By Sarah Geegan

Three experts in the areas of gender, sexuality and politics of identity will share insight with UK students in professor Vershawn Young's classes this spring.

Young, of the Department of Gender and Women's Studies and the Department of English, will incorporate the speaker series including Daniel Black, Lisa Moore and Sharon Bridgforth into his ENG 480 and GWS 595 classes. These courses focus on gender and race in documentary film through the work of late film maker Marlon Riggs. Riggs' work addressed representations of African Americans in the

By Sarah Geegan, Jonathon Spalding

It started with a simple question, then grew into a large online survey with responses from over 1,000 people from across the U.S. and abroad. A new book by Ellen Riggle and Sharon Rostosky, “A Positive View of LGBTQ: Embracing Identity and Cultivating Well-Being," explores what’s positive about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer identities.

“It is the right question at the right time. People want to share their positive experiences,” said Riggle, UK professor in the departments of Gender and Women’s Studies and Political Science.

By Whitney Hale

A new composition by University of Kentucky sophomore Ben Norton has been selected for the Lexington Philharmonic's New Music Experiment, a new initiative to foster musical creativity and innovation. As part of the experiment, Norton's piece will be part of a workshop and later presented to the public in a performance scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Feb. 17, at the Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall. Tickets to the performance of Norton's Woodwind Quintet No. 9 and other selections from the New Music Experiment is $5 and can be purchased at the door.

"I am very excited and incredibly honored to be given this opportunity," says Norton. "I was simply happy that others wanted to go out of their way to perform one of my works. This

By Kathy Johnson

Kentucky poet, novelist and environmentalist Wendell Berry has been named the 2012 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  This is the highest honor the federal government betstows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

Berry, a University of Kentucky alumnus with a degree in English and former creative writing professor at UK, will deliver the 41st Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 23, 2012, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.  The lecture is titled "It All Turns on Affection."

To read the NEH news release, click here.

This has been a notable year for Berry. President Barack Obama awarded Berry

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky's Nicole Schladt, an international studies and gender and women's studies sophomore, and Sarah Smith, a history junior, have been awarded two of six English-Speaking Union (ESU) Scholarships presented by the English-Speaking Union Kentucky Branch. The scholarships will cover Schladt and Smith's expenses for summer study at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge respectively.

The Kentucky Branch of the English-Speaking Union awards a limited number of scholarships to qualified Kentucky college students for courses offered at institutions in the United Kingdom. Scholarship awards include tuition, lodging and two meals daily for three-week courses

By Sarah Geegan

                   Matt Wilson on GIS Workshop from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo. To view a transcript of the video above, click here.

The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences is partnering with the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government in an effort to open the municipal government's data practices.

The call for open data, or publicly available data, has been widespread throughout Lexington government. Mayor Jim Gray included the

By Jay Blanton, Amy Jones, Kody Kaiser

To see a text trancription of the video, click here.

Jen LeMaster wanted to go to college. But as a young girl growing up in Ashland, she learned early that it wouldn’t be easy financially. Her family couldn’t simply write a check for tuition and books.

So, LeMaster started looking at community colleges and other options that might not cost as much – that is, until she received a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Kentucky.

Now, more than 10 years later, standing in a premium luxury box at the Georgia Dome, which she helps manage in Atlanta, LeMaster credits her time at UK with giving her the educational and career

Chemistry professor Allan Butterfield is featured on "UK At The Half" with Carl Nathe during the UK men's basketball game vs. Georgia. Professor Butterfield is the UK Alumni Assocation Endowed Professor of biological chemistry. His research focuses on biological chemistry and how it impacts the brain and brain functions. Click on the play button to listen to the full podcast.

By Kathy Johnson

WUKY's "UK Perspectives" focuses on the people and programs of the University of Kentucky and is hosted by WUKY General Manager Tom Godell.  Today's program highlights Frank X Walker, associate professor in the Department of English and recently recognized by Oxford American Magazine as one of the most creative teachers in the South.

To listen to the podcast interview with Walker, from which "UK Perspectives" is produced, click here.

"UK Perspectives" airs at 8:30 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. each Friday on WUKY 91.3, UK's NPR station.

By Gail Hairston, Amy Jones, Kody Kiser

Six University of Kentucky professors were honored last night by the UK Alumni Association for the excellence they demonstrate in the classroom.

Click here for a transcription of the video above.

This year’s recipients of the 2012 Great Teacher Awards are:

By Kathy Johnson

Jonathan Golding, University of Kentucky psychology professor who was recently named Kentucky Professor of the Year, was the guest on Saturday's "UK at the Half," which aired during the UK vs. Tennessee-Chattanooga game that was broadcast on radio. 

"UK at the Half" airs during halftime of each UK football and basketball game broadcast on radio and is hosted by Carl Nathe of UK Public Relations and Marketing.

