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A&S Professor Honored in UK International Center Global Impact Awards

By Daniel T. Flener

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 25, 2022) — The International Center at the University of Kentucky has announced the 2022 UK Global Impact Award winners. Among them is Ann Kingsolver, professor of anthropology and director of the Appalachian Studies Program. 

The awards honor faculty, staff, alumni and community members who have contributed to the university’s global engagement through education, research and service as well those who have fostered a culturally diverse, welcoming environment.

“This past year has reinforced for us just how interconnected our world really is, and how critically important international collaboration is in research and higher education,” said Sue Roberts, associate provost for internationalization. “These individuals are making a wonderful and positive difference with their dedication to helping create a more global University of Kentucky.”

Kingsolver will receive the 2022 Global Impact Award for Distinguished Faculty Achievement in Internationalizing the Curriculum for her work in incorporating global perspectives in her teaching and mentoring. Kingsolver, an anthropologist of globalization, was recruited in 2011 to join UK’s College of Arts and Sciences to bring a global perspective to Appalachian Studies and the Appalachian Center.

She has developed the innovative “Global Appalachia” course, which she has taught for the past 10 years. In this course, she has connected her classroom virtually with classrooms at partner universities in Sri Lanka, India, Ireland and Italy. In 2019, Kingsolver revised the Global Dynamics in UK Core course, “Cultural Diversity in the Modern World." She offered the course to more than 650 students with overwhelmingly positive student feedback.

Her work at internationalizing the curriculum has extended to co-curricular activities for international students in Lexington. She has organized bus trips to the Hindman Settlement School and Inez, Kentucky, and Natural Bridge State Park for UK international students, providing them with opportunities to interact directly with the people of Appalachia. In nominating her for this 2022 Global Impact Award, Scott Hudson, chair of the Department of Anthropology, said her deeply personal commitment to internationalization.

“In every course Dr. Kingsolver teaches, there is strong attention to global and minoritized perspectives and to what can be learned through international comparisons,” he said. 

The University of Kentucky is increasingly the first choice for students, faculty and staff to pursue their passions and their professional goals. In the last two years, Forbes has named UK among the best employers for diversity, and INSIGHT into Diversity recognized us as a Diversity Champion four years running. UK is ranked among the top 30 campuses in the nation for LGBTQ* inclusion and safety. UK has been judged a “Great College to Work for" three years in a row, and UK is among only 22 universities in the country on Forbes' list of "America's Best Employers."  We are ranked among the top 10 percent of public institutions for research expenditures — a tangible symbol of our breadth and depth as a university focused on discovery that changes lives and communities. And our patients know and appreciate the fact that UK HealthCare has been named the state’s top hospital for five straight years. Accolades and honors are great. But they are more important for what they represent: the idea that creating a community of belonging and commitment to excellence is how we honor our mission to be not simply the University of Kentucky, but the University for Kentucky.