By Ashley Murphy

Motivated by his passion for writing studies and rhetoric, as well as his interest in Chinese culture, Brian McNely will head back to China this summer to teach advanced academic writing at Jilin University (JLU) in Changchun.   

McNely, assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies at UK, began his teaching experience in China in the summer of 2013, traveling to Shanghai to teach in a two-week program at Shanghai University. “I had an unbelievable time. I loved my time there, I loved my students there.”

In 2015, the 

By Gail Hairston

The last event of the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ Civil Life Panel Series’ spring season is slated noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, April 19, with two follow-up panel discussions later the same day. The topic is “Science Speaks.”

Allan Butterfield, Alumni Association Endowed Professor of Biological Chemistry; Andrea Erhardt, assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences; Bruce Webb, professor of entomology; and David Weisrock, associate professor of biology, will gather for a lively discussion at noon in the UK Athletics Auditorium of the William T. Young Library.

They will discuss what it

By Lori Minter

A record number of students made the University of Kentucky Dean's List for the fall 2016 semester. The 7,408 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance.  That's an increase of more than 200 over the previous record reached in fall 2015 when the number of students on the UK Dean's List surpassed 7,000 for the first time.  Last semester's Dean's List includes over 700 more students than the spring 2016 semester's list.

To make a Dean’s List in one of the UK colleges, a student must earn a grade point average of 3.6 or higher and must have earned 12 credits or more in that semester, excluding credits earned in pass-fail classes.  Some UK colleges require a 3.5 GPA to make the Dean’s List.

The full Dean's List can be accessed by visiting www.uky.edu/PR

By Whitney Hale

Poet Camille T. Dungy, known for her groundbreaking anthology of African-American nature poetry, will be the keynote speaker for the 2017 Kentucky Women Writers Conference, running Sept. 15-16. Dungy, who has two books scheduled to be released this year including her debut memoir, will present her keynote address 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 15, at the University of Kentucky Singletary Center for the Arts. The event is free and open to the public.

“Camille Dungy’s seminal anthology of African-American environmental poetry, 'Black Nature,' redefined the American poetic canon. At the same time, her own volumes of poetry have enlarged

University of Kentucky associate professor Jim Ridolfo has won the 2017 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) Research Impact Award for his book, “Digital Samaritans: Rhetorical Delivery and Engagement in the Digital Humanities,” published by University of Michigan Press. The CCCC is a constituent organization within the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE).

The award honors an empirical research publication in the previous two years that most advances the mission of the organization or the needs of the profession.

The Award’s selection committee shared this statement: “The committee recognizes this work for its contribution to moving the field forward. The book takes advantage of the affordances of both digital distribution and multimodal composition, offering effective new modes of scholarly communication. Ridolfo's method infuses his

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky senior Rachel Dixon, of Lexington, was recently named a finalist for the Rhodes Scholarship. Dixon, an English and writing, rhetoric and digital studies major, will interview for the prestigious scholarship that funds graduate study at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.

Rhodes Scholars are chosen not only for their outstanding scholarly achievements, but for their character, commitment to others and to the common good, and for their potential for leadership in whatever domains their careers may lead.

A UK Honors College member and former ambassador, Dixon is a

By Gail Hairston

By Gail Hairston

By Jay Blanton, Kody Kiser

The following University of Kentucky students have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) to study critical languages during the summer of 2016:

The Critical Language Scholarship Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. These students are among the approximately 560 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who received a CLS scholarship in 2016. Selected finalists hail from 48 states and the District of Columbia, and represent more than 200

By Whitney Hale

(April 14, 2015) — A University of Kentucky senior and recent graduate have been selected for fellowships from the Princeton in Asia program. As part of the program, biochemistry senior Calvin Hong and 2015 arts administration and Spanish graduate Brittney Woodrum will teach in Hong Kong and Myanmar respectively.

Princeton in Asia (PiA) sponsors more than 150 fellowships and internships in 20 countries and is the oldest and largest organization of its kind, unique in its scope, size, century-long

Janie-Rice Brother, an architectural historian of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey recently received the UK Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies' Campus and Community Excellence in Writing award for her blog titled Architecture and Landscapes from the Bluegrass and Beyond.

