By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Maddie Duff is reaching out to her fellow Appalachians through a University of Kentucky research initiative called SPARK, or Students Participating as Ambassadors for Research in Kentucky.  

Duff, a junior neuroscience major in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, conducts research through SPARK, the Appalachian Career Training in Oncology and the John Calhoun Wells Eastern Kentucky Scholars Fund. Each of these programs encourage and assist students with giving back inside their communities. For example, Duff conducts phone surveys of people with hearing issues.

“A lot of the participants I've dealt with just want to be heard,” said Duff, who’s from Prestonburg, Ky. “They want somebody to understand the struggles that they go through as a patient who has all these

By Daily Bates

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 15, 2024) — While St. Patrick’s Day is associated with wearing green, community parades and shamrock hunting, the holiday is also grounded in history that dates back more than 1,500 years.

Did you know, the earliest known celebrations were held in the 17th century on March 17 — marking the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick in the 5th century?

Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has expertise in how St. Patrick’s Day came to be.

By Jennifer T. Allen

Last year, Jayden Sheridan worked 70+ hours a week to make ends meet while taking a 19-credit hour course load. A first-generation student from Findlay, Ohio, majoring in political science and minoring in gender and women’s studies and criminology while also working on a peace studies certificate, Sheridan has no lack of motivation.

“Looking back, I don’t know how I was doing that,” she said. “I don’t know how I was keeping my grades up and also working that much. Honestly, last year was a blur.” 

Being the first in your family to attend college means navigating the world of higher education without much guidance from home. Sheridan knew that to get the research experiences she wanted while in college, she was going to have to look for funding opportunities. 

“First-generation students don’t know where to go for scholarships

By Lindsey Piercy and Kody Kiser

Who are your kitchen ghosts?

Hold onto that question, we’re going to come back to it.

We don’t all have the same upbringings. But we do all have people, places and things that inform who we are today.

We all have loved ones we try so dearly to hold onto — even when they are no longer physically with us. And Crystal Wilkinson finds, in those desperate moments, happy memories centered around food have a uniquely protective power.

When baking thick and buttery biscuits, the acclaimed poet and fiction writer often summons “Granny Christine” to join her.

“The kitchen was where the secrets were revealed, plans were made, advice was

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 11, 2024) — Theodore Schatzki, Ph.D., professor philosophy at the University of Kentucky, is serving as the 2023-24 College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Professor and will deliver the annual Distinguished Professor Lecture on Monday, March 25.

Schatzki is also a professor in the Department of Geography and, until September 2024

By Meredith Weber and Steve Shaffer 

Award winners Jordan Brower, left, Bradley Elliott, Mark Fillmore, Kayla Johnson, Eric Thomas Weber and Zada Komara; and UK Alumni Association president Janie McKenzie-Wells and awards committee chair Kelly Sullivan Holland. Carter Skaggs | UK Photo

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 8, 2024) — What makes a good teacher a great one? University of Kentucky students were eager to share their opinions about the best teacher in their lives, nominating them for one of the most esteemed awards on campus.

The UK Alumni Association 2024 Great Teacher Award was recently bestowed upon six UK educators. Initiated in 1961, UK’s

By Jennifer T. Allen 

JWells looks for the gaps. The places where others aren’t looking; aren’t researching; aren’t writing. When she was volunteering at a county jail as an assistant GED instructor, JWells began to learn the extent of bias toward people of color, especially men of color, in the carceral system. Then she began to realize that the voices of one of the fastest growing populations in prison – women – were missing.  

“I started to quickly find out there wasn’t really, at that time, any research on women in prison,” she said. “I read all these memoirs written by men when they were incarcerated. I read all these statistics about men, but attention to women was just starting to develop.” 

As JWells followed the gap, she noticed there was also a gap in information about incarcerated

By Kody Kiser 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 4, 2024) — On March 5, 1964, following the postponement of legislation aimed at eliminating segregation in public accommodations in Kentucky, some 10,000 residents of the Commonwealth of Kentucky came together with notable civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Jackie Robinson, to participate in a March on Frankfort. This interracial protest was designed to exert pressure on the governor, urging support for a more robust legislative proposal.

On this episode of "Behind the Blue," University of Kentucky professor of history Gerald Smith talks about the historical context and significance of the march, the legacy it left behind and how, 60 years later, it continues to be commemorated

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Anthony R. Bardo, assistant professor of sociology in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, is participating in a key international 12-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development panel. The panel will focus on revising the Centre on Well-being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity’s Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-Being.  

 Social scientists in member states use these guidelines when collecting data. The guidelines help to harmonize efforts that promote international comparisons to gauge trends in national-level well-being and social progress. An online event to kick off the revision will be at

By Richard LeComte  

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- For baseball fans, the game can be poetry in motion: Athletes swing, catch, run, slide and throw with both power and grace. Thus it’s natural that Dorian Hairston, a former University of Kentucky baseball player, English major and writer, would use poetry to chronicle the life of one of the sport’s greatest players. 

In the book, “Pretend the Ball is Named Jim Crow,” Hairston collects a series of provocative poems about Josh Gibson (1911-1947), the legendary Negro Leagues player who hit more than 800 home runs and was compared favorably to Babe Ruth. Because of segregation, Gibson never got to play in the majors, and he died just before Jackie

By Daily Bates and Emily Sallee 

Rachel Hwang, left, and Ella Brown-Terry will complete their Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink Research Internships this summer.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 26, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that Ella Brown-Terry and Rachel Hwang have received Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink Research Internships, which will be completed this summer.

