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

Karen Rignall successfully defended her dissertation “Land Rights and the Practice of Making a Living in Pre-Saharan Morocco” this afternoon.

The College of Arts and Sciences annually grants to one of its faculty members the Distinguished Professor Award. Read the full story here.

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees Tuesday approved University Research Professorships for 2012-13 for four faculty members. The professorships carry a $40,000 award to support research. Read the full story here.

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

By Sarah Geegan

As the semester draws to a close, the UK College of Arts & Sciences will continue to offer coursework for students interested in earning credit over the summer.

The college offers both on-campus and online courses throughout both summer terms, covering subjects in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Several of these courses also fulfill UK Core requirements.

The summer course catalog also includes several College of Arts and Sciences' "featured" classes, such as A&S 350: Personal Strengths & Your Career Development, which is designed to help students move forward with their academic majors and to introduce them to the fundamentals of career development strategies.

For more information about A&S summer and online courses, 

By Sarah Geegan

The UK College of Arts and Sciences will see two of its professors, Richard Schein and Sue Roberts, travel to Finland on Fulbright Scholarships throughout the 2012-2013 school year. 

Schein, a professor in the Department of Geography, was appointed as the Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki, Finland, which ranks among the most distinguished Fulbright honors. The Award focuses on American Studies, ranging

By Sarah Geegan

University of Kentucky students and faculty will travel to Shanghai in May to share Appalachian culture at the American Studies Center at Shanghai University.

The  American Studies Center, funded by a grant from The Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, is one of 10 similar centers in China. In December 2011, UK signed a joint-venture agreement with Shanghai University to pioneer the center on the SU campus.

The facility aims to broaden Chinese understanding of American culture and to foster intellectual and cultural exchange. UK's primary contribution involves providing a perspective of the American South and Appalachia.

"The purpose of the center is to try and counter Hollywood stereotypes of the United States by bringing them a more nuanced

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Catherine Linnen is an assistant professor in the Department of Biology and researches how biodiversity arises. She is particularly interested in how organisms adapt to changing conditions and how that adaptation can lead to the formation of entirely new species. Currently she is working on two projects addressing this interest: one looking at changes in coat color among deer mice in Nebraska and the other looking at the relationship of host shifts to the formation of new species among pestilent insects to various pine tree species.

Journalism and International Studies Senior, Cassidy Herrington, will give a public lecture March 29 at the University of Central Missouri.

The Muslim Student Assocation at UCM invited Herrington to speak on behalf of a column she wrote for The Kentucky Kernel in November of 2010. In the article, Herrington "unveils" her personal experience wearing the Muslim hijab for one month. Since its publication, the story has been read in more than 140 countries and reprinted in textbooks and publications nationally and abroad.

Her article may be found on the Kentucky Kernel webiste: http://kykernel.com/2010/10/31/%e2%80%98undercover%e2%80%99-in-hijab-unveiling-one-month-later/

To connect with Department of Anthropology at University of Kentucky, please click here http://www.facebook.com/AnthropologyAtUK

http://www.as.uky.edu/tag/sara-ailshire

Sara Ailshire is a senior majoring in Anthropology. Sara is also a mechanic at Wildcat Wheels, UK's community bike shop and bicycle library. Wildcat Wheels allows students and faculty rent bikes, or use the shops work stands, tools, and expertise to maintain their own bicycles. Arts & Sciences' Cheyenne Hohman recently sat down with Sara to discuss her work at Wildcat Wheels, and how it has informed her ambitions after she graduates from UK.

http://kykernel.com/2012/04/09/stop-sweat-in-college-sports/#

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky Gaines Fellow and knitter Catherine Brereton will unveil the final product of the Diversity Project, which sought to create a visual representation of the community through a large piece of yarn-art. The unveiling of this blanket will be part of Gayla, UK OUTsource's birthday bash, scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, April 26, in the UK Student Center Small Ballroom.

The Diversity Project blanket is one of several festivities being presented at the Gayla. The event will also include drag shows, music and free food. In addition, donations toward a one-time scholarship of $1,000 will be collected by the project. Applications for this scholarship, which will be