A&S Wired Residential College
Now in its second year, A&S Wired is an exciting new residential college located in Keeneland Hall. The goal of Wired is to give students a 21st century liberal arts education, allowing students to realize connectivity on all levels – from virtual to face-to face, local to global – and creating a solid foundation for their academic career.

These experiences show students how classroom instruction can easily translate into real-world contexts and uses. The goal of A&S Wired is to provide students with a dynamic skill set that will instill social responsibility and prepare them to excel in scholarship, research and service.

Currents
Currents is a pioneering first-year program focusing on contemporary issues as a doorway to a deeper understanding of the world around us. Currents provides a linked set of classes, extra-curricular activities and student-faculty interaction to create a close-knit community for a select group of first-year students.

The inaugural course – UKC 180: America Through the Lens of the 2012 Election – analyzes essential features of American democracy and the challenges America faces on election day. The class will draw widely from diverse humanities and social science disciplines, exploring current political, social and cultural discourses from a variety of perspectives.

Campus & Community
A new course in A&S, Campus & Community will allow students to participate directly in their new community and contribute to issues they feel passionate about. Students will gain a better understanding of their new home in Lexington by exploring Lexington's history, the relationship between UK and the city, importance of the horse industry and how they can become involved in any of those areas.

This course will expose students to many aspects of city governance, public-private partnerships, public services and cultural relations that will serve them well as engaged citizens. Student projects may range from specialized services for homeless veterans with substance abuse problems to historic preservation projects.

The College of Arts & Sciences is committed to providing students throughout the commonwealth with the resources necessary to succeed in college. FastTrack for Calculus is a residential program that gives incoming calculus 1 students the chance to prepare and build skills and confidence by working with professors and faculty from across the University.

In an effort educate future generations on the value of the hard sciences, professors in the STEM departments – science, technology, engineering and math – conduct workshops for local teachers and support science-related events at Kentucky elementary, middle and high schools.

The Passport to the World Program enables the college to embark on year-long explorations of the culture and history of a particular region or country. The program engages our community in crucial global conversations through public lectures, cultural events, coursework and travel opportunities. After past programs with South Africa and China, A&S is shifting its focus to Eastern Europe for the 2012-2013 academic year with Reimagining Russia’s Realms.

Visit our previous Passport to the World years:

South Africa - Different Lands, Common Ground (2010-11)
China (2012) - Awaken the Past, Discover the Future (2011-12)

Other exciting international endeavors include:

• Faculty exchanges
• Education abroad
• A new international team-taught course initiative
• American Studies Center at Shanghai University

A&S Momentum is our collective digital imprint. It showcases the ways that the College of Arts & Sciences is using technology to innovate - in our classrooms and in our research - in our ability to provide the highest quality education for our students, and providing our faculty and staff the proper tools in which to do so. We have a lot of momentum, and it's gaining. 

The University of Kentucky has been one of the leading places for Appalachian Studies since the program’s creation in 1977. The program plays a vital role in fulfilling the University of Kentucky’s founding mission to serve the Commonwealth.

Thanks in part of excellent resources like the Appalachian Center and the library’s Appalachian Collection, the program offers a fresh synthesis of cross-disciplinary collaboration, innovative course development and new levels of engagement with the region. This intersection of interdisciplinary studies and community-based advocacy in the Appalachian Studies Program facilitates an understanding of both Appalachian communities and larger society.

This new program – which unites the former African American and Africana Studies programs – is reviewing and re-visioning the traditional curriculum with an eye toward interdisciplinary, international studies. The vision for this program is built upon collaboration and a commitment to the exploration and study of the African Diaspora.

African American and Africana Studies is also deeply invested in the process of community building through outreach to faculty, staff, students and alumni. The program is in the process of creating international study opportunities and repurposing office space to support key student organizations including the African Student Association and the Black Student Union.

The Quantitative Initiative for Policy and Social Research – or QIPSR – supports research and analysis of issues to help improve policy and government performance.

The purpose of the Applied Statistics Laboratory is to improve statistical support for scholarship across UK by building collaboration between statisticians and other investigators.

In an effort to document the historic farms of Kentucky, the Kentucky Heritage Council, the University of Kentucky and the Kentucky Archaeological Survey have undertaken a survey of historic farms across the Commonwealth. 

IT IQ is a program of 1-credit hour courses designed to teach today’s students various tools, skills, and methods to use technology successfully in the academic, professional, and personal aspects of their lives. You will learn tools to help you research, stay organized, collaborate virtually, analyze and visualize data, publish online content, create dazzling presentations, and much more!