by Amanda Nelson

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Researchers at the University of Kentucky have released a 10-minute film titled “Becoming Myself: Positive Trans & Nonbinary Identities.” It features narratives from the lives of seven transgender and nonbinary identified young adults, reflecting on their experiences navigating gender identity.  

The film’s executive producers, based in the colleges of Arts & Sciences and Education, are Zak Clements, Ph.D. candidate in counseling psychology; Ellen Riggle, professor and chair in the 

By Doug Curl and Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 23, 2022) — The Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS) at the University of Kentucky hosted its first seminar focusing on the intersection between geoscience research and climate change on May 12. The 61st Annual KGS Seminar highlighted how interdisciplinary research is vital to shaping Kentucky’s future when it comes to climate change.

“Climate change is here, and the impacts reach far beyond geology," said Bill Haneberg, state geologist and KGS director. "It’s an economic, human health, and policy issue. Our job at KGS is to provide unbiased data and information to help mitigate potential

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 12, 2022) — The University of Kentucky will welcome Samara Davis, founder of the Black Bourbon Society, to campus for a conversation about her work in digital media and how she has helped to reshape Kentucky’s bourbon industry.

“Breaking Barriers in Bourbon: Digital Media, Diversity, and the Black Bourbon Society” will take place at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 13, in the Singletary Center Recital Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Davis will discuss her success as a social media influencer and culture creator by explaining how she leveraged her work in digital media to found the Black Bourbon Society and the nonprofit organization, Diversity Distilled. Her work in

By Richard LeComte

Summer fun in Appalachia: hiking, climbing, camping, swimming—and holding somebody’s removed femur in a hospital.

UK student Logan Turner got to participate in that last activity while working a summer observation internship in Pikeville Medical Center in 2021. He participated in AppalachiaCorps, a new program run by the College’s Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program and funded with help from UK’s Women in Philanthropy.

AppalachiaCorps helped fund Turner’s work with the Eastern Kentucky hospital as a run-up to his applying to medical school. His goal is to be an ophthalmologist.

“I was doing physician shadowing, so a

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 14, 2022) — From laughable to just downright bizarre.

“I have a wildcat skull — "JOR" — given to me by former faculty member, Dr. Stemple. When he retired, he passed "JOR" down to me to take precious care of,” said Tammy Jo Edge, who works in the University of Kentucky College of Health Sciences. “We always summon "JOR" for extra help during those tough games. I believe that 'JOR' was one tough warrior of a Wildcat in his day.”

Let’s face it, fan bases are a superstitious bunch. That includes us Wildcats.

“I have to watch UK March Madness games at the same restaurant — Cinco De Mayo in Lexington,” said Christina Lucas, who works at UK Eastern State Hospital. “Every game that I've watched there, UK has won.”

From the food on their plate

By Olaoluwapo Onitiri

Many people grew up playing video games throughout their childhood. Gaming has become an important culture in the world today. It has inspired many, including Kishonna Gray, who is using her gaming experiences to create platforms to talk about important topics, such as Black people in the cyber world and intersectional feminism.

Gray is an associate professor in Writing, Rhetoric and Digital studies and African American and Africana studies and an affiliate faculty in Gender and Women studies and International Film studies. In her latest book, Intersectional Tech from Louisiana State University Press, she talks about blackness in gaming at the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and (dis)ability in-depth.

“While my

By Carlie Laughlin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 11, 2021) — University of Kentucky students, faculty and staff from every area of campus are leading exciting, sustainability-focused programs. These programs provide high-impact research and learning opportunities for students and faculty, have significant positive environmental and economic impacts on operations, and provide resources and support for a foundation of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion at UK and across the Commonwealth. 

The 2021 Sustainability Showcase, hosted in the innovative and community-facing Cornerstone Exchange, highlighted the university's accomplishments in student engagement, athletics, health care, campus operations and interdisciplinary scholarship. A brief award presentation also honored the recipients of

By Adrian Ho

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 23, 2021) — More than 11,800 students have gained free online access to essential course materials and saved more than $1.48 million in textbook spending from 2017 through 2021, thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries’ Alternative Textbook Grant Program. The program supports UK faculty to switch from commercial textbooks to openly licensed textbooks, library-licensed information resources or free course content created by grant recipients.

“It is exhilarating to hear that the Alternative Textbook Grant Program has enabled equitable access to learning materials for so many students,” said Deirdre Scaggs, UK Libraries associate dean of

By Jesi Jones-Bowman

UK undergraduate researchers Bridget Bolt and Gretchen Ruschman. Students are encouraged to explore undergraduate research opportunities at the Research + Creative Experience Expo.

At the University of Kentucky, undergraduates have access to outstanding research and creative work activities led by world-class faculty and staff that promote self-discovery, experiential learning and lifelong achievement.

Explore exciting undergraduate opportunities at the first annual UK Research + Creative Experience Expo 3-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, around the Gatton Student Center’s Social Staircase.

“The goal of the Research + Creative Experience Expo is to introduce undergraduates to the diversity of research and creative work conducted at UK,” said Chad Risko, faculty

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A University of Kentucky professor has dug into the websites of universities in Australia and the United States and found some odd things lurking there. Programmers in charge of concerns that produce illicit papers for students are finding ways to redirect students from university help sites to their own “paper mills.” 

These illicit techniques insert software into vulnerable university websites so that students get redirected to sites that offer to help with papers. Instead, the sites end up selling papers to misled students, said Jim Ridolfo, director of composition and associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences.  

“A lot of what we're looking at is similar to what pharma hacks have

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Signs of summer are everywhere, particularly at The Arboretum, State Botanical Garden of Kentucky. Plants, trees, birds and insects celebrate the hot months, and big and little things grow. 

But to help the public better understand and enjoy The Arboretum, a UK faculty member in the College of Arts & Sciences wants to put up some new signs to educate visitors – beyond the botanists and serious gardeners who know about the place -- about what is there.  

“The Arboretum is used by horticulturists  and other researchers at UK to research, for example, display gardens,” said Lauren Cagle, assistant professor in Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies, who led a

By Richard LeComte 

Shui-yin Sharon Yam, associate professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies and Gender and Women's Studies in the College of Arts & Sciences, has received the Outstanding Book Award from the Conference on College Composition and Communication.  

Her book, "Inconvenient Strangers: Transnational Subjects and the Politics of Citizenship," was honored at the virtual convention in April. 

The book, which the Ohio State University Press published in 2019, discusses how networks of power, particularly race and ethnicity, gender, and social class, marginalize

By Miko McFarland and Lindsey Piercy

For more than 100 years, the National Parks have allowed visitors to immerse themselves in diverse ecosystems, as well as provided opportunities to learn about the importance of conservation and environmental protection.

This summer, students at the University of Kentucky will get the chance to take their studies beyond the classroom and into the National Parks — thanks to a partnership between UK, Aramark and the National Parks Service.

Aramark, UK’s dining partner, also serves the U.S. National Parks, and that’s how this unique collaboration emerged.

“We’re excited to work in partnership with Aramark to offer these opportunities for students to engage in credit-bearing experiential educational experiences in some of the nation’s most beautiful national parks,” Katherine

Congratulations to all of our undergraduate award recipients! 

Essay or Other Written Project

First Place

“Health, Society, and Soul: African American Relation to Food Proposal and Annotated Bibliography”

Project Creator: Piper Eades

Second Place

“#YesAllWomen”

Project Creator: Abigail Mitchell

Honorable Mention

“The Literacy and the Illicit”

Project Creator: Meghan Brockman

Documentary or Other Film

First Place

“Fighting Crowded Dorms & Empty Plates”

By Lindsey Piercy

The University of Kentucky is one step closer to becoming a global center for imaging and restoring ancient artifacts thought to be damaged beyond repair.

Brent Seales, professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science, is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) grant to create EduceLab — a cultural heritage imaging and analysis laboratory.

Seales is among 213 recipients of NEH grants, totaling $32.8 million, awarded to humanities projects across the country.

“As we conclude an extremely difficult year for our nation and its cultural institutions, it is heartening to see so many

By Richard LeComte 

Five recently hired faculty members associated with the African American and Africana Studies interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts & Sciences are broadening the range of diverse and inclusive course offerings to University of Kentucky students. The five new hires are JWells, Vieux Touré, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Brandon M. Erby and Aria S. Halliday. 

“It is important to hire Black faculty in these areas and all areas, because their individual and collective research expertise is essential to the mission of the University,” said Damaris B. Hill, interim director of the African American and Africana Program.  “This kind of research is essential because we, at the University of Kentucky and beyond in our global community, cannot understand where humanity has been

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 8, 2020) — Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has opened gateways — allowing for people to continue learning and remain connected. But it’s also allowed for the steady flow of disinformation, misinformation and conspiracy theories.

From Facebook to Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat — social media is always at our fingertips. Slanted views can spread like wildfire on those platforms, despite efforts to stop it.

Jenny Rice, an associate professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is an expert on conspiracy theories. In her book

By Richard LeComte

Janice Fernheimer has been interested in archives, since she first set foot in one as an undergraduate English major at the University of Maryland. Her current projects build archives that highlight the influence of minorities in Kentucky’s history.

For her contributions to the archival profession, she has received the Midwest Archives Conference President’s Award for 2020.

“I am very honored that the interdisciplinary, highly collaborative work of building the oral history project has been recognized for its significant contributions to pedagogic innovation, archive building and stewarding,  and community engagement,” said Fernheimer, Zantker Professor and director of the Jewish Studies Program in UK’s College of

By Ryan Girves

Before the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 50 outstanding University of Kentucky undergraduate research students learned they were selected to present their faculty-mentored research at the National Conference on Undergraduate Research. The event was canceled, but UK's Office of Undergraduate Research is noting the achievement. Among them are more than a dozen students in the College of Arts & Sciences. 

The student conference, which would have been held this past weekend at Montana State University, is dedicated to promoting undergraduate research, scholarship and creative activity in all fields of study. It provides models of exemplary research and scholarship and strives to improve the state of