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
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
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
iStock/Getty Images PlusLEXINGTON, 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
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
Brandon M. ErbyLEXINGTON, 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
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
By Richard LeComte
Karrieann Soto VegaLEXINGTON, Ky. -- The portmanteau “DiaspoRicans” describes a demographic to which Karrieann Soto Vega belongs: people who come from or who trace their roots to Puerto Rico and don’t reside there. As part of her scholarship at the University of Kentucky, Soto Vega explores what it means to be part of Puerto Rico, especially in how artists and activists express their views on their relationship to the rest of the United States.
"I'm interested in part in popular culture and how activist rhetoric seeps into the work of reggaetón artists like Bad Bunny,” said Soto Vega, assistant professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies in UK’s
The Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative (KBWC) and the University of Kentucky's 91.3 WUKY will host "SAY IT LOUD: STAND UP," featuring prominent and emerging Black writers. The event will take place 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning, located at 251 West 2nd St.
Readings by Jude “JC” McPherson, Frank X Walker, Dwayne Parker and Shawn Pryor will take place throughout the event, and recordings of the presentations will be published here. Admission is free to the public and set to encourage attendees to nurture their development while removing financial obstacles for as long as needed.
"SAY IT LOUD: STAND UP" is sponsored by
By A Fish
High school students participate in Camp Kiki Academy.LEXINGTON; Ky. — Gaming and esports have grown in popularity over the past few years, but gaming also is being used as an educational tool. Kishonna L. Gray, a professor of Writing, Rhetoric, & Digital Studies at the University of Kentucky, has been working with under-resourced students to teach them team building, communication structures, peer mediation, conflict resolution and other skills through the art of game development.
“What Camp Kiki Academy does is it provides a curriculum.” she said, “The class is a gaming class, but they learn different skills inside those gaming classes. We wanted them to build the capacities that may have gotten a lot of them in trouble before. The decision-making part, confidence, self-esteem, so we've integrated a lot of the things that the
LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 12, 2023) — Are you looking to get lost in your next summer read but don’t know where to start?
We asked the University of Kentucky community to recommend books they feel would make good additions to anyone’s reading list.
In the descriptions below, faculty members across various colleges and disciplines share the novels they can’t put down. Pulling from the worlds of history and fiction — their picks explore timely themes while providing intriguing insights.
FictionThe recommendations below range from short stories to dystopian, historical and horror fiction.
“Demon Copperhead” by Barbara Kingsolver
Recommended by Diane Loeffler, senior lecturer in the
LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 8, 2023) — Elizabeth Williams, an assistant professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, is one of 10 winners to receive the University of Kentucky’s 2022-23 Outstanding Teaching Awards.
These awards identify and recognize individuals who demonstrate special dedication to student achievement and who are successful in their teaching. Recipients were selected via nomination and reviewed by a selection committee based in the UK Provost’s Office for Faculty Advancement
"Few people are working harder to make gaming and tech more equitable than Dr. Gray herself. Her deep study of issues around race and gender in gaming has led to the publication of several books including Race, Gender, and Deviance in Xbox Live and Intersectional Tech: Black Users in Digital Gaming."
"'Her writing and academic work in this space is invaluable, and as an intellectual, she can hang with the best of them.' Intersectional Tech, for instance, dense with stimulating ideas, begins
