By Katy Bennet, Student Activities Board

Kentucky-bred writers Hope Johnson and Bianca Spriggs will share their stories of the transition from student to writer and establishing their names and work within the community at the James Baker Hall Writers Series at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, April 10, in Student Center's Center Theater. This event is free and is sponsored by the Student Activities Board.



The evening will begin with an open mic opportunity for creative writers, students, faculty and community members to share their work followed by a reading and talk by each author.



Johnson finds influence for her work by growing up in Lexington. Johnson received a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Kentucky and is currently a post-baccalaureate student. Johnson’s work has been

By Ann Kingsolver, Sarah Geegan

Author bell hooks will give the final lecture in the "Place Matters" series, sponsored by the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program. The lecture, "Reclaiming Place: Making Home," will take place from 3:30-5 p.m. Tuesday, April 10, in the Worsham Theater, with a reception following at the Appalachian Center (624 Maxwelton Court).

Writing as bell hooks, Kentucky-born Gloria Jean Watkins received her doctorate in literature from the University of California Santa Cruz and has taught at a number of universities across the country. She has published more than 30 books; her forthcoming book of poetry, "Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place," will be

Award-winning poet and A&S Creative Writing Professor Nikky Finney is featured on NPR's program Arts & Life. Finney was recently awarded the National Book Award in poetry for her collection of poems entitled, Head Off & Split. At the award ceremony, her acceptance speech received a standing ovation and almost as much acclaim as her poems themselves. The speech went through thirty nine drafts before it was finalized. To listen to the full story and read more, click here.

Gary King Lecture I



Date: Thursday, April 19, 2012 - 4:00 to 5:30pm

Location: Whitehall Classroom Builfing room #110

Who: Gary King (Harvard, Political Science)

When:  4 – 5:30 pm, Thursday, April 19th

Where: Whitehall Classroom Building  room #110

What: “How Censorship in China Allows Government Criticism but Silences Collective Expression"



Gary King Lecture II

Date: Friday, April 20, 2012 - 2:30 to 4:00pm

Location: Mining & Mineral Resources Building Room #102

Who: Gary King (Harvard, Political Science)

When:  2:30 – 4 pm, Friday, April 20th

Where: Mining & Mineral Resources Building room #102 (next to the Boone Center Faculty Club)

What: “

Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 - 4:00pm to 6:30pm

Location: President's Room, Singletary Center

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

Karen Tice, Professor of Education and Gender and Women's Studies, will present "Queens of Academe:  Campus Pageantry and Student Life"

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

GWS Symposium: Tamara Mose Brown, "Building a Community of Mothers: Under the Watchful Eye"

Date: Friday, April 13, 2012 - 1:00pm to 3:30pm

Location: 18th Floor Patterson Office Tower

GWS Symposium:

A gathering of people from the university and the community who will speak to various issues with regard to motherhood, including but not limited to: Mothering the elderly

Queer Parenting

Mothering while in the academy

Mothering, class, and reproduction

Tamara Mose Brown, author of Raising Brooklyn:  Nannies, Childcare, and Carribeans Creating Community, will lead the discussion around the idea of "Building a Community of Mothers: Under the Watchful Eye". 

18th Floor of Patterson Office Tower, 1:00pm

Tamara Mose Brown: "Nanny Networks: A

By Whitney Hale, Lea Mann

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has chosen 10 outstanding undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.

Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities. Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of a student's junior and senior years, or for the last two years of a five-year program; students in all disciplines and with any intended profession are given equal consideration.

UK's

By Sarah Geegan

UK anthropology Professor Sarah Lyon's recent work was described by the Society for Economic Anthropology (SEA) as the best book in economic anthropology in three years. Her subject: coffee.

While many people believe that drinking fair-trade coffee, purchased directly from the growers, promotes healthier working conditions, environmentally friendly agricultural standards and fair prices, Lyon's work, "Coffee and Community: Maya Farmers and Fair-Trade Markets," analyzes the real implications of fair-trade networks.

Centering on the lives of Maya coffee farmers in Guatemala, the book examines the question: what is the reality for producers, intermediaries

By Sarah Geegan

Frank X Walker, professor in the UK Department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program, will read and discuss his poetry at 1:30 p.m. Monday, April 9, at Midway College's Anne Hart Raymond Center. The event is sponsored by Chapter F, a local chapter of the International organization, P.E.O.

A local poet, professor and playwright, Walker provides "an eclectic, powerful mixture of liberating style, profound insight and unwavering organic connection to the intellectual, political and cultural struggles of people," said Ricky Jones, professor at the University of Louisville's Department of Pan-African Studies.

Walker’s work captures the profound feelings

By Whitney Hale

Choice magazine has named two books published by the University Press of Kentucky (UPK) as Outstanding Academic Titles in its January issue. "After the Dream: Black and White Southerners since 1965" and "How Kentucky Became Southern: A Tale of Outlaws, Horse Thieves, Gamblers, and Breeders," written by UK alumna Maryjean Wall, made the list of titles the publication recommended to its readership.

Choice's "Outstanding Academic Titles, 2011" reveals the best in scholarly titles reviewed by Choice magazine for the year. The honor brings with it extraordinary recognition from the academic library community as more than 35,000 academic librarians, faculty and decision makers use reviews in Choice magazine and from 

By Sarah Geegan

Archaeology — a profession that often inspires visions of treasure-hunters, the likes of Indiana Jones and Benjamin Gates from National Treasure — seems somewhat out of place in Kentucky. However, the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS), administered by the UK Department of Anthropology, has put itself on the map in terms of archaeological relevance and success.

KAS, an organization also administered by the Kentucky Heritage Council, serves to provide educational and research assistance, as well as community outreach.Working with schools, museums, historical societies and communities through its many research projects, KAS strives to educate the public regarding Kentucky's rich

During the last week of March, 2012, Peter Idstein showed his classes how volcanoes erupt. Since there aren't any in Kentucky, Idstein used trash cans filled with water as the 'volcanoes,' and liquid nitrogen as the catalyst for the eruption. In this podcast, Idstein describes the set-up procedures, students react, and we share some explosive audio!

Idstein's demonstrations were for a course he is teaching, Geology 160: Geology for Elementary School Teachers. Idstein is the lab coordinator for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, and does research on karst hydrogeology, studying groundwater systems in Kentucky. 

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

A&S photographer was also on hand to capture

By Colleen Glenn

Congratulations are in order for graduate student Jonathan Meyer who has been awarded a fellowship to attend The American School of Classical Studies at Athens next year. Meyer, a Master’s student in the UK Classics Department, will spend the 2012-2013 school year in Greece studying the history and culture of ancient Greece and the Hellenic world.

“When I found out that I had won the fellowship, I was thrilled,” said Meyer. “For months I had imagined myself living in Athens and walking daily in the footsteps of Socrates. Now I knew that that dream was about to be realized.”

A student and teacher of Latin, Meyer also specializes in the Greek language and passed examinations in ancient Greek translation and Greek literature as part of the selection process

Date: Monday, April 9, 2012 - 12:00pm to 1:00pm

Location: Student CEnter Room 211

The Division of Classics of the Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures, & Cultures presents "A Questions of Time: Apollonius' Argonautica and the Jubilee of Ptolemy III and Euergetes I", a lecture by Jackie Murray, Assistant Professor of Classics at Skidmore College.

WHEN: Monday April 9, noon

Download the flyer

About the speaker

Prof. Murray's current research focuses on the 3rd-century BCE author Apollonius Rhodius of Alexandria. Apollonius' epic poem, Argonautica, traces the voyage of Jason and the Argonauts in search of the golden fleece.  In the course of the poem, Apollonius is

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012 - 7:30pm to 9:00pm

Location: Willian T. Young Library Auditorium

The 2011-2012 Distinguished Professor Lecture will be delivered by Ronald D Eller, a professor of Appalachian Studies and History. His lecture is entitled "Seeking the Good Life in America: Lessons From the Appalachian Past". It will take place in the William T. Young Library Auditorium onThursday, April 12, at 7:30p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Ron Eller is a professor in the department of History, where he specializes in Appalachian history. In this Dean's Channel video, Professor Eller speaks about his new book, "Uneven Ground: Appalachian Since 1945" and his ties to the Appalachian region.

By Sarah Geegan

The UK American Studies Program, the Graduate School,UK Student Government Association and the English Graduate Student Organization will present "Hawthorne and the State of War," a lecture by Philip Gould from 12:30 - 1:15 p.m. Friday, March 30, in the Niles Gallery.

Gould is professor of English at Brown University and the author of "Covenant and Republic: History Romance and the Politics of Puritanism." His work has also appeared in journals such as "Eighteenth Century Studies," "American Literary History," and "Journal of the Early Republic".

The story of Nathaniel Hawthorne's

 By Jenny Wells

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. Funds for these annual awards are provided by the Office of the Vice President for Research.

Now in its 36th year, the University Research Professors program's purpose is to enhance and encourage scholarly research productivity, provide an opportunity for concentrated research effort for selected faculty members, and to recognize outstanding research achievement by members of the faculty.

The University Research Professors are:

Christopher Pool

Pool, a professor in the UK Department of Anthropology in

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved honorary degrees to be presented at the May Commencement to professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and NASA researcher Vijay K. Dhir, as well as biology professor and president of the University of Iowa, Sally Mason.

Born in India, Dhir came to the United States in 1969 after receiving his Bachelor of Science degree from Punjab Engineering College in Chandigarh, India in 1965 and his Master of Technology degree from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, India in 1968. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in 1972, he joined the faculty of UCLA and continued consulting for numerous organizations, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, GE Corp., Hughes Aircraft, Rockwell International and the Los Alamos and Brookhaven National Labs.

By Whitney Hale, Sarah Geegan

A duo of Japan's foremost Tsugaru shamisen performers, Oyama x Nitta, will perform for a Bluegrass audience at an upcoming concert presented by the Japan/America Society of Kentucky (JASK), the University of Kentucky Japan Studies Program and the Asia Center. The concert, part of the statewide Kentucky Cherry Blossom Festival, will take to the stage 3 p.m. Sunday, April 1, at Memorial Hall.

The Tsugaru shamisen is a banjo-like instrument from the Tsugaru region in Aomori Prefecture in the northernmost part of Japan’s central island of Honshu. Oyama x Nitta is comprised of Tsugaru shamisen performers Yutaka Oyama

Date: Monday, March 26, 2012

Time: 6:00 - 7:30pm

Location: Whitehall Classroom Building Room 118

Shenggen Fan: Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute

To learn more about the Year of China, click here.