By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky won the 2012 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for the Discover Germany-Discover USA program.

Issued by the Institute of International Education (IIE), the Andrew Heiskell Award honors initiatives in international higher education among IIE's association of more than 1,100 member institutions. The awards showcase the most innovative models for international partnership programs, study abroad and internationalizing the campus, with emphasis on programs that remove institutional barriers and broaden the base of international teaching and learning on campus.

IIE will honor seven different initiatives on nine campuses at its seventh annual Best Practices in

By Whitney Hale

Leave your stereotypes of Appalachia at the door as the University of Kentucky Department of Art challenges preconceived notions of the region through an evening of poetry and music at "StereoType: Unexpected Appalachian Stories."

The reading, featuring poets Theo Edmonds, Paulette Hansel, Hope Johnson, Dale Marie Prenatt, Eric Scott Sutherland and Frank X Walker, will begin 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at Tuska Center for Contemporary Art. The event is free and open to the public.

Through a focus on social justice issues as well as multiple themes of family, race, gender, sexuality, identity and place, "StereoType" will challenge the stereotypical notions of a homogeneous

By Sarah Geegan

Author and communication researcher Mary L. Gray will discuss how lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth construct spaces for fashioning their emerging sexual identities, in the first lecture of this semester's "Place Matters" series, sponsored by the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, on Friday, Jan. 27. 

The lecture will begin at 3:30 p.m., in the Center Theatre at the UK Student Center, with a reception to follow at the UK Appalachian Center.

After Gray's lecture, there will be a screening of four short films about growing up gay in Eastern Kentucky, beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the William T. Young Library Auditorium. The

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 Jenny Wells

The University of Kentucky Chellgren Center for Undergraduate Excellence has named three new Chellgren Endowed Professors.
The professors are:

Chellgren Endowed Professors maintain an active research program in their discipline; teach courses in one of the

By Whitney Hale

Ainsley Wagoner, a University of Kentucky architecture senior from Lexington, will present the 18th annual Edward T. Breathitt Undergraduate Lectureship in the Humanities at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, in the William T. Young Library Auditorium. Wagoner’s lecture, which focuses on the role memory plays in haptic architecture, is free and open to the public.
 
The Breathitt Lectureship was designed to honor an outstanding UK alumnus with an exceptional interest in higher education and the humanities, Gov. Edward T. Breathitt. The lectureship is awarded to an undergraduate who has eloquently expressed the qualities of

By Sarah Geegan

Gerald Janecek, recently retired professor of Russian and Eastern Studies, won the Outstanding Contribution to the Profession Award for 2011 from AATSEEL, the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.

A member of AATSEEL since 1972, Janecek also received the award for outstanding contribution in 2007. His work reflected the association's goals to advance the study and promote the teaching of Slavic and East European languages.

Janecek served as editor for AATSEEL's quarterly publication, The Slavic and East European Journal since 2001. Under his leadership, the journal persisted as the most highly respected philologically-oriented journal in the

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:

Cheyenne Hohman sat down with Lina Crocker to find out more about The Center for English as a Second Language. Professor Crocker is the senior lecturer at the Center and describes what the Center does, who it's for, and describes the variety of students it instructs.

By Sarah Geegan

In the second semester of his senior year, University of Kentucky undergraduate Jeremy Puckett is attempting an accomplishment normally undertaken by professors — publishing a book.

Though his book is fiction, Puckett said it reveals a real perspective on the experience of growing up in rural Kentucky. He describes his novel, "Black Bottom Hollow," a horror story set in the Kentucky backwoods, as a way to portray southerners as heroic. 

"There are a lot of stories where Appalachians are the villains," Puckett said. "But I don’t think I’ve ever seen a novel in the horror or fantasy genres that treated them as heroes."

The novel depicts an 8-year-old boy brought back to life by his family after dying in car accident. With black magic, deadly

Jenny Rice is an assistant professor in Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media at the University of Kentucky. Her book, Distant Publics: Development Rhetoric and the Subject of Crisis, is published by the University of Pittsburgh Press (2012). Jenny is interested in public rhetoric, especially how people argue with each other about space and place. Her next project looks at the way controversies are treated in physical spaces, such as churches, schools, and homes. She currently blogs at In Closing. 

Reed DeMarco was born outside of Detroit, MI and earned his B.A. in Classics from Wayne State University in Detroit in 2007. He was then awarded a teaching assistantship for his graduate studies at the University of Kentucky, finishing his degree in 2009. After Kentucky, Reed moved back to Michigan to pursue a teaching certification at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids. Upon finishing all the necessary certifications and exams, Reed was happy to accept a position teaching solely Latin at an all boys’ Catholic high school, Brother Rice, in Bloomfield Hills, MI, close to his hometown.

Reed has been teaching at Brother Rice since 2010 and finds it a great fit for him. He started an active Junior Classical League chapter and is proud to have his 45 members act as hosts for the Michigan Junior Classical League’s spring convention in April 2012. Currently there are two

On Sunday, December 4, English professor and Director of the African American and Africana Studies Program Frank X Walker spoke with hosts Lezell Lowe, Andrea James, and Dr. Sonja Fiest-Price of Groovin 1580AM Lexington. Professor Walker spoke about the Lyric Theater series, "S.T. Roach Community Conversations: Rebuilding the Block". The series is committed to celebrating black male leadership and excellence. Listen to the full interview below.

When my students ask me why I became a Latin teacher, I often tell them it was fate. This, obviously, is the short answer I give during class time when they have asked an off-topic question to avoid conjugating deponent verbs or learning about gerunds and gerundives. The truth of the matter is that I have grown to love the Latin language and couldn’t imagine my life without it. I was introduced to the wide world of Latin in college, continued my education until I was satisfied with my level of learning, and then  entered into the teaching profession at a college preparatory school.

The long and the short of it:

My first day on Western Washington’s campus for freshman orientation was bright and sunny. Naturally, I accessorized with short, hot-pink hair and old army fatigues I had found at the Army Navy supply for cheap. I walked over to my assigned classroom and sat in

By Kathy Johnson

Nikky Finney, University of Kentucky English professor and winner of the National Book Award for poetry, was the guest on yesterday's "UK at the Half," which aired during the UK vs. Loyola 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 Whitney Hale

The LGBT community is quite diverse in Lexington. In hopes of representing and celebrating the population's various differences, University of Kentucky Gaines Fellow and knitter Catherine Brereton has launched the Diversity Project, which seeks to create a visual representation of the community through a large piece of yarn-art. One stitch at a time, Brereton hopes the Diversity Project will create unity.

To finish the final product, a blanket made of 144 squares, Brereton is asking the public to take part in the initiative. There are various ways to participate in the project including a knitting event this weekend beginning at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 20, at Great Bagel, located at 396 Woodland Avenue in Lexington. For more information on this event, visit Facebook at 

By Colleen Glenn

After graduating from UK in the spring of 2011, James Chapman wasted no time in getting started on his career path. A dual Political Science and International Studies major at UK, Chapman continued doubling up on his studies in graduate school: he is now pursuing a joint law degree and Middle East policy master's degree at George Washington University.

“I would like to be involved with both law and policy in some manner, perhaps for the United Nations or the U.S. Department of State,” said Chapman. “I could also see myself working for a private law firm with an office in the region or a group that works in issues concerning the Middle East.”

Chapman got hands-on experience in learning about Middle East policy when he studied abroad in

RJ “Publius” Parsons came to the University of Kentucky after several years in which he taught high-school music and Latin in Miami, Florida, and Glendale, California. He has done extensive research into impressionistic music theory, medieval polyphony, and renaissance counterpoint most recently creating a musical score of sacred motets written by the sixteenth-century Flemish composer Noe Faignant. Throughout his musical tuition RJ has enjoyed employing texts that were written entirely in Latin, as for centuries it was the language of scholarship in all disciplines and especially music. He took so much pleasure in using the Latin skills he had obtained in school that he decided to teach it!

At the American Classical League convention’s spoken Latin seminar held at Loyola Marymount University, RJ first met Drs. Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg and although he had

Jonathan Meyer studied classics and religion at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) and Yale Divinity School before coming to the University of Kentucky. He has also participated in the summer Latin program directed by Reginald Foster (OCD). He has taught students in Latin and Greek at the high school and college levels and has assisted in graduate courses dealing with biblical studies, religious history, and ancient Greek history. At the University of Kentucky, he has taught courses in beginning and intermediate Latin and Greek. In 2011 he received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences.

His research interests include the epic tradition, ancient religion, and neo-Latin literature; his translations of selections from Homer’s Odyssey and the Legenda Aurea have been published and will appear in the forthcoming The Gospel of Judas