By Guy Spriggs

The UK Hispanic Studies Department is one of the most well-respected and highly-ranked programs in the country. As the 2011-2012 academic year came to a close, Hispanic Studies also added several teaching awards to its growing number of accolades.

But as Director of Elementary Language Instruction Yanira Paz points out, this high level of achievement is becoming the norm for Hispanic Studies.

“Our department has placed a lot of emphasis on teaching,” she explained. “We are happy for this recognition, but this is not new. We are a small group in the department, but it seems to me that we are doing things well.”

The Hispanic Studies Department earned a total of 5 recognitions, including 2 Provost Teaching Awards, 2 College of

By Sarah Geegan

"Every time I take a trip, I find myself missing home. The people. The culture. The weather," says JR Leach, a triple-major in political science, history and Hispanic studies, who is currently studying in Granada, Spain.

But he is not referring to Lexington.

"I've travelled internationally before and for extended periods of time, and I've always remembered and missed what most people would consider my home in America," Leach said. "But Granada is where all cards are off. Granada has become my home."

Studying through the International Study Abroad program (ISA) throughout the spring 2012 semester, Leach, a student in the

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Department of Political Science is excited to welcome professor Tiffany Barnes to its faculty!

Professor Barnes joins us this fall to continue studying Latin American politics, political institutions, and women in politics. Her most recent research investigates the legislation practices of male and female representatives in the Argentinian government. For clues to how men and women legislators may represent their female constituents differently, Barnes examined representatives' behavior and preferences over a 16-year sample.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall

By Sarah Geegan

The UK and Lexington community will have a rare opportunity on Tuesday, June 5 — one that will not occur again for more than 100 years.

The Arboretum, the MacAdam Student Observatory and the Bluegrass Amateur Astronomy Club will present, "Standing in the Shadow of Venus," two events which will allow the community to both understand and observe the transit of Venus.

A solar transit involves an object in the solar system moving exactly between the sun and the observer; Venus will appear to glide slowly across the surface of the sun. Transits of Venus are especially rare, occurring at intervals of 8, 105.5, 8, 121.5, 8…

By Sarah Geegan, Amanda Osborn

Imagine being a University of Kentucky student in Lexington, but sharing a "global classroom" with students in China, France or India.  In collaboration with the associate provost for International Affairs and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT), the UK College of Arts and Sciences recently established a program called Global Classroom Connections that will promote international learning and experiences through the use of contemporary technology.

As university graduates increasingly require international perspectives, skills and knowledge to succeed in the multicultural and interconnected world, 

By Sarah Geegan

With the school year freshly completed, 11 students in the College of Arts and Sciences are kicking off the summer in a unique way— with a 4-week intensive language and culture program in Shanghai, China.

The faculty-led program, supported by the Chinese Studies program in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Culture, will advance the students' conversational fluency in Chinese. It will also introduce them to traditional and modern aspects of Chinese culture such as calligraphy, tea houses, Shanghai's history and contemporary society.

Assistant Professor of Chinese Matthew Wells said that the 4-

By Sarah Geegan

Visionaries often ask us to look skyward for signs of alien intelligence. A new book, "The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition," edited by Thomas Zentall of the University of Kentucky Department of Psychology and Edward Wasserman of the University of Iowa, suggests that we might more fruitfully explore and understand alien intelligence right here on Earth.

This 960-page volume, published in February by Oxford University Press, is a compendium of scientific research into the cognitive worlds of animals, a flourishing field of study that that was prompted by Charles Darwin’s provocative proposal that

Download the flyer for more information (PDF)

Date: Wednesday, July 18, 2012 - 8:00am to Friday, July 20, 2012 - 5:00pm

Location: Appalachian Center, University of Kentucky, 624 Maxwelton Court, Lexington KY

 

Organized & Hosted by:

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center

Facilitators:

Dr. Leanne Avery, SUNY Oneonta & Dr. Jenrose Fitzgerald, Univeristy of Kentucky

In this 3-day workshop, we will explore together methods for incorporating the science, engineering, and energy concepts students already know from everyday life into the science classroom, using new

At any given time, hundreds of salamanders are being bred at the University of Kentucky. "We have the only captive-bred salamander population in the world where people can call us up, and we can do the breedings, make those resources and ship them out nationally and internationally," says Randal Voss, a professor of biology and faculty associate of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC).

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Army Research Office, Voss is studying

By Sarah Geegan

Archaeologists at the University of Kentucky have broken ground on a new project, uncovering historical evidence from a Revolutionary War siege, right in the heart of the state.

UK archaeologists Nancy O’Malley of the William S. Webb Museum of Anthropology and Philip Mink of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, are undertaking a geophysical survey and limited excavations at the site of Fort Boonesborough on the Kentucky River in May. The study aims to find archaeological evidence relating to the Siege of 1778, a prolonged engagement that pitted a large party of French Canadians and Indians against settlers living in the stockaded fort.

By Whitney Hale

Sarah Gooch, a University of Kentucky junior majoring in Japanese language and literature with a minor in anthropology, has been awarded a National Security Education Program (NSEP) Boren Scholarship to travel to Japan this fall. Gooch is one of 161 award winners selected nationally from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants.

The Boren Scholarships provide up to $20,000 for U.S. undergraduates to study abroad in areas of the world that are critical to U.S. interests and underrepresented in study abroad. Boren Scholarships are funded by the National Security Education Program, which focuses on geographic areas, languages and fields of study deemed critical to U.S. national

By Whitney Hale

Two students from the University of Kentucky and one 2006 alumna have been selected as recipients of Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships. The UK recipients are among 1,700 U.S. citizens who will travel abroad for the 2012-2013 academic year through the prestigious program.

The Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of other countries. The primary source of funding for the Fulbright Program is an annual appropriation made by the U.S. Congress to the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations and

For Fraternel Amuri Misako, pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky amounts to much more than enhancing his career. It represents his freedom to conduct his important research without the threat of political persecution.

A visiting scholar from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amuri came to UK in 2010 through the Institute for International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, an organization that aides scholars whose academic freedom and physical safety are threatened in their home countries.

He recently defended his landmark dissertation through a tri-national committee, consisting of two faculty members from UK, two from France and two from Congo, coordinated via videoconferencing.

Amuri's research, which focuses on rural populations, mostly young men, children as combatants,

By Sarah Geegan

University of Kentucky history Professor Jeremy Popkin was recently appointed a fellowship for the 2012-13 academic year by the National Humanities Center.

More than $1.5 million in individual fellowship grants will allow scholars to take a yearlong leave from their regular academic duties to pursue research at the center, located in North Carolina. Popkin is one of 33 fellows who will have the opportunity to work on an individual research project and share ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences.

“The National Humanities Center is an ideal environment for scholars,” Popkin said. “It is set up to encourage the exchange of ideas.”

Popkin will spend

Article and video courtesy of reveal - University of Kentucky Reseach Media

At any given time, hundreds of salamanders are being bred at the University of Kentucky. "We have the only captive-bred salamander population in the world where people can call us up, and we can do the breedings, make those resources and ship them out nationally and internationally," says Randal Voss, a professor of biology and faculty associate of the Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Center (SCoBIRC).

With funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, and the Army Research Office, Voss is studying salamander regeneration—something that may one day help people with spinal cord and limb injuries. He is involved in sequencing the salamander genome, and says he has been able to

Susan Bordo, the Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities and professor of English and Gender & Women's Studies was recently published in the The Chronicle of Higher Education. Click here to read the full article, "When Fictionalized Facts Matter: From 'Anne of the Thousand Days' to Hilary Mantel's new 'Bring Up the Bodies''.

Biology Professor Ann Morris' lab contains approximately 200 individual fish tanks, but only one type of fish.

Having recently secured a $1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Morris will continue investigating zebrafish and the insight they offer in regard to solutions for human retinal degeneration. The NIH grant, titled, “The role of insm1 in vertebrate photoreceptor differentiation,” will be funded over five years and focuses on zebrafish to better understand genetic pathways that control the development of the retina.

"Mammals cannot regenerate photoreceptors, because the retina is part of the central nervous system, and like other neurons in the brain, when you damage them you can't replace them," Morris said. "So that means when people get genetic diseases where the neurons, particularly the

Jeramiah Smith is a professor and researcher in the Department of Biology. Smith's research focuses on gene rearrangement, with a specific focus on the genes of Lamprey, a species of aquatic vertebrate. In this podcast, Smith explains why Lamprey DNA is important to humans and where his research is headed.

This podcast was produced by Sam Burchett.

By Kathy Johnson, Sarah Geegan

Three leading chemistry experts from around the country will speak at the University of Kentucky's annual Naff Symposium Friday, May 4, at UK's William T. Young Library auditorium.

Hosted by the UK Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts & Sciences, the Naff Symposium brings the very best chemistry scholars to campus to share their expertise with students and faculty from UK as well as other colleges and universities in Kentucky and nearby states.

The topic of the symposium is "Metals and Proteins" and the featured speakers are Brian Crane, professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Cornell University; Li Yu of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he is the Jay and Ann Schenck Endowed

By Sarah Geegan, Blair Helwig, Kody Kiser

For Fraternel Amuri Misako, pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Kentucky amounts to much more than enhancing his career. It represents his freedom to conduct his important research without the threat of political persecution.

A visiting scholar from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Amuri came to UK in 2010 through the Institute for International Education’s Scholar Rescue Fund, an organization that aides scholars whose academic freedom and physical safety are threatened in their home countries.

He recently defended his landmark dissertation through a tri-national committee, consisting of two faculty members from UK, two from France and two