Kentucky's Secret to Bourbon Production
http://envision.as.uky.edu/files/Audio/Bourbon/original.mp3
Bourbon is a Kentucky tradition and Alan Fryar, a UK hydrogeologist, explains the relationships between Kentucky limestone, ground water systems and bourbon.
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by Stephanie Lang
On the evening news, it is not uncommon to see polls charting public opinion on a variety of topics. The number of polls tends to spike around presidential elections, especially with topics surrounding approval ratings, national issues, and the economy. The degree of voter anger, angst, or contentment prominently posted in the polls is often a barometer of the larger political climate. And as you can imagine, those polls and resulting nightly news conversations can spark heated, informative, and oddly entertaining debates on the state of national politics.
But what trends can be found in poll numbers gathered in an increasingly media-saturated world? How do these poll numbers and nightly news conversations, for example, impact the way voters respond in presidential elections and how do voters react to pressing issues such as
Justin Wedeking's research shows following the norm can be detrimental to success in the Supreme Court
By Rebekah Tilley
photos by Mark Cornelison
When it comes to complex legal issues before the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s all about how you look at it. And as Dr. Justin Wedeking discovered, a fresh approach usually results in a winning case.
In an article that will be published later this year in the prestigiousAmerican Journal of Political Science, the associate professor in the UK Department of Political Science found that when petitioners emphasized alternative ways of arguing about an issue before the Supreme Court, they
<p>A recent article released by the Associated Press and featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader highlights the work of Dr. Bill Jansen and the United States Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe. Dr. Jansen, an anthropology graduate and A&S Hall of Fame inductee, is currently working as a senior American advisor in Africa to combat the AIDS epidemic. A growing problem in both Zimbabwe as well as South Africa, Jansen’s group is part of a program funded by the United States which is promoting circumcision to reduce the number of new AIDS cases.<br />
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Jansen’s work is a prime example of the social responsibility we hope to instill in future A&S graduates – both to their local communities and beyond – as they move forward in their own lives and careers. To read more about
Anyone who has ever had doubts about majoring in English – with questions about job prospects or a well-defined career path – should talk to Andrew Crown-Weber.
He was in the same boat when he came to UK, unsure as to where an English degree would lead him – the answer has been, just about anywhere and everywhere.
The Danville native always knew he enjoyed language. Growing up in a house that emphasized reading books over watching cable television, his connection with words has been firmly entrenched. Add in his wide-eyed enthusiasm for knowledge and his varied academic interests, and Crown-Weber found an A&S education to be the perfect launch pad for travel, learning and adventure.
Early on he landed in Jonathan Allison’s class on James Joyce and William Butler Yeats, which led to an opportunity to
<p>This semester, distinguished alumni from the College of Arts and Sciences shared their thoughts on how current and prospective UK students can get the most out of their college experience. To hear what they have to say, listen to their <a target="_blank" href="http://envision.as.uky.edu/connectivity/10-11-10/Advice_for_Current_Stu… our <a target="_blank" href="http://envision.as.uky.edu">Envision 2020 website</a>.</p>
Ph.D. Student By Rebekah Tilley
Photos by Mark Cornelison
Culture expresses itself in a myriad of familiar ways – our music, fashion, entertainment, literature. Perhaps less noted is the way that culture impacts our bodies including the very manner we are brought into the world and the food that nourishes us during gout first year of life.
As a graduate student in geography, Rebecca Lane turned to social theory to provide a more in depth understanding of the theoretical structures within her own discipline that inform her research on medical and feminist geography while benefitting from the perspectives of other graduate students and instructors outside her own discipline.
“I needed this type of knowledge,” said Lane when asked how social theory impacted her research portfolio. “Social theory gives you frameworks with
University of Kentucky alum James Booth has found a perfect combination in statistics and genetics.
A Blackpool, England native, Booth studied at the University of Leeds before coming to the United States to study in the Bluegrass. He earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics and his master’s degree in statistics at Leeds before looking at Ph.D. programs.
