By Colleen Glenn

Earlier this year, Dhananjay Ravat, Chair of UK’s Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, was named an Outstanding Alumnus of the Purdue University Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. Ravat, who earned his Ph.D. from Purdue in 1989, was delighted by the news. The award was presented in a ceremony on the campus of Purdue University on September 30, 2011.

“Being honored by your teachers is probably one of the ultimate honors,” Ravat said. “For me, it sort of validates all the teaching and research I have been involved in the past 20 years. It also energizes me to do more.”

In receiving this honor, Ravat joins a small and elite group of Purdue Earth and Atmospheric Sciences alumni that include scientists who have excelled in academia, industry, or government organizations like NASA. In fact, one of the other winners

Two UK Sociology Professors See The Jobs Crisis as a Critical Issue in the Next Decade of NSF Research.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (December 5, 2011)– The National Science Foundation asked researchers around the US to profile the most important issues of the next decade in the social sciences. Myron Gutmann and Amy Friedlander of the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Division said that “the response has been astonishing—and formidable.” The 252 response papers were put onto a website for the world to see, and in the last month, NSF published a report on the project called Rebuilding the Mosaic: Fostering Research in the Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences at NSF in the Next Decade.  The one proposal from the state of Kentucky was submitted by Thomas Janoski and Christopher Oliver from the Sociology Department. It is

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

A University of Kentucky psychology Professor gives columnist John Tierney a healthy helping of Thanksgiving gratitude with his recent study on the sentiment and its effects on aggressive behavior featured in today's New York Times.

Grateful people aren't just kinder people, according to UK College of Arts & Sciences psychology Professor Nathan DeWall. They are also less aggressive.

Tierney discusses DeWall's "A Grateful Heart is a Nonviolent Heart: Cross-Sectional, Experience Sampling, Longitudinal, and

By Gail Hurston

The UK Alumni Association is serving as host to University of Kentucky multicultural and international students who signed up for the 6th Annual Multicultural Student Thanksgiving Dinner 5 to 7 p.m. today, Tuesday, Nov. 22, in the Student Center Grand Ballroom

This family-friendly event has quickly become a holiday tradition. The students will join UK President Eli Capilouto for a traditional Thanksgiving feast, including turkey with dressing, cranberry sauce, corn pudding and pumpkin pie. Vegetarian options will also be available.

University of Kentucky and College of Arts & Sciences alum Kip Cornett (B.G.S., ’77) was recognized on National Philanthropy Day, November 8. Cornett is the president and owner of Cornett Integrated Marketing.

The College of Arts & Sciences was one of twenty-two organizations to honor their top philanthropists at the annual National Philanthropy Day, organized by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Also honored were this year’s Distinguished Philanthropist, James E. “Ted” Bassett III, and Virginia Newsome received the Youth in Philanthropy Award.

The event was sponsored at the platinum level by the University of Kentucky.  The silver sponsors were KCTCS,

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky creative writing Professor  Nikky Finney has won the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry for her recent work, “Head Off & Split.”  Finney attended the award ceremony last night in New York City, where she accepted the highly prestigious honor.

“Head Off & Split” was published by Northwestern University Press in February of this year, and Finney has been touring with the book since late winter.

The National Book Award website says the poems in Finney's "Head Off & Split" "sustain a sensitive and intense dialogue with emblematic figures and events in African-American life: from Civil Rights matriarch Rosa Parks, to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, from a brazen girl strung out on lightning, to a terrified woman abandoned

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education have named University of Kentucky psychology Professor Jonathan Golding of the College of Arts & Sciences the 2011 Kentucky Professor of the Year.

Golding was selected from nearly 300 top professors in the United States.

"Jonathan Golding is one of the professors that alumni remember when they think about their college days," said psychology department Chair Richard Milich. "They remember that they learned a lot in his class, but they remember him because of his passion and because he took the time to get to know them."

Golding has involved

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The Department of Psychology is excited to welcome professor Will Gervais to its faculty!

