By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. --  Johanna Miller absolutely wanted to go to the University of Kentucky, but when she found herself in economic need, she contemplated dropping out the next semester.  

That’s when the people of UK’s College of Arts and Sciences stepped in in the person of Christia Spears Brown, Ph.D., associate dean for student engagement and success. 

"Out of the blue, I was sitting in class, and I got a text message from the associate dean that said she wanted to have a phone call with me,” said Miller, an undergraduate Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies major from Lexington. “That's all she said, so I got really nervous about that. I was like, ‘You want to talk to me? That’s really strange.’ So after class, I called her, and she said

Catch up with faculty members of the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies.

Dr. Joshua Abboud

"This is my third year as director of vomposition in WRD. I will be teaching a course on Writing with AI in the spring for the second year, and much of my professional focus outside of first-year writing has been on that. I am also involved with a Gaines Center Fellowship Grant for a Digital/Interactive Pedagogy Cooperative at UK, but we are looking to expand to other Universities."

Dr. Lauren Cagle

"I'm an associate professor in WRD, and this summer I wrapped up a term as Director of Environmental and Sustainability Studies. On July 1, I started a new role as director of the Tracy Farmer Institute for Sustainability

UK College of Arts and Sciences Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies alumni continue to make meaningful contributions in classrooms, studios, newsrooms and creative spaces across the country. Helena Arjona, a 2025 graduate, reflects on the experiences in WRD that helped her discover her voice as a storyteller and inspired her work in photography, videography and film. In her own words, Helena describes the moments, mentors and courses that set her on the path to graduate study and a future in the film industry:

“Coming into my undergrad at UK, I played around with a few different majors, but I was never really sure what I wanted to do. I always loved storytelling, but I was not sure how it could fit into my professional life after college.

I stumbled across Dr. Brian

UK College of Arts and Sciences Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies program is proud to highlight students whose creativity, curiosity and dedication help shape our community. WRD major and Gaines Fellowship recipient Chase Myers found his path through writing, editing and multimedia storytelling after discovering the possibilities within our department. Below, Chase shares in his own words how WRD shaped his growth as a writer and opened the door to new professional and creative opportunities:

“My time with the Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies department at the University of Kentucky has given me the opportunity to explore my creative outlets and pursue my passion as a writer.

When I originally started my college journey, I was content working in a STEM field, unaware of the creative opportunities the university provided.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Crystal Wilkinson, the Bush-Holbrook Endowed Professor of English in the University of Kentucky's College of Arts and Sciences, is the winner of the 2025 Corrington Award for Literary Excellence.

She gave a reading and accept her award in a ceremony on Monday, Oct. 27, at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. 

Wilkinson’s work includes:

Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in

By Francis Von Mann 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 29, 2025) - Janice W. Fernheimer, Ph.D., University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences professor, has been named a 2025-26 fellow of the Jewish Writers Institute Digital Storytellers Lab, a competitive program that supports and amplifies Jewish-themed creative projects. Digital Storytellers Lab fellows develop and produce untold and lesser-known Jewish stories or familiar stories retold in innovative ways and for new audiences. Fellows receive yearlong mentorship, funding and immersive educational experiences. 

By Haven L. Patrick 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 27, 2025) — Six University of Kentucky undergraduates have been selected for the Sustainability Summer Research Fellowship, a program that supports student-led projects that advance sustainable practices and community impact through research.

Now in its 11th year, the fellowship is a collaboration between the Office of Undergraduate Research, UK Sustainability and the UK Student Sustainability Council. Since its launch in 2014, the program has supported

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tom Marksbury, professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, co-directed a documentary that was honored in 2024 at the San Francisco Docfest. 

The film will have its Lexington premiere at 6 p.m. Sunday, March 16, at the Kentucky Theatre. The event will be a fund-raiser for the Faulkner Morgan Archive. The Writing Rhetoric, and Digital Studies Department is presenting the event. 

The documentary, “Bob Morgan's Just Going to Tell Some Stories,” received the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence in Profiles. Co-directed by Grayson Tyler Johnson, “Stories” profiles

Cynthia Wells, WRD Alumna

When you think about bourbon and alcoholic beverages, you don’t often think of writing. Yet, in my current role working at the Sazerac Company as an Operations Leadership Development Professional, writing is a foundational tool I use to create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and technical documents that ensure consistency and efficiency across our Northwest Ordinance Distilling plant operations. My comprehension and writing abilities, honed as a WRD student, allow me to digest complex technical topics and craft them into simple, meaningful, and organized communication that delivers exactly what my technicians need to properly operate and troubleshoot a piece of machinery.