“I decided to go
Ph.D. Student
By Rebekah Tilley
Photos by Richie Wireman
Who’s afraid of a little theory? Unfortunately, many of us would rather clean our bathrooms than painfully work through the writings of Derrida and Foucault. Geography doctoral candidate and social theory student James Looney found that for many graduate students, the UK Social Theory Program takes the edge off gaining a solid theoretical foundation in their own academic disciplines.
“Theoretical training tends to be two things in many graduate programs – woefully lacking and threatening,” said Looney. “The Social Theory Program allows a place where one can access and learn about theory. It takes care of the unfamiliarity and the inaccessibility of theory.”
Looney is a cultural and social geographer who focuses his research on cultural landscapes, and much of his work is developed
by Michelle Ku
photos by Mark Cornelison
As a college student at Michigan State University in the ’60s, Tom Janoski worked on an automotive assembly line at a Chrysler plant in Trenton, Mich.
Janoski was a piston shooter, which happened to be the second hardest job at the plant. He would pick up a piston that was located on a rack above him, compress the rings on it, stick it into a cylinder, place it into a hole in the upside down engine block, and pull a handle that would punch the piston into the engine block.
For the first two weeks on the job, about every 15th piston would get stuck. Most of the time, he would be able to straighten it before the engine block moved to the next person’s station, but about two to three times a day, Janoski couldn’t fix it in time, which
PhD Student
By Leah Bayens
Photos by Mark Cornelison
Philosophy doctoral candidate Christa Hodapp is sorting out an issue most people superficially acknowledge before returning to business as usual: humans are animals.
“The traditional, neo-Lockean claim is that you’re fundamentally a person, which is a rational, thinking being, and you happen to be related to an animal in some way,” Hodapp explained. Thus, many people imagine that personhood separates us from the likes of dogs, horses, and ants. In the process, they also tend to place humans on a higher rung than our nonhuman counterparts.
Hodapp, however, refuses to split nature and mind in this way. Instead, her dissertation, Personal Identity and the Biological View of Human Persistence, foregrounds the notion that human beings are not simply related
Cadet Spotlight by Jason Kazee
Keep moving forward. Words such as these can get you through daily challenges, lifelong struggles, or even just around the next corner. Though these words are not found in the United States Army Code of Conduct, soldiers and civilians alike can rely on them. Cadet Battalion Commander Brennan Parker depends on them to carry him through whatever may lie ahead.
Parker recently took part in a 12-cadet relay that carried the game ball from Joker Phillips’ hands in Commonwealth Stadium and delivered it to a team from the University of Louisville’s ROTC program. The team ran 46-miles to a town located mid-way between Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. The cadets from the University of Louisville took over from mile 46 and delivered the football to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Capped off by Brennan delivering the ball
by Robin Roenker
photos by Jennifer Roberts
The University of Kentucky Philosophy Department welcomed four new faculty members in fall 2010: Tim Sundell, Stefan Bird-Pollan, Meg Wallace, and Natalie Nenadic.
Their interests within the field couldn’t be more diverse—ranging, respectively, from the philosophy of language and linguistics to ethics to contemporary metaphysics (i.e., the nature of reality) and the problem of sexual objectification of women in today’s society.
But while their concentrations differ, each shares a love of philosophy itself, a love, as Wallace puts it, of “turning an argument around in [your] head for a while” until you get at a truth, however large or small, that offers insight into our word, our lives, or ourselves.
At UK, they each feel they’ve found a supportive home to foster their
The connections between Leibniz and Kant studied at unique, UK-hosted conference
By Rebekah Tilley
Imagine a famous artist painting a portrait of another artist, long dead, based only on the description of someone who knew the person in life. Then imagine scholars hundreds of years later, attempting to determine the accuracy of the likeness and the origins of the artistic techniques of the portrait.
Now imagine that instead of artists, they are philosophers: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). In an attempt to work out some of the mysteries of these two philosophers and their relationship to each other, the UK Department of Philosophy, in conjunction with the North American Kant Society, hosted the third annual meeting of the Leibniz Society of North America on September 25-27.
Kant is widely considered one of
<p>Thanks to faculty, staff, alumni and students who helped to make the last week a grand success, from the Distinguished Scholar lecture, to the Hall of Fame ceremony, to our A&S Homecoming festivities.<br />
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Our South Africa Initiative was featured in an article in the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/10/24/1492155/connecting-south-africa-and-… Herald-Leader</a> on Sunday. The film series has a few more exciting installments to show, including speaker <a target="_blank" href="http://southafrica.as.uky.edu/Guests/EddieDaniels.aspx">Eddie Daniels</a
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.as.uky.edu/news_events/events/Pages/HomecomingWeekend2010.as… weekend festivities</a> are on the horizon, and a variety of opportunities to show pride in A&S and UK are coming up. </p>
<p>To begin, on Wednesday, October 20th, Distinguished Professor Ernie Yanarella will be giving a lecture. The following Friday, October 22nd, marks the annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which celebrates the accomplishments of the A&S family.</p>
<p>Finally, A&S is hosting a Tailgate party before the kickoff against the Georgia Bulldogs. Join us for food, fun, and live music as we mark the midpoint of another productive semester.</p>
Craig McIntosh
Cadet Spotlight
Kicking Off a Career of Leadership
by Andrew Batista
Football Time in the Bluegrass never begins until Craig McIntosh feels that the moment is right. While he channels his adrenaline, 68,000 fans in Commonwealth Stadium pause with anticipation each Saturday as McIntosh, a walk-on student athlete and University of Kentucky Army ROTC cadet, kicks away a football and thus begins the Wildcats’ weekly gridiron battles.
“Kicking a football is much more of a mental challenge than a physical performance,” said McIntosh. “When you’re kicking off, you’ve got one shot, and it’s either hit or miss. It’s not like you can hustle on the next play to recuperate mistakes you might have made. Ultimately, in that moment it’s just you and the ball.”
McIntosh takes his exceptional focus and discipline, qualities
<p>I had the honor of introducing the first installment of "Have You Heard From Johannesburg," a seven-part documentary that is showing one installment a week during this semester.</p>
<p>The first installment was called "Road to Resistance." To listen to my speech, <a target="_blank" href="http://southafrica.as.uky.edu/multimedia/podcasts/10-10-05/Kornbluh_Lec… here</a>.</p>
In the time away from her anthropological research, Susan Stonich engages in a familiar and common hobby – “I’m a weaver.”
“The creative part of my life is weaving and textile design, I’m very interested in that,” she said.
But the nature of weaving, interlacing different threads to create a larger, coherent fabric, is integral to understanding Stonich’s career as an anthropological researcher and political ecologist. “I really do research that tends to integrate all those previously diverse fields.”
At the core of both Stonich’s research and pedagogical approach is a belief in the value and necessity of interdisciplinary perspectives. “We have to do a better job from the undergraduate level to the graduate level to train our students to be truly interdisciplinary,” she explained. “Because of the kinds of problems that I look at in my work, an interdisciplinary
by Rebekah Tilley
Step into US Army Captain Joey Orr’s office and you can tell his blood runs True Blue. On the wall hangs a large University of Kentucky flag – blue with a large white “K” – that is visibly stained with Iraqi dirt.
“I was representing my school even while in combat,” Orr grinned, pulling out a model of the tank he commanded in Iraq to point out exactly where the flag flew.
After seven years on active duty and a combat tour in Iraq, Orr took up the post of Operations Officer for the UK Army ROTC program. It’s familiar territory for Orr as he himself graduated from the program in 2003.
Orr’s father made the military his career, as did both of his grandfathers. Was Orr’s decision to join ROTC automatic?
