By Sarah Geegan

A new hybrid course in the College of Arts and Sciences will bridge the gap between to seemingly unrelated areas: art and epidemics.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, the course will focus on five different diseases: alcoholism, tuberculosis, AIDS, cancer and the plague, through both scientific and humanities approaches. Students will explore opposite ways of conceptualizing, expressing and writing about this common theme. This 3-credit course will be available in the fall 2013 semester, and is open to all students majoring in the humanities or the sciences.

The course is titled, "UKC 310: Art and Epidemics."

Instructors Katherine Rogers-Carpenter and Rita Basuray structured the course to cover the science

By Sarah Geegan

by Kathy Johnson

WUKY's "UK Perspectives" focuses on the people and programs of the University of Kentucky and is hosted by WUKY General Manager Tom Godell. Today's program features William Endres, a professor in UK’s Division of Writing, Rhetoric & Digital Media and Noah Adler, Director of Research Computation and Application Development in Arts & Sciences, who discuss their effort to preserve and make accessible digital images of two rare manuscripts from the 8th and 15th centuries: the St. Chad Gospels and the Wycliffe New Testament.

To listen to the podcast interview, from which "UK Perspectives" is produced, click here.

"UK Perspectives" airs at 8:35 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. each Friday on WUKY 91.3, UK's NPR station.

by Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences' creative and technical services "Hive" recently completed a project, fusing the eighth and 15th centuries with the 21st century.

The Hive, a student team directed by A&S staff, provides creative and technical support to college faculty, students and staff to promote their work and ideas. Recently, it partnered with William Endres, professor in the Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media, to make two rare manuscripts available online: eighth century St Chad Gospels and a 15th century Wycliffe New Testament.

The team's work, made possible through

by Sarah Geegan

In the 2008 election, young Americans voted in their largest numbers since the 1970s. With the 2012 election around the corner, the UK College of Arts and Sciences, with the support of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media (WRD) will present several events for UK students to become more informed about the election, specifically surrounding the second presidential debate.

A faculty panel, consisting of political science Professor Stephen Voss, history Professor Paul

by Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences' creative and technical services "Hive" recently completed a project, fusing the eighth and 15th centuries with the 21st century.

The Hive, a student team directed by A&S staff, provides creative and technical support to college faculty, students and staff to promote their work and ideas. Recently, it partnered with William Endres, professor in the Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media, to make two rare manuscripts available online: eighth century St Chad Gospels and a 15th century Wycliffe New Testament.

The team's work, made possible through

A faculty panel will discuss relevant election issues on the night of the debate. The following night, various faculty, lecturers and graduate students will lead group discussions for students, using video clips from the previous night's debate.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 10, 2012) — In the 2008 election, young Americans voted in their largest numbers since the 1970's. With the 2012 election around the corner, the UK College of Arts and Sciences, with the support of the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media (WRD) will present several events for UK students to become more informed about the election, specifically surrounding the second presidential debate.

A faculty panel, consisting of political science

by Whitney Hale

As part of the Kentucky Women Writers Conference, the seventh Gypsy Poetry Slam returns to Lexington featuring celebrity judge and celebrated poet Tara Betts and hosted by popular local Affrilachian poet Bianca Spriggs. The slam is one several free public evening events celebrating the literary arts presented as part of the 2012 conference.

This year's Gypsy Poetry Slam will feature its largest group of competitors, 11 national and local poets. Winner of the slam will be presented with the Faith A. Smith Poetry Prize, established by Kentucky and Affrilachian poet Frank X Walker in memory of his mother. The Smith

K-Week events were extra fun for the WRD crew, who helped new UK students create a W(o)RD mural during the Student Center Spectacular. Students used paints to fill two large canvases with words and images that represent how they feel about the upcoming year. The murals are currently on display in the WRD hallways (13th floor of POT). 

Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media is now on Facebook. Visit our page to see the latest news, images, and discussions in WRD. 

Networked Humanities: From Within and Without the University
A Digital Humanities Symposium
February 15-16, 2013
The University of Kentucky
Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media Program

http://network.as.uky.edu

Keynote Speakers:
Kathleen Stewart, Professor of Anthropology, University of Texas

Malcolm McCullough, Professor of Architecture, University of Michigan

Of all the topics of interest to the digital humanities, the network has received little attention among digital humanities proponents. Yet, we live in a networked society: texts, sound, ideas, people, movements, consumerism, protest movements, politics, entertainment, academia,

By Sarah Geegan, Amanda Osborn

Imagine being a University of Kentucky student in Lexington, but sharing a "global classroom" with students in China, France or India.  In collaboration with the associate provost for International Affairs and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), the UK College of Arts and Sciences recently established a program called Global Classroom Connections that will promote international learning and experiences through the use of contemporary technology.

As university graduates increasingly require international perspectives, skills and knowledge to succeed in the multicultural and interconnected world, Global Classroom

By Whitney Hale

A new composition by University of Kentucky sophomore Ben Norton has been selected for the Lexington Philharmonic's New Music Experiment, a new initiative to foster musical creativity and innovation. As part of the experiment, Norton's piece will be part of a workshop and later presented to the public in a performance scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. Tickets to the performance of Norton's Woodwind Quintet No. 9 and other selections from the New Music Experiment is $5 and can be purchased at the door.

"I am very excited and incredibly honored to be given this opportunity," says Norton. "I was simply happy that others wanted to go out of their way to perform one of my works. This

By Kathy Johnson

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, Appalachian Studies and the Graduate Appalachian Research Community are making a call for papers for the 2012 UK Appalachian Research Symposium and Arts Showcase. The topic of the work must be related to Appalachia, original, and produced in the last three years. 

The deadline for submitting an abstract of work online is midnight Dec. 15. The submission can be made by going to the GARC tab on www.appalachiancenter.org and clicking on the "Abstract

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky creative writing Professor  Nikky Finney has won the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry for her recent work, “Head Off & Split.”  Finney attended the award ceremony last night in New York City, where she accepted the highly prestigious honor.

“Head Off & Split” was published by Northwestern University Press in February of this year, and Finney has been touring with the book since late winter.

The National Book Award website says the poems in Finney's "Head Off & Split" "sustain a sensitive and intense dialogue with emblematic figures and events in African-American life: from Civil Rights matriarch Rosa Parks, to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, from a brazen girl strung out on lightning, to a terrified woman abandoned on a

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences American Studies Program will host a discussion with the internationally renowned New York Times film critic A.O. Scott this week.

"Film and Reality: A Conversation with A.O. Scott" will take place at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17 in Memorial Hall on UK's campus. The event is free and open to the public.

American Studies Professor Alan Nadel will be speaking with Scott. Nadel, the William T. Bryan Chair in American Literature and Culture, is currently teaching an undergraduate course in the American Studies Program on the nonfiction novel and documentary films.

"This isn't so much an interview as a conversation,"

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Special Collections Library invites the public to an exhibition and symposium celebrating the opening of the papers of Appalachian author Harriette Simpson Arnow. The event will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in the Great Hall, of the Margaret I. King Building. The exhibition of work will run through February 2012.

Harriette Arnow’s papers at UK Libraries provide a broad look at a writer’s life and work.  Included are materials that document her writing process, from first-draft manuscripts on dime store tablets, through various iterations and drafts, to printer page proofs. Also included are correspondence with family, editors, publishers and literary agents. Researchers will find mail from readers, photographs,

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences welcomes a strategist, futurist and technologist to campus to discuss a timeless and wholly necessary skill.

Craig Saper, a professor in the Language, Literacy, & Culture doctoral program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will give a talk titled, "WRD UP 2.0: Teaching\R\E\A\D/I/N/G/ as Genre & Practice," at 3 p.m. Friday, Nov. 11, in Room 211 of the Student Center Addition. Refreshments will be served.

"Teaching has begun to respond to our multi-modal contemporary situation with digital assignments," said organizer Jeff Rice, an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences' Division of Writing, Rhetoric and

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences will host a trailblazing American diplomat next week to continue the college's Year of China initiative.

Former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch will speak on “Leadership and Education in a Globalizing World: China’s Challenge” at 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 10, in Room 118 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's campus.

Bloch’s talk, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the "Passport to China: Global Issues & Local Understanding" course taught by UK sociology Professor Keiko Tanaka.

Ambassador Bloch, the first Asian-American ambassador in American history, has had a broad career in U.S. government service. She is currently president of the U.S.-China Education Trust, a nonprofit organization working

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky's revamped UK Core Composition and Communication classes combine historically united concepts, while giving students the interactive skills they need for the future.

"This is the only program in the United States that we're aware of in which communication faculty from another department —  actually, another college  —  and writing faculty are collaborating on a joint curriculum," said Roxanne Mountford, director of the Division of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

UK sophomore Jake Allgeier will remember his Composition and Communication classes (CIS 110 and 111 or WRD 110 and 111) for years to come.

The civil engineering student didn't know what to expect when he