Professor Gervais joins us this fall studying how cognition, evolution, and culture interact to shape people’s beliefs about the world. His research concerns religion and supernatural thinking, examining the psychological causes and consequences of both religious belief and disbelief.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the College of Arts and Sciences in the fall 2012 semester.

Produced by Stephen Gordinier.

By Rebekah Tilley

This article originally appeared in the College of Nursing Fall 2011 Newsletter and is re-printed here with their permission.

In the ten years since the events of September 11, 2001, the military footprint around the world has vastly expanded touching the careers of many UK College of Nursing alumni and faculty as well as impacting the training of its ROTC undergraduates.

There are a myriad of opportunities for nurses via a military career and the College of Nursing works with military personnel at every stage of their careers to optimize the educational opportunities afforded by being both in the armed services and students in the College of Nursing.

Nursing senior and Army ROTC cadet Jennifer Graehler found nursing and the Army almost at the same time. The Lexington, Ky., native came to UK on a Governor’s School for the Arts

ITIQ is a program of online, 1-credit hour courses designed to teach today’s students about various information technology tools, skills, and methods to use technology successfully in the academic, professional, and personal aspects of their lives. Students learn tools to help with academic research, stay organized, collaborate virtually, analyze and visualize data, publish online content, create dazzling presentations, and much more!

There are currently three course offerings, ITIQ-Intro, ITIQ-Web Publishing, and ITIQ-VisLab.  The courses are typically offered during 6-week part-of-term courses toward the beginning or end of the semester.   

ITIQ-Intro covers the following topics:

A&S 500 Special Topics: Global Appalachia

Instructor: Dr. Ann Kingsolver - Meets TR, 11a.m. to 12:15 p.m., B3 Funkhouser

In this course, we will examine the ways in which Appalachia has always had strong global connections, environmentally, economically, and culturally. We will critique isolationist discourse that has masked the shared concerns of those in Appalachia with other global regions that have been viewed as low-wage labor pools for transnational extractive industries, for example, and that have also contributed to collective knowledge about sustainable resource use and social capital. Appalachia’s global dimensions will be examined both historically and comparatively via topics ranging from local production of global commodities to migration, identity, changing land ownership, and community

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

University of Kentucky Confucius Institute Director Huajing Maske rarely takes a moment to reflect. With a passion for spreading Chinese language and culture to the Commonwealth that aligns with the UKCI's gateway mission, Maske and her small staff have made quite an impact on UK, Central Kentucky schools and the community in their first year of work.

"When I sit down and think about it, we've achieved a lot," Maske said laughing. "It's amazing to see such an improvement in such a short time."

The Confucius Institute's goals are to provide leadership, support and coordination for Chinese language and programs in K-12 schools as well as on the UK campus; assist in establishing and maintaining faculty and student

By Erin Holaday Zielger

The United States celebrates International Education week this week, but UK has escalated its presence and connectivity across the globe since Provost Kumble Subbaswamy established the Internationalization Task Force in February 2007.

"Our students, regardless of whether they come from rural Kentucky or from outside the U.S., are increasingly aware of the importance of being ready for the global marketplace," Subbaswamy said.  "Thus, it is our responsibility to make sure that UK provides them ample opportunity to become ‘world ready.’ Our internationalization efforts are aimed at achieving this strategic goal."

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences American Studies Program will host a discussion with the internationally renowned New York Times film critic A.O. Scott this week.

"Film and Reality: A Conversation with A.O. Scott" will take place at 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17 in Memorial Hall on UK's campus. The event is free and open to the public.

American Studies Professor Alan Nadel will be speaking with Scott. Nadel, the William T. Bryan Chair in American Literature and Culture, is currently teaching an undergraduate course in the American Studies Program on the nonfiction novel and documentary films.

"This isn't so

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Special Collections Library invites the public to an exhibition and symposium celebrating the opening of the papers of Appalachian author Harriette Simpson Arnow. The event will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17, in the Great Hall, of the Margaret I. King Building. