expect to experience:

By Emily Sallee

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that biology and health, society and populations senior Hannah Thomas in the College of Arts and Sciences has been awarded a Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink Research Internship in the program’s first year. Through this highly competitive opportunity, students undertake advanced research projects in Canada for 10 to 12

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

In just a few weeks, the University of Kentucky will welcome students, scholars and activists to campus for the 43rd annual Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) conference March 12-15. Themed "Appalachian Understories," the conference will emphasize the often obscured voices of the region, including black Appalachians.

Jillean McCommons, a doctoral student in the UK College of Arts and Sciences' Department of History, studies black Appalachian history and is serving as an organizer for the upcoming conference. One of the conference's four plenaries, "Black Appalachian Women: Testimonies,

By Jay Blanton

University of Kentucky faculty member Connie Wood accepted a collect call in 1989 from a student a world away who was in need of a connection and a path forward.

For Bing Zhang, the willingness of a director of Graduate Studies to accept that phone call and offer help in a time of need has made all the difference in a life’s work and, now, what has been a lifetime of giving back.

Flash forward more than 30 years.

Today, President Eli Capilouto is recommending that the UK Board of Trustees accept a $6.35 million pledge Zhang is making to the university’s Department of Statistics, where he received his doctorate a generation ago. Capilouto also is recommending that the board approve naming the department the Dr. Bing Zhang Department of

By Whitney Hale and Jenny Wells-Hosley

The year 2020 kicks off a new decade. What will the next 10 years bring in the areas of health, technology, climate, the economy, politics and more? In a new recurring series, UKNow explores the next decade by asking University of Kentucky experts to discuss and predict upcoming trends in their areas.

Today, we spoke with Michael Zilis. As an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, he is looking ahead at the issues that will shape 2020 and beyond.

Zilis teaches courses on American government, constitutional law and judicial decision-making. He emphasizes student engagement inside and outside of the

By Madison Dyment

LEXINGTON, Ky. --- Maria Horn, a master’s student in the UK's College of Arts and Science’s Geography Department’s New Maps Plus digital mapping graduate program, recently was awarded the top prize in the NACIS Student Dynamic Maps Competition for her digital map “Conservation Areas in South America.” The competition is a national-level contest for students in the field of dynamic mapping in cartography. Horn is the second consecutive student from the UK Geography Department to win the prize. 

Horn, a native of Bolivia, received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Gabriel Rene Moreno University in Santa Cruz. She moved to the United States after getting married in 2006. Because she

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center's scholar-in-residence, Gurney Norman, will continue his "Conversations with Gurney" speaker series this spring. The series features authors from the Appalachian region.

The series will kick off 5 p.m. Monday, Jan. 27, with Willie Davis, author of the novel "Nightwolf." The event will take place in the Davis Marksbury Building's James F. Hardymon Theater.

A native of Whitesburg, Kentucky, Davis earned graduate degrees in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland. He has taught English and creative writing at the University of Maryland, Kentucky State University, Georgetown College and the

By Whitney Hale

Evie Shockley, a finalist for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her book "semiautomatic," will give the keynote speech at the 2020 Kentucky Women Writers Conference scheduled for Sept. 17-20. The free public talk, presented in conjunction with University of Kentucky Libraries, will begin at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 18, at the Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, in Lexington.

Shockley is the author of three books of poetry: "semiautomatic" (Wesleyan, 2017), which won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and was a finalist for both the Pulitzer Prize and the LA Times Book

By Lindsey Piercy

The University of Kentucky campus community is invited to ring in the Chinese New Year with the Chinese Studies Program in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences.

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, welcome the Year of the Rat by creating Chinese character bookmarks. The event will be held from 9 a.m.-noon at the 2nd floor entrance to the Gatton Student Center.

On Wednesday, Jan. 22, attend a festive Chinese

By Ryan Girves

At Saturday’s University of Kentucky basketball game, winners of the Ken Freedman Outstanding Advisor Awards, Beth Hanneman and Erik Myrup, were honored on the court, acknowledging their role in fulfilling the teaching and learning mission of the university.

Each year, the Ken Freedman Outstanding Advisor Award is presented by the UK Advising Network to one full-time professional adviser and one faculty adviser for outstanding service. Ken Freedman, the award's namesake, was one of the founders of the UK Advising Network in 1986 and served as a professional adviser at UK until his death in 2001.  

Both Hanneman, from the Stuckert Career Center, and Myrup, College of Arts and Sciences, received many nominations

From building play houses out of grass as a child in Danville to writing poetry and publishing books as an adult, Frank X Walker uses his immense imagination to chronicle the African-American experience in Appalachia.

Walker, an alumnus and English professor at UK, has written 10 collections of poetry, several anthologies and many articles and essays. His epic journey begins with a childhood immersed in books and moves on to becoming poet laureate of Kentucky and a chronicler of an often-ignored heritage.

Walker recently was highlighted in the winter issue of Keeneland magazine. Read the full story here.

By Lindsey Piercy

This week, University of Kentucky graduates are busy preparing to walk across the Rupp Arena stage, shake President Eli Capilouto's hand and accept their long-awaited diploma. That piece of paper signifies the end of a journey — a journey of self-discovery.

Ndeye Matou Amar's journey to Commencement has been filled with overwhelming challenges and inspirational successes. On Dec. 20, she will boldly stand in front of the Class of 2019 — as the selected student speaker — and tell her story of resilience.

When Amar reflects on how far she's come in the last decade, she's overcome with emotion. Ten years ago, she left behind her life in Senegal, West Africa to start a new life in the "Land of Opportunity."

Amar quickly realized opportunities aren't simply attained through luck but through grace

Alli Peoples graduated in spring 2018 with her bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Spanish. Upon graduation, she moved to Madrid, Spain, where she is currently working as an English Language and Culture Assistant at the bilingual primary school, CEIP Lepanto. At Lepanto, Alli not only plays an active role in English instruction in the classroom in multiple subject areas, but also in helping students to develop a multicultural mindset. In her words, “being an International Studies major helped me develop a foundation of knowledge that gave me the confidence to pursue a job abroad.” She believes her ability to help cultivate this mindset in her students was greatly enhanced by her coursework as an International Studies major, which helped her to first understand the shared values and identities of her own culture and then employ this knowledge to develop an understanding and

WRD encourages WRD majors and minors to conduct research at UK.

To help facilitate undergraduate research, WRD will offer up to $1,000 as support.

We encourage work in areas related to writing, rhetorical studies, or digital research. Such work might include:

To apply, please send a two page letter to the department chair at j.rice@uky.edu in which you

By Tatyanna Pruitt

Each month the National Residence Hall Honorary (NRHH) recognizes individuals who go above and beyond in their job with their “Of The Months” or “OTMs” awards. Jessica Pennington, academic living and learning success coordinator in the College of Arts & Sciences, won the campus level Institution Faculty/Staff member award for August 2017.

A large part of Pennington’s job requires crossover between the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Residence Life.

“Jessica is simply amazing at building a bridge between our academic colleges and residence life here at UK, as well as bettering the department of residence life and campus community,” said Tyler Priest, Champions area resident director who nominated Pennington for the award.

Every August, Pennington prepares for the return of

By Gail Hairston

 For the second year, the University of Kentucky will observe World Languages Day Friday, Feb. 24.

The event is organized by UK College of Arts and Sciences Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures, Hispanic Studies and the college’s International Student and Programs represented by coordinator Megan Koshurba.

UK’s World Languages Day will host about 120 local students from Scott County High School, Tates Creek High School, Carter G. Woodson Academy and Bryan Station High School. The high school students will attend classes in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Russian and Spanish.

An open house is slated 1-2 p.m. in Buell Armory with UK

By Gail Hairston

For the second year in a row, an advisor in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Advising Center has been recognized by the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA).

“Phyllis Nally has done sterling work and deserves this honor,” said Ruth Beattie, associate dean for advising for the college in the Office of Academic Advising and a biology professor in the Health, Society and Populations Program.

Phyllis Nally was named the winner of the 2017 Excellence in Advising-New Advisor Award in Region 3, an area that includes Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. The New Advisor Award