By Gail Hairston

Their eyes fill with commitment, their smiles reflect their joy, and Madeline Conrad and Mason Johnson nearly bounce off their chairs with excitement when they talk about the College Mentors for Kids after-school program.

Conrad and Johnson are the University of Kentucky seniors.

They say the third- through fifth-grade children at two Fayette County schools mentored by UK student volunteers “are launched into orbit” when they talk about their visits to the university campus.

Mellie: “UK Mentoring is AWESOME!” (Her capital letters, not the writer’s.) “We get to have mentors and do lots of fun activities.”

Jaxon: “The program helps us to think about what we want to be when we grow up.”

Isobel: “UK Mentoring exposes us to the campus. If we decide to go to UK, then we will already know the land.”

Nyiemah: “Being a part of

By Kody Kiser

Storytelling is an art as old as human civilization. It can cross or establish boundaries, unite or divide cultures, and give context and meaning to our shared existence. Throughout its history, the University of Kentucky has fostered a rich culture of storytelling. Long considered a cradle of Kentucky authors, the university is making headway in supporting the work of authors more representative of the national scene.

On this episode of "Behind the Blue," we welcome one of those authors, UK Assistant Professor of English Hannah Pittard. Pittard has published three novels: 2011’s "The Fates Will Find Their Way," which received a favorable review by The New York Times Book Review. Her second novel, "Reunion" (in 2014), was an editor’s choice by the Chicago Tribune. In 2016, she released "Listen To Me," and is now completing work on

By Vice President for Research Lisa Casis

On December 7, 2016, a group of UK Deans, Associate Deans for Research and faculty accompanied the President and Vice President for Research to visit with Congressional members and their staff during our annual D.C. fly-in and reception focused on UK research. This event, hosted by the Office of the Vice President for Research in collaboration with Federal Relations, enabled researchers to discuss with our delegation the importance of research and creative work across the full range of disciplines at UK. An important aspect of these discussions was the impact of UK research on our economy and on the health of those living in the Commonwealth. 

 

Notably, our visit coincided with the overwhelming support of Congress for the 21st Century Cures Act through a 392-26 vote in the U.S. House and 94-5

By Gail Hairston

Two University of Kentucky graduate students in the College of Arts and Sciences Department of Anthropology have been awarded National Science Foundation (NSF) grants, and an anthropology alumna will be conducting her research at University of Cambridge.

Daniel Joseph, a fourth year doctoral student from Les Cayes, Haiti, was awarded an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDIG) to conduct research on people of Haitian descent, many of whom had lived their whole lives in Dominican Republic until their deportation in recent years. Joseph is conducting cultural anthropological research in the refugee camps in Haiti, near the border of Dominican Republic. He hopes to understand how identity plays into these historical relations of race, colonialism and entwined economies. For more information about Haiti and Dominican Republic, visit 

By Vice President for Research Lisa Cassis

This podcast features Claire Renzetti, the Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair in the University of Kentucky Center for Research on Violence Against Women, and professor and chair of sociology in the UK College of Arts and Sciences.

Renzetti’s research focuses on violence against women, particularly violent victimization experiences of socially and economically marginalized groups of women, including women living in poverty and women in same-sex intimate partnerships. Her current research focuses on human trafficking, and services for trafficking victims. She also examines the effects of religiosity and religious self-regulation on intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization. Additionally, she is evaluating the potential benefits of a therapeutic horticulture program for residents of

By Jenny Wells and Alicia Gregory

University of Kentucky REVEAL Research Mediarecently caught up with Susan Odom, an assistant professor of chemistry in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, to learn more about her pioneering work in electrochemical energy storage.

Odom, who joined UK in 2011, creates new organic compounds for applications in electrochemical energy storage systems. Applications include lithium-ion batteries, which are utilized in portable consumer electronic devices. Her additives have been demonstrated to protect these batteries from overcharging conditions longer than any other electrolyte additive reported to date.

Odom’s group

By Kody Kiser

“Affrilachia” is the word coined by poet Frank X Walker to signify the importance of the African-American presence in Appalachia, and he's a founding member of the Affrilachian Poets. Walker says he has "accepted the responsibility of challenging the notion of a homogeneous all-white literary landscape in this region.”

By Jennifer T. Allen

An Arts & Sciences math professor is founding editor-in-chief of a math education blog for the American Mathematical Society focused on providing mathematicians with commentary and resources regarding teaching and learning.

“My reason for starting the blog was to provide a source of high-quality information regarding mathematics teaching and learning for members of the American Mathematical Society, given that there are currently many changes taking place in mathematics education at the post-secondary level,” said Ben Braun, Associate Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kentucky.

Launched in June 2014, the blog has received more than 190,000 unique page views and currently has an editorial board of seven mathematicians located across the U.S.  The blog focuses on

By Jenny Wells

By Gail Hairston

By Jay Blanton, Kody Kiser

By Whitney Harder

John Jay Allen, emeritus professor of the University of Kentucky’s Department of Hispanic Studies, has been made a corresponding member of the Spanish Royal Academy of the Language (Real Academia Española de la Lengua), one of the highest academic honors in the Spanish-speaking world.

Allen taught in the UK College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Hispanic Studies (formerly Department of Spanish and Italian) from 1983 to 1999 and as emeritus professor since 2000.

Allen´s accomplishments are quite numerous, but the most salient are: National Endowement for the Humanities (NEH) Fellowship for Independent Research, 1981-82; NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers, 1989; Residential Fellowship to the National Humanities Center, North Carolina, 1989-90; UK's Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize; and an honorary doctor of letters from Middlebury College

The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Scienceslast week hosted the Summer Institute in Economic Geography. With a 10-year history in supporting economic geography, the college and its Department of Geography welcomed young scholars from across the globe to Lexington. This is the first time the institute has returned to the U.S. since 2006 when it was hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

A group of UK geography faculty worked collaboratively to bring the institute to campus. Sue Roberts, Matt Zook, Andy Wood and 

By Whitney Harder

By Whitney Harder

By Mallory Powell

Growing up in Hazard, Kentucky, Brittany Martin was familiar with diabetes. Many of her older relatives had been diagnosed with the chronic condition, and her younger family members were starting to develop it as well. In a state with one of the highest rates of diabetes — 11.3 percent of adults had a diagnosis in 2014 —Martin’s family wasn’t out of the ordinary, but she found the status quo unacceptable.

Since she graduated from the University of Kentucky in 2014 with a dual degree in biology and sociology, Martin’s family history and her interest in health have converged in her current role as coordinator of the Big Sandy Diabetes Coalition (BSDC), where she serves as an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer. The coalition, based at Big Sandy Health Care in Prestonsburg