Brother has over 15 years of cultural resource experience in the Ohio River Valley, the Mid-Atlantic, and southeast. Prior to coming to UK, Brother spent four years at the Kentucky Heritage Council, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), where she was responsible for review of the above-ground Section 106 projects in the state. While at the SHPO, she oversaw a county-wide survey that culminated in the documentation of over 800 rural and urban resources and numerous public presentations.

Brother studies the landscape of Kentucky and blogs about its vanishing heritage.

By Kathryn Macon

(March 8, 2016) — The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for Humanities has selected 12 exceptional undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 academic years. Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities.

Gaines Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of a student's junior and senior years, or for the last two years of a five-year program; students in all disciplines and with any intended profession are

By Whitney Harder

(Oct. 6, 2015) — With "Banned Books Week" celebrated last week and "Teen Read Week" coming up Oct.18-24, exploring the world through literature seems to always be in season. For professors at the University of Kentucky, books have impacted their lives and careers in surprising ways.

Read below for the third and final piece in a series of professors reflecting on the books that shaped them. 

Ashley Seifert

Assistant Professor of Biology 

For me, the most influential books have been all about timing. As a young college graduate, I came upon Benjamin Hoff’s "The Te of Piglet." Hoff’s condemnation of man’s disharmony with the natural world resonated deeply with me. But it was his elegant illumination of Taoist philosophy

Intermezzo - http://intermezzo.enculturation.net/ - dedicated to publishing work too long for an article and too short for a monograph has published its inaugrual book. Intermezzo is leading the way with digital longform publications, the fugure of academic scholarship. 

Intermezzo is edited by Jeff Rice, Chair of WRD. 

Professor Jan Fernheimer discusses her new project with J.T. Waldman on Kentucky Jewish life and the history of bourbon. Read in its entirety at HBI Research.

In the summer of 2013, JT Waldman and I made some curious observations taking in the sites on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. JT noticed a lot of Jewish-sounding names, like Shapira and Boehm, while touring the Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center and the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest. When I went back to follow up, I discovered two Magen Davids in the gleaming silver planks of the Heaven

By Guy Spriggs

(Aug. 5, 2015) — Started in the summer of 2012 as an intensive “boot camp” to help the University of Kentucky’s new students prepare for college-level calculus, the FastTrack program has become an integral part of efforts to help students transition to the college classroom and set them up for success in the College of Arts and Sciences.

The curriculum for FastTrack has expanded over the last four years, and now gives students an invaluable introduction to UK’s math, biology, chemistry, engineering, Spanish and WRD (Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies). A key part of the program’s continued growth is the recent addition of FOCUS (FastTrack Orientation for College Undergraduate Success), a component built around developing the non-academic skills students need to

WRD faculty have been busy this summer.

In June, Jim Ridolfo participated in A&S' Passport to the World initiative and travelled to Jordan and Morocco for a faculty development seminar. 

Jenny Rice gave an invited talk at Bar Ilan University this June entitled "What Are the Digital Humanities and Why Should We Care?"

Jeff Rice gave an invited talk at Bar Ilan University this June entitled "Digital Outragicity."

Brian McNely published a visual documentary entitled "The 4th on Film."

Along with Sara Alvarez, in July, Steve Alvarez taught a four day Personal Statement course at Bluegrass Community Technical College.

Steve Alvarez also received a Smith Symposium Fellowship to attend the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi this October. 

By Blair Hoover

(July 6, 2015) — In support of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Passport to the World Initiative and the 2015 Year of the Middle East campaign, University of Kentucky Education Abroad partnered with the college to sponsor a faculty development seminar in the Middle East focusing on contemporary issues pertinent to the region.

The seminar was developed to provide faculty members with an opportunity to gain firsthand experience with the issues concerning the region and thus, to better equip them to share their knowledge and experience with their students and subsequent international initiatives, such as developing institutional partnerships and further education abroad programming at UK.

The following faculty