Before graduating UK with a Bachelor of Business Administration; Distillation, Wine, and Brewing Studies (DWBS) Certificate; and an International Business Minor,

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 Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 25, 2024) — The Kentucky Climate Consortium (KYCC) will host the inaugural 2024 Kentucky Climate Symposium from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Sept. 26, at the University of Kentucky.

The event, taking place in Harris Ballroom of the Gatton Student Center, will bring together students, leading experts, researchers, policymakers and community members to share information and resources on climate change.

The symposium is designed as a collaborative

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 5, 2024) — Janice Fernheimer, Ph.D., professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has received a 2024 Women of Whiskey Award, presented by the Bourbon Women Foundation.

Fernheimer, a professor in Jewish Studies and the Department of Writing, Rhetoric

By Meg Mills and Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 5, 2024) — Body paint, mismatched socks, hidden knick-knacks — what do they have in common when chasing glory on the biggest stage?  

In the competitive world of sports, where every move matters, athletes often turn to rituals and superstitions to find comfort and boost confidence.  

These unique habits can also extend to fans. 

From the food on their plate to the clothes on their back, some sports enthusiasts also feel the success of their team hinges on having things done in such a particular manner that it’s often unexplainable to anyone else.  

With

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 2, 2024) — At the University of Kentucky, Laurel Riggs, from Bardstown, Kentucky, wears many hats. The pre-law senior and Lewis Honors College member is majoring in political science with a minor in writing, rhetoric and digital studies, while also serving as a coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences’ Ambassador program, member of Chi Omega sorority, vice president of membership Standards for UK Panhellenic, and assistant attorney general for the Student Government Association.

Riggs is also the recipient of

In early 2021, the Nunn Center and Dr. Janice Fernheimer partnered to launch the Women in Bourbon Oral History Project. This oral history project, built in collaboration with students, documents women who have played important roles in Kentucky’s bourbon industry. Doug Boyd and Janice Fernheimer reflect on this phase of the oral history project and some key themes expressed in the interviews.  
 

By Jennifer T. Allen 

JWells looks for the gaps. The places where others aren’t looking; aren’t researching; aren’t writing. When she was volunteering at a county jail as an assistant GED instructor, JWells began to learn the extent of bias toward people of color, especially men of color, in the carceral system. Then she began to realize that the voices of one of the fastest growing populations in prison – women – were missing.  

“I started to quickly find out there wasn’t really, at that time, any research on women in prison,” she said. “I read all these memoirs written by men when they were incarcerated. I read all these statistics about men, but attention to women was just starting to develop.” 

As JWells followed the gap, she noticed there was also a gap in information about incarcerated

Brandon M. Erby, assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, has won the 2024 CCCC Richard Braddock Awards for “Imagining Freedom: Cultural Rhetorics, Digital Literacies and Podcasting in Prison,” published in the September 2023 issue of College Composition and Communication. The Conference on College Composition and Communication is an association within the National Council of Teachers of English. 

This award is presented to the author of the outstanding article on writing or the teaching of writing in the journal during the year before the conference's annual convention. The award was created to honor the memory of Richard Braddock from the University of Iowa, an extraordinary person and

By Erin Wickey 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 11, 2024) — In the summer of 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till traveled to rural Mississippi to visit extended family. Just a few days after his arrival, the teenager was abducted, beaten and lynched after being accused of offending a white woman in a grocery store. 

Following his murder, his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, decided to hold an open-casket funeral in their hometown of Chicago. The photo of her son’s corpse was first published in Jet magazine, bringing nationwide attention to the brutality and racial violence.  

Brandon M. Erby, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 9, 2023) — How important is word of mouth when understanding climate change?

A new project, led by the Kentucky Climate Consortium research team at the University of Kentucky, is proving that oral histories can provide an intimate view of our shifting world.

The consoritium acts as a catalyst for climate research and education across the Commonwealth by providing networking opportunities for Kentucky-based climate scholars.

Through her work with the consortium, Lauren Cagle, associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies