By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky social work junior Jillian Harris has been named a finalist and will interview for the prestigious Truman Scholarship, which recognizes college juniors with a commitment to public service.

"Even being at finalist status puts me in a really elite group of individuals across the country," Harris said. "I’m really humbled to be even in the top 200 for consideration of this scholarship."

Named in honor of U.S. President Harry S. Truman, the Truman Scholarship is awarded to high-achieving college juniors who show commitment to public service and potential to continue that service beyond graduation. Recipients of the scholarship are awarded up to $30,000 for graduate study in public service fields and leadership training.

This year, the 

By Sarah Geegan

Fifteen A&S Wired students gathered at Keeneland Hall on Wednesday, Feb. 29, to showcase their knowledge of human subject protection, cell biology, research ethics and history. With posters, movies on iPads, handouts and PowerPoints, they presented information on this wide array of topics — material they researched extensively in only eight weeks. 

The course, "A&S 100-12 Cell Biology, Society and Research Ethics: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," focused on the medical and social significance of a woman who died in 1951 and whose cancerous cells laid the foundation for many aspects of future biological research.

"It was typical in the '50s for doctors to take tissue samples and study them," Wired student Samantha

By Whitney Hale

The next Little/Gaines Artist Series presentation will explore how much life imitates art. "The Daily Routine: Theme and Variations," featuring the work of Little/Gaines artist Kit Donohue, a musician and UK graduate student, and her collaborator, dancer and UK alumna Kasey Shackelford, will begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 6, at the Niles Gallery, located in University of Kentucky's Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. This event is free and open to the public.

As part of the Little/Gaines Artists Series, Kentucky artists team up with one or two

By Jonathon Spalding

For two millennia, the leading intellects of Western Europe expressed their most sophisticated thoughts in a language that is now largely considered extinct.

Although there are no remaining native Latin speakers, the language has transcended across time and cultures, lending itself to religious traditions and academic study, as well as uses in the fields of law, medicine and science. It is for this reason that the Division of Classics, within the UK Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures (MCLLC), approaches Latin as a living language that can be read, written, spoken and deeply cherished. 

In the last decade, the M.A. program in classics has undergone tremendous growth, attracting students from some of the world’s most

By Erin Holaday Ziegler, Sarah Geegan

From the halls of Congress to the streets of downtown Lexington, America might not agree much, but the majority of its citizens can see the disparity in the economic fortunes of rich, poor and middle class American families.

The myriad reasons behind economic inequality range from the decline of unions to the decline of the progressive income tax, but the outcome is undeniable: those at the very top of the income ladder have emerged as the biggest winners in a huge transformation of the American economy. 

As an interdisciplinary body striving to improve policy and government performance through the production and distribution of world-class scholarship, The University of Kentucky’s Quantitative Initiative for Policy and Social Research (QIPSR) wants to join the conversation.

Each

By Keith Hautala

The University of Kentucky's Jamie Wheeler and Sebastian Bryson were honored as the recipients of the 18th Ken Freedman Outstanding Advisor Awards at a luncheon held on Friday, Feb. 24.

The award recognizes outstanding service in the field of academic advising. Two awards are presented each year, one to a full-time professional advisor and another to a faculty advisor.

"Every time a University of Kentucky student graduates, an advisor earns his or her wings," said UK Provost Kumble Subbaswamy, evoking Frank Capra's 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life."

This year saw more nominations than in any year previous. In total, 35 professional advisors and 39 faculty advisors were proposed to receive the honor, with several garnering multiple nominations from the students they serve.

"This was a tough year," said Mike Mullen, associate

By Kathy Johnson

University of Kentucky educators and others will be honored with teaching and public service awards today in UK's second annual Founders Day Award Ceremony at 4 p.m. in Worsham Theater in the UK Student Center.  Members of the campus and local communities are invited.  A reception will follow in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Cultural Center.

The university was created by legislative act on Feb. 22, 1865. While Founders Day has been celebrated in various ways over those years, the Founders Day Award Ceremony was established last year to recognize outstanding teaching, research and public service among faculty.

The Provost's Awards for teaching and service, the Sullivan Medallions for community service, the Sturgill Award for contributions to graduate education, and the Kirwan Prize for outstanding research will be presented in today's

By Sarah Geegan

From lions to dragons, Kung-Fu to calligraphy and painting to poetry, The Confucius Institute at UK will showcase authentic Chinese performances at its Spring Gala at 6 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, at the Singletary Center for the Arts.

The gala will exhibit a vast spectrum of traditional Chinese culture, with performances from students and faculty from Hubei University in Wuhan, China. Hanban, the Confucius Institute headquarters in Beijing, selected the performance group to travel to specific universities with Confucius Institutes, including the University of Kentucky.

"

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky's Latin American Studies Program, College of Communications and Information Studies and Libraries are coming together to offer a screening of "Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo and the Search for Identity," a documentary on a period during Argentina's Dirty War when people were tortured and babies were kidnapped and given to military supporters. The free public screening will be presented at 3 p.m. Friday, Feb. 24, at Worsham Theater.

"Las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo" is a documentary film that was a labor of love for 

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will feature a panel discussion about hydraulic fracturing (or “fracing”) as a way of extracting natural gas in Kentucky. The event, part of the Appalachian Forum series, will take place from 7-9 p.m Thursday, Feb. 23, in Room 106 of UK's White Hall Classroom Building.

Panelists at the event will represent a variety of relevant areas of expertise, and after brief introductory remarks by each panelist, Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural

By Keith Hautala

Sen. Rand Paul will deliver a public talk March 2 at the University of Kentucky, titled "A Year in the Senate: Discussion and Reflections." 

Paul's talk will take place at 4 p.m. Friday, March 2, in Room 106 of the White Hall Classroom Building on UK's central campus.

Paul, a Bowling Green ophthalmologist and son of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, of Texas, was elected to the U.S. Senate as a Republican in 2010, succeeding Sen. Jim Bunning. He has Senate committee assignments in energy and natural resources; health, education, labor and pensions; homeland security and governmental affairs; and small business and entrepreneurship.

The event is part of the Leaders in Public Policy Series, sponsored by the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration. Paul's talk is co-sponsored by the Gatton College of Business and Economics' BB

The University of Kentucky celebrates Founders Day with a recognition of faculty achievements Wednesday, Feb. 22.  Recipients of numerous awards will be honored in a special ceremony at 4 p.m. in Worsham Theater in the UK Student Center. The event is open to the campus community and public.

UK President Eli Capilouto, Provost Kumble Subbaswamy, deans and department chairs from various colleges will present the awards, which include the following:

-- Public Scholar Award

-- Albert D. and Elizabeth Kirwan Memorial Award

-- William B. Sturgill Award

-- Provost's Awards for Outstanding Teaching

-- Provost’s Distinguished Service Professorships

-- Algernon Sydney Sullivan Awards

A reception will follow in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Cultural Center.

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 Guy Spriggs, Sarah Geegan

The cutting edge experiment didn’t require any million-dollar equipment — just a camera, a 2-liter soda bottle, a balloon, rubber bands and string.

Associate Professor Jeremy Crampton of the Department of Geography met his Intro to GIS (Geographic Information Systems) students in front of the Main Building on a windy February day. Their project? Survey the western border of UK’s campus using the balloon and a process called citizen remote sensing.

By simply suspending a camera from the balloon, this technique allowed students to not only physically map an area, but to use other forms of recording, such as thermal imaging, to capture data on vegetable health and building efficiency.

“We can stitch these images

By Sarah Geegan, Jessica Powers

The University of Kentucky Department of Gender and Women's Studies will host a series of lectures covering the diverse topic of queens. The lectures will be given by professors Rusty Barrett, Susan Bordo and Karen Tice.

Barrett, assistant professor of linguistics, will present his lecture, titled "Sickening Queens," Thursday, Feb. 16.  The lecture will showcase linguistic research to explore how drag performances reflect social and cultural differences related to class and ethnicity — including differences in language

By Sarah Geegan

Rich Kirby and John Haywood will present the second lecture in the Appalachian Studies Program’s Place Matters lecture series on Friday, Feb. 17.

The lecture, “Somewheres on the Track: Place, Art and Music in Eastern Kentucky,” will demonstrate Kirby and Haywood's experience with all three – place, art, and music – from Appalachian Kentucky. Their multimedia presentation will take place  from 3:30-5 p.m. in the Center Theater, University of Kentucky Student Center.

Rich Kirby is a musician who founded June Appal Recordings in 1974. For over 30 years – from vinyl to iTunes – June Appal has

The annual Darwin Lecture Series will feature Eugenie C. Scott, who will present a lecture titled "Darwin: Demon or Revolutionary?" Presented by the Kentucky Section of the American Institute for Professional Geologists, the lecture will be presented at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 16, at Singletary Center for the Arts Recital Hall.

Scott is the executive director at The National Center of Science Education at the University of Missouri. She has been a researcher and activist in the creationism/evolution conflict for over 25 years, and is able to address the variety of different aspects the conflict entails.

The sponsors for the lecture include:

Originally published on February 12, 2012 in the Kentucky Kernel

By Luke Fegenbush

Twelve UK ROTC cadets received rated slots in the Air Force.

The Cadets were honored on Friday in an impromptu awards ceremony at Buell Armory. This ceremony started as a surprise because the results came back a week earlier than expected.

Receiving a rated slot in the Air Force means that a cadet has been selected for training in a position involving frequent flight. A limited number of these slots are given to applicants based on their grades, test scores and physical fitness.

“A lot of people, when they go into the Air Force, want to fly,” said Maj. Jesse Hedge, ROTC Operations Officer. “But it’s really hard to be selected to fly.”

Applicants who receive a slot are then sorted into one of four groups — Pilot, Combat Systems Officer, Remotely Piloted

Last November ROTC cadets ran 29 miles from UK's Barker Hall to Frankfort's Vietnam Veterans Memorial to memoralize American Prisoners of War and Missing In Action. I recently sat down with Air Force ROTC cadets Christopher Corley, Melissa Matthews, Erin Jewell, Andrew Hoch, all of whom ran the entire 29 miles, to discuss their experience and what POW-MIA means to them.

This podcast was produced by Sam Burchett.

Date: Thursday, February 16, 2012 - 4:00pm

Location: President's Room, Singletary Center

Gender & Women's Studies Spring 2012 Lecture Series presents Queens:

Rusty Barrett, Assistant Professor of Linguistics at UK, will present "Sickening Queens:  Ethnic and Class Differences in Drag".

Lecture begins at 4:00pm with a reception to follow.

Rusty Barrett explains more about the event - listen below.