To hear the "UK at the Half" interview, click here. To view a transcript of the "UK at the Half" interview, click

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky's Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will give the campus and Lexington community a realistic look at Appalachia through film in the center's first Appalachian Forum series event this week.

Young people from the Appalachian Media Institute (AMI) will showcase three films produced by AMI filmmakers from 3:30-5 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1, at the William T. Young Library Auditorium. The short films will be followed by a question and answer session. 

The film presentation will cover a wide range of content, including "Searching for an Appalachian Accent," a 15-minute film that explores the stigma attached to regional dialects; "A Little

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky freshmen pull out their iPads, gather in small groups around 21st century tables and begin to discuss physics problems in a way that's as far from conventional as the touch screens they are intently gazing upon.

This is just a typical afternoon for physics and astronomy Professor and Chair Mike Cavagnero's experimental A&S Wired research course: the Science of Measurement.

"Measurement and observation are the foundations of science," Cavagnero said. "Measurement is the first step in all of science, actually, and it's a step that's often left out of K-12 science education."

The 26 A&S Wired students who registered for the eight-week class have carried out customary physics coursework, but have also been asked to come up

By Whitney Hale, Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky students took a new look at some historical images of Lexington in a groundbreaking, campuswide collaboration.

As part of his "GEO 164 iWorlds" class this past semester, geography professor Matthew Zook assigned students the task of geocoding photographs of streetscapes of Lexington from the first half of the 20th century.  Students were tasked with using descriptive metadata, including the street address, to determine the likely location of the photograph.   

"This project provided undergraduates with hands-on experience in geocoding and crowdsourcing geographic data," said Zook. "Furthermore, we've created a resource that will endure beyond the semester and be of interest to the larger community."

The project built upon archival

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

A University of Kentucky psychology Professor gives columnist John Tierney a healthy helping of Thanksgiving gratitude with his recent study on the sentiment and its effects on aggressive behavior featured in today's New York Times.

Grateful people aren't just kinder people, according to UK College of Arts & Sciences psychology Professor Nathan DeWall. They are also less aggressive.

Tierney discusses DeWall's "A Grateful Heart is a Nonviolent Heart: Cross-Sectional, Experience Sampling, Longitudinal, and Experimental Evidence," in a

By Gail Hurston

The UK Alumni Association is serving as host to University of Kentucky multicultural and international students who signed up for the 6th Annual Multicultural Student Thanksgiving Dinner 5 to 7 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 22, in the Student Center Grand Ballroom

This family-friendly event has quickly become a holiday tradition. The students will join UK President Eli Capilouto for a traditional Thanksgiving feast, including turkey with dressing, cranberry sauce, corn pudding and pumpkin pie. Vegetarian options will also be available.

University of Kentucky and College of Arts & Sciences alum Kip Cornett (B.G.S., ’77) was recognized on National Philanthropy Day, November 8. Cornett is the president and owner of Cornett Integrated Marketing.

The College of Arts & Sciences was one of twenty-two organizations to honor their top philanthropists at the annual National Philanthropy Day, organized by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Also honored were this year’s Distinguished Philanthropist, James E. “Ted” Bassett III, and Virginia Newsome received the Youth in Philanthropy Award.

The event was sponsored at the platinum level by the University of Kentucky.  The silver sponsors were KCTCS,

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky creative writing Professor  Nikky Finney has won the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry for her recent work, “Head Off & Split.”  Finney attended the award ceremony last night in New York City, where she accepted the highly prestigious honor.

“Head Off & Split” was published by Northwestern University Press in February of this year, and Finney has been touring with the book since late winter.

The National Book Award website says the poems in Finney's "Head Off & Split" "sustain a sensitive and intense dialogue with emblematic figures and events in African-American life: from Civil Rights matriarch Rosa Parks, to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, from a brazen girl strung out on lightning, to a terrified woman abandoned on a

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named University of Kentucky psychology Professor Jonathan Golding of the College of Arts & Sciences the 2011 Kentucky Professor of the Year.

Golding was selected from nearly 300 top professors in the United States.

"Jonathan Golding is one of the professors that alumni remember when they think about their college days," said psychology department Chair Richard Milich. "They remember that they learned a lot in his class, but they remember him because of his passion and because he took the time to get to know them."

Golding has involved himself in a wide range of

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Special Collections Library invites the public to an exhibition and symposium celebrating the opening of the papers of Appalachian author Harriette Simpson Arnow. The event will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in the Great Hall, of the Margaret I. King Building. The exhibition of work will run through February 2012.

Harriette Arnow’s papers at UK Libraries provide a broad look at a writer’s life and work.  Included are materials that document her writing process, from first-draft manuscripts on dime store tablets, through various iterations and drafts, to printer page proofs. Also included are correspondence with family, editors, publishers and literary agents. Researchers will find mail from readers, photographs,