The program provides exceptional

Brandon M. Erby

Brandon M. Erby, assistant professor in the Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, has won the 2024 CCCC Richard Braddock Awards for “Imagining Freedom: Cultural Rhetorics, Digital Literacies and Podcasting in Prison,” published in the September 2023 issue of College Composition and Communication. The Conference on College Composition and Communication is an association within the National Council of Teachers of English. 

This award is presented to the author of the outstanding article on writing or the teaching of writing in the journal during the year before the conference's annual convention. The award was created to honor the memory of Richard Braddock from the University of Iowa, an extraordinary person and

By Janice W. Fernheimer, Karen Petrone and Jeff Polson 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 22, 2024) — The following op-ed was written by Janice W. Fernheimer, Karen Petrone and Jeff Polson. The opinions expressed are their own, not those of the University of Kentucky.

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A workshop with UK College of Education pre-service teachers in the Master's with Initial Certification program and pre-service teachers in the Middle Level Education Program who are focusing on social studies content. Photo by Kathy Swan.

Antisemitism has been on the rise in Kentucky and across the U.S. since 2016, including a 36% increase

By Kody Kiser 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 22, 2024) — Crystal Wilkinson is a professor of English in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences and one of 16 University Research Professors for 2023-24. As the first Black woman to hold the appointment of Poet Laureate of Kentucky from 2021-2023, Wilkinson serves as an inspiration to many in the writing community, and has authored several award-winning books.

Wilkinson’s research and work primarily focuses on the stories of Black women and communities in the Appalachian and rural Southern canon. Her most recent work,

By Richard LeComte 

Myka Smith-Jackson

LEXINGTON, Ky, -- Myka Smith-Jackson found a passion for political science and international affairs by participating in a model U.S. government and United Nations while in Lexington schools. Now she’s following that passion as well as exploring a broad range of interests in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences.  

“I participated in programs called KYA and KUNA, which are the Kentucky Youth Assembly and the Kentucky United Nations Assembly,” said Smith-Jackson, a political science major and psychology minor at UK. “Both of those programs were essential to me figuring out what I wanted to study. KYC is mainly focused on United States government, and KUNA is for the United Nations. In the model U.N., I've represented a lot of countries: Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea,

The College of Arts and  Sciences' Center for English as a Second Language brings in a new Japanese university cohort:  Yamanashi University students, who connect with our very own UK students in the Japanese program, enjoy the opportunity to practice mutual language learning and deepen cultural education.

After online ESL classes, Yamanashi University students travelled across the world to deepen their connection with UK students.  For five weeks, they’re attending English classes and experiencing cultural events on campus, creating memories and friendships that enrich the international exposure of our UK students.

“I gained the confidence to express my opinions in front of others,” Hazuki Hosaka, a Yamanashi student said. “Originally, I was not good at expressing my thoughts, because I was afraid of making mistakes… I would like to [continue] improving

By Lindsey Piercy

Mark Cornelison | UK Photo

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2024) — Today we honor U.S. presidents, past and present.

From those who served as war heroes to those who resigned in disgrace, behind every textbook page is a real person who did all sorts of fascinating — and sometimes odd — things on the way to becoming leader of the free world.

We’re going to unpack a treasure trove of those interesting facts soon.

But first, some tidbits about the holiday itself.

Did you know, Presidents’ Day started out as a day of remembrance for only one president, George Washington?

Following Washington’s death in 1799, Americans began honoring his birthday, Feb. 22. At first, the celebration was not federally observed, but

By Kody Kiser and Kayla Gales 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 15, 2024) — This year marks the 75th anniversary of Lyman T. Johnson’s historic legal triumph against the University of Kentucky, a milestone that marked him as the first Black student to integrate the university.

A lifelong champion of education and its transformative potential, Johnson was an advocate for equality in both education and broader society, drawing inspiration from his experiences as both a

By Lindsay Travis 

Marcelo Guzman leads a visit of University of Kentucky National Science Foundation Research Traineeship students at the AppHarvest high-tech indoor farms in Morehead.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 13, 2024) — Chemists at the University of Kentucky are researching how changes in the atmosphere’s composition may play a role in forming air pollution.

The study was recently featured on the cover of the journal American Chemical Society  Environmental Science & Technology Air, which focuses on investigations of air chemistry and physics, air pollution and climate change that impact human and ecosystem health.

Marcelo Guzman, Ph.D., associate professor

By A Fish   

The winners of the University of Kentucky’s Global Health Case Competion. Mallory Sparks is on the far right.

LEXINGTON, KY – In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, people have been left wondering about the future of global health and other increasingly globalized crises facing humanity. The University of Kentucky’s Global Health Case Competition prompts students to find answers to those questions.  

Mallory Sparks, a student in UK’s College of Arts and Sciences, has taken up that challenge. She’s a two-time competitor, and her team won the 2023 contest. The competition asked students to create a solution to combat poor mental health in youth in Monrovia, Liberia. Team 13 took first place with “LIFT UP Mental Health: Liberia Initiative to Foster