Charles Dodd White is the recipient of the Thomas and Lillie D. Chaffin Award for excellence in Appalachian Literature, the Appalachian Book of the Year award in fiction, a Jean Ritchie Fellowship from Lincoln Memorial University, and an individual artist’s grant from the North Carolina Arts Council. His novels are HOW FIRE RUNS (A Fall 2020 SIBA Okra Pick, IPPY GOLD MEDAL for Best Fiction in the South), IN THE HOUSE OF WILDERNESS (2018), A SHELTER OF OTHERS (2014), LAMBS OF MEN (2010), and the story collection, SINNERS OF SANCTION COUNTY (2011). He has also edited the anthologies, DEGREES OF ELEVATION (2010) and APPALACHIA NOW (2015). His newest book, A YEAR WITHOUT MONTHS, is a fragmented memoir available from West Virginia University Press. He teaches English at Pellissippi State Community College in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

Dr. Sharon Austin, professor of political science at the University of Florida, will be giving a lecture on voting rights. Dr. Austin has also taught courses at the Universities of Louisville, Michigan, and Missouri-Columbia and received a doctorate in Political Science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1993. Her teaching interests are in American Government, Urban Politics, and African American Politics and her research interests are in African American mayoral elections, African American/Caribbean American political relationships, rural African American political activism, and African American political behavior.

This is the first lecture in a series on "Orthodox Judaism Today" organized by the UK Jewish Studies program.

Recording: https://uky.yuja.com/V/Video?v=7297895&node=31012841&a=7990788&autoplay=1

Join the Department of Philosophy for the Spring 2023 "Philosophy and Modern Life" series. This series is aimed at undergraduate students of any major interested in topics surrounding philosophy.

Whether we like it or not, boredom affects and permeates our social, practical, and even moral existence. It shapes our lives by demarcating the interesting and the meaningful from that which is not. And it sets us in motion insofar as its presence can give rise to a vast array of behaviors. We now know from years of studying boredom that the propensity to experience boredom (what is commonly called “boredom proneness” or “trait boredom”) is associated with a plethora of significant bodily, psychological, and social harms. But is boredom always bad? Is there a positive side to boredom? Could the experience of boredom ever be beneficial?

In this talk, I propose a theoretical account of boredom that underlines its significance and importance for our everyday lives. I argue that boredom is a useful self-regulatory mechanism that contributes to the maintenance of certain optimal levels of cognitive engagement. It signals the presence of cognitively unsatisfactory situations and motivates escape from them. As such, the experience of boredom reflects a dissatisfaction with our situation and can help us to restore the presence of satisfactory cognitive engagement