By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 13, 2021) — For Sydney Clark, every day presents challenges. She was born with a genetic condition that resulted in vision loss over time.

By the time she was a teenager, she was almost completely blind. 

“Accessibility is always an issue,” Clark said. “I've never had an experience where accessibility wasn't an issue."

But Clark never allowed her disability to stop her from achieving her goals. And one of those goals was to attend the University of Kentucky.

The transition from high school to college can be challenging for any new student, but when Clark came to UK as a freshman in 2014, the Frankfort, Kentucky, native found herself facing more challenges than she was used to.

“I started reading Braille in class from the time I was

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 8, 2021) — Amy Murrell Taylor, the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Professor of History at the University of Kentucky, is serving as the 2020-21 College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Professor and will deliver the annual Distinguished Professor Lecture next week.

"My colleagues across the College of Arts and Sciences have inspired me in so many ways,” Murrell Taylor said. “To have them recognize me with a distinguished professorship is deeply humbling — and an honor I will cherish for the rest of my career."

The lecture, titled “

By Jenny Wells-Hosley and Alicia Gregory

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 7, 2021) — As a Research I institution, the University of Kentucky offers its students opportunities to engage in research across all disciplines — and those opportunities aren’t just reserved for graduate and doctoral students.

Many undergraduates participate in research alongside UK’s world-class faculty, with the support of programs like the UK Office for Undergraduate Research, the Chellgren Student Fellows program and the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP). This high impact learning experience allows undergraduates to explore career options, develop problem-solving skills and set themselves apart for graduate or professional school or

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky – The Earth’s mantle has spontaneous magnetism, contrary to what was believed until recently, and one University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences professor wants geophysicists to go figure out why.

Dhananjay Ravat, professor of geophysics, co-wrote a paper recently in Nature Reviews/Earth and Environment that explores reasons for the magnetism  in the Earth’s mantle. Basically, the prevailing wisdom was that mantle could not  be magnetic.

So what gives? The problem dates back to the launching of satellites in the late 1960s and ‘70s with magnetometers attached. Those devices picked up some strong magnetic anomalies that puzzled scientists.

“When satellites with magnetometers came along in the 1970s – the  analysis techniques were crude compared to today’s standards – and yet those early

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 McCormick,

By Mallory Profeta

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 26, 2021) — Since 2018, the Disparities Researchers Equalizing Access for Minorities (DREAM) Scholars Program has supported the training of exceptional, underrepresented pre-docs, post-docs and assistant professors at the University of Kentucky who are committed to health equity research.

The program began in 2015 as mentoring program in the UK College of Nursing for “people who needed to belong—racial, sexual, and gender minorities”, said Lovoria Williams, Ph.D., who currently co-directs DREAM. Now led by the Center for Clinial and Translational Science (CCTS) and the Center

By Whitney Hale

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 29, 2021) — Emily Andreasson, a University of Kentucky interiors and modern and classical languages, literatures and cultures/French and Francophone studies senior in the College of Arts & Sciences and Lewis Honors College member from Williamsburg, Michigan, has been selected to deliver the 26th Edward T. Breathitt Undergraduate Lecture in the Humanities beginning 7 p.m. Thursday, April 1, on Zoom. Andreasson’s lecture will focus on use of space for expression and healing brought on by displacement.

Established to honor an eminent

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 22, 2021) — Two notable authors will be featured during the Visiting Writers Series (VWS), hosted by the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky. But this year you won’t have to leave your house to see them.

The virtual program will kick off March 25 with award-winning writer, organizer and performer Madeline Ffitch.

The VWS began in the spring of 2014 with a reading by poet Roger Reeves. Each year, the Department of English continues to bring nationally

By Danielle Donham

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 16, 2021) — UK alumna Jamie Zimmerman’s passion for gender equality and interest in financial inclusion began early. 

She grew up surrounded by strong women in Lexington, Kentucky, where many families, including her own, “teetered at times on the brink of financial uncertainty.”

Zimmerman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in foreign languages and international economics from the UK College of Arts and Sciences in 2002. Immediately after, she enrolled in the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce and earned a master’s in international political economy with a concentration in international development in December 2003.

Today, she helms the