Title:  The Actuarial Profession

Title:  An introduction to topological K-theory

Abstract:  K-theory is a cohomology theory for spaces that arises from consideration of vector bundles. 

We will discuss this theory and some important properties, including the Bott periodicity phenomenon and the existence of Adams operations.

Title:  Constructing Simplicial Spheres Using Algebra

Abstract:  Simplicial complexes are a central subject of study in combinatorics. They are also of interest geometrically since that abstract simplicial complex can be realized in real space as a geometric object. One interesting question is when is a simplicial complex homeomorphic to a sphere. We call these simplicial spheres. Using the connection of the Stanley-Reisner ring we can study simplicial complexes by looking at a corresponding ring. In particular the Gorenstein property occurs in these rings exactly when they are simplicial spheres. Hence we can construct simplicial spheres by constructing certain Gorenstein rings. This talk is meant to show the usefulness of the Stanley-Reisner ring connection between combinatorics and algebra and should be accessible to a general audience.

(Pizza at 4:00, talk at 4:15)

1. Cosmopolitan Minstrelsy: Race, Gender and Trans-Atlantic Theatre (Dr. Zakiya Adair)

Reacting to American racist policies and post WWI access to international travel a flourish of African Americans migrated to Paris and London in the early 1920s. African American women entertainers found particular success in the genre of vaudeville. Josephine Baker, Mabel Mercer, Aida “Bricktop” Smith and Adelaide Hall are just a few of the popular African American women entertainers who became successful performing in trans-Atlantic vaudeville. As a form of popular entertainment, vaudeville had a long history in the United States and Europe. Originating in the late nineteenth century, vaudeville gained in popularity by featuring white women in both the male and female roles. However early incarnations of vaudeville in the United States did not feature African American performers and did not offer any radical challenges to constructions of race. Boarding ships bound for Europe, African American musicians, singers, dancers and artists made use of the modern availability of international travel and increased European interest for the consumption of American culture during the early twentieth century. The trans-Atlantic vaudeville that African American women performed in in the twentieth century was a composite of nineteenth century variety, blackface minstrelsy and burlesque.

            The difference with trans-Atlantic black vaudeville or what I term, cosmopolitan minstrelsy was that the productions relied on colonial racial and gender tropes and constructions of nation in this vein trans-Atlantic vaudeville became a vehicle for transporting images of blackness. African American women performers were the main drivers of the genre and their popularity illuminates the significance of vaudeville to constructions of various identities. In 1925 Josephine Baker appeared in Caroline Dudley Reagan’s La Revue Negre in Paris, France and in 1928 Adelaide Hall appeared in Lew Leslie’s the Black Birds Revue in New York and Paris. Both of these productions became very popular in large part due to the theatrical spectacle created by Baker and Hall.

My goal with this essay is to map the development of theatrical constructions of black women both on the stage and in the iconography associated with their performances (playbills, advertisements, posters). 

This paper will examine black American artists and their migration to Europe in the genre of early expressive culture. This paper will provoke a lively discussion on black internationalism and African American women’s negotiations of race, gender and class. Additionally this paper will deconstruct masculinist tendencies within scholarship on African American cultural history and performance.

2. New Directions: Madness, Politics Issues, and Aesthetic Practices in African American Literature in the 21^st Century (Dr Therí A. Pickens)

In Victor Lavalle’s The Devil in Silver, the main protagonist, Pepper, must navigate daily life within the strictures of a mental institution after he is unjustly placed there as a way for local police officers to avoid the paperwork necessary for processing him traditionally. As he adjusts to the microcosmic world of the hospital, he begins to understand the relativity of craziness as defined by societal norms, on the one hand, and the inmates’ embodied realities, on the other. In this paper, I question the way madness informs the novel’s political and aesthetic practice.

Lavalle’s novel fits somewhat easily, though not neatly, into a black speculative fiction tradition, which deploys similar themes and aesthetic practices as mainstream (read: white) science fiction, horror, and alternative futurities. Often critics note the way these novels comment on or critique the current social and political issues that seep inside the porous boundary between book and world. I focus on the way Victor Lavalle’s Devil in Silver comments on the relationship between madness and the nation-state. Mad people are not allowed to be part of the citizenry. Yet, Pepper chooses to remain in the institution, in effect relinquishing his citizenship. The loss of his ability as property bears implications not only for how we understand the worth of citizenship, who desires it, and to whom it is available. Pepper’s decision challenges the teleological enterprise of the novel since he does not reach toward a resolution, but rather certain chaos.

University of Kentucky

Biology Department

Sponsored by Biology Ribble Endowment



*Refreshments served at 3:45pm

Since Tony Skyrme's discovery of skyrmions in particle physics in the 1960's, its notion has been generalized to a certain type of mathematical object (topologically stable whirls) that are realized in different areas of physics. This colloquium focuses on magnets without inversion symmetry, like MnSi, where in 2009 a skyrmion crystal was observed as a new magnetic state. In recent years, magnetic skyrmions have attracted a great deal of interest as they have been found in different materials (metals, semiconductors, and even insulators), and on different length and temperature scales. Furthermore, the peculiar twist of the magnetization in the skyrmion crystal leads to a very efficient coupling to electric currents which makes it also interesting for spintronics. We study the interplay of electric currents and skyrmions as well as the induced forces onto each other. Very characteristic for the skyrmion crystal is a finite and quantized Magnus force which can be understood in close analogy to the Magnus force acting on a spinning ball leading to famous “banana kicks” in soccer.

 

Refreshments will be served in CP 179 at 3:15 PM

A day long symposium honoring one of Mexico's most treasured animals. Sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences Biology Department and Hispanic Studies Department.

Morning Session

9:00 - 9:15 Symposium Introduction, Randal Voss, UK

9:15 – 10:00 Salamanders are forever, Panagiotis Tsonis, University Dayton

10:00 - 10:30 Waxolotls in literature, Vinnie Cassone, UK

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee Break

10:45 - 11:15 The skinny on axolotl regeneration, Ashley Seifert, UK

11:15 – 12:00 How axolotls regenerate their limbs, David Gardiner, UC-Irvine

Afternoon Session

1:00 - 1:30 Conquering the axolotl genome, Jeramiah Smith, UK

1:30 - 2:00 Axolotl on a chip, Alex Palumbo, UK

2:00 - 2:30 Of axolotls and tiger salamanders, David Weisrock, UK

2:30 – 3:00 Coffee and Discussion Break

3:00 – 4:00 Using the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) as a flag species to restore the most important and managed wetlands in Mexico: Xochimilco, Luis Zambrano, Autonoma Universidad de Mexico

4:15 - 5:00 Ambystoma Genetic Stock Center Tour

Simposio de un día que rendirá honor a uno de los animales más especiales de Mexico. Patrocinado por los departametos de Biología y Estudios Hispanos del College of Arts & Sciences.

Sesión de la manána

9:00 - 9:15 Introducción al simposio por Randal Voss, UK

9:15 – 10:00 Las salamandras son para siempre, Panagiotis Tsonis, University Dayton

10:00 - 10:30 Waxolotls en literatura, Vinnie Cassone, UK

10:30 – 10:45 Receso

10:45 - 11:15 Regeneración ‘skinny’ del Axolotl, Ashley Seifert, UK

11:15 – 12:00 Cómo los axolotls regeneran sus cuerpos, David Gardiner, UC-Irvine

Sesión de la tarde

1:00 - 1:30 Conquistando el genoma de Axolotls, Jeramiah Smith, UK

1:30 - 2:00 Axolotl en un chip, Alex Palumbo, UK

2:00 - 2:30 De axolotls y salamandras tigre, David Weisrock, UK

2:30 – 3:00 Receso y Discusión

3:00 – 4:00 El axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) como medio para restaurar uno de los más importantes y manejables pantános

mexicanos: Xochimilco, Luis Zambrano, Autonoma Universidad de Mexico

4:15 - 5:00 Tour Genetic Stock Center Ambystoma

¡Viva Mexico! : How Mexican Axolotls Promote Science, Conservation, and Creativity

February 24, 2014, WT Young Library Auditorium, University of Kentucky

 

Morning Session

9:00 - 9:15 Symposium Introduction, Randal Voss, UK

9:15 – 10:00 Salamanders are forever, Panagiotis Tsonis, University Dayton

10:00 - 10:30 Waxolotls in literature, Vinnie Cassone, UK

10:30 – 10:45 Coffee Break

10:45 - 11:15 The skinny on axolotl regeneration, Ashley Seifert, UK

11:15 – 12:00 How axolotls regenerate their limbs, David Gardiner, UC-Irvine

Afternoon Session

1:00 - 1:30 Conquering the axolotl genome, Jeramiah Smith, UK

1:30 - 2:00 Axolotl on a chip, Alex Palumbo, UK

2:00 - 2:30 Of axolotls and tiger salamanders, David Weisrock, UK

2:30 – 3:00 Coffee and Discussion Break 

3:00 – 4:00 Using the axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) as a flag species to restore the most important and managed wetlands in Mexico: Xochimilco, Luis Zambrano, Autonoma Universidad de Mexico

4:15 - 5:00 Ambystoma Genetic Stock Center Tour

"Genomic approaches to the study of sexual selection and male pregnancy"

Texas A&M University

Faculty Hosts: Dr.Craig Sargent

Sponsored by Biology Ribble Endowment



*Refreshments served at 3:45pm

UT-MD Anderson Cancer Center

Faculty Host: Dr. Ed Rucker

Sponsored by Biology Ribble Endowment



*Refreshments served at 3:45pm