University of Kentucky doctoral candidate and Letcher County native Amanda Fickey is the recipient of a research fellowship from the Central Appalachian Institute in Research and Development (CAIRD).
An exhibit titled “Interwoven: Rural Traditions, Modern Ties ~ Baskets from Appalachia and the Andes” will showcase more than 100 pieces of basketry from Ecuador and Appalachia at the Lexington Public Library’s Central Gallery.
The UK Appalachian Center and the Appalachian Studies Program will host scholars, artists and NGO representatives from mountain regions all over the world on Oct. 25-27
This coming October 25th through 27th, the University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program is set to kick-off their ambitious Global Mountain Regions Conference. The three day event is a transnational exploration and conversation of the shared economic, social, and historical challenges that mountain regions face within both national and global contexts.
Conference organizer and Director of the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program, Dr. Ann Kingsolver, along with co-organizer and a postdoctoral scholar at the center, Sasikumar Balasundaram, have wrangled together a broad community of people interested in what mountain regions the world over have to contribute to each other and the global community at large.
With topics ranging from the perspective of children to the contribution of bees, each conference session pairs one member of the Appalachian community with that of others from places as wide ranging as Ecuador, Wales, Pakistan, and the People’s Republic of China. The conversations had in these sessions will not end there and the goal of the conference organizers is to preserve the conversations in the form of a book so that the lessons learned carry on.
A symposium to honor the life and literary legacy of James Still, which is free and open to the public, will be held at the Carnegie Center for Literacy and Learning.
Driving was one of the most chaotic experiences in China. In this video we are driving to the Waterfall Temple, where we will play Mahjong, an ancient Chinese game played with cards or tiles. Mahjong is a game of skill, strategy, and a certain degree of chance. A&S Hive member Yiwen Chen and her friends taught us how to play the game of Mahjong in a cave which is behind a waterfall.
Frank Walker, associate professor in the Department of English, discusses the origin of the word "Affrilachia" and how the use of the word forces the redefinition of a region traditionally described as all-white. Walker noted several key artists and intellectuals from Appalachia to illustrate the region's cultural diversity.
Ron Pen, a professor in the UK School of Music, discussed how Appalachian music unities people and place, and how the styles brought to the region by its immigrant residents combined and generated several new musical genres, such as swing, bluegrass, rockabilly, and contry. Music creates a bond that binds individuals as shared community and creates a society based on values rooted to identiy and place. Pen referenced the visual imagery and landscape of Appalachia to describe various musical sounds that have been passed down through generations in the region. He combined these two notions to reflect how music creates identity and defines a region surrounded by industrialization and development issues.
Arturo Sandoval, a professor in the College of Fine Arts, discussed representations of beauty and diversity through the work of Appalachian quilt artists. He used the international art quilt competition Quilt National biannual as his main research reference. Quilt National is described as a trendsetter in the fiber art fild and displays the most important and innovative art quilts from around the world. Sandoval's presentation guided attendees through a variety of fiber arts and mixed media quilts. These art quilts take a traditional Appalachian art form and bring it to the world of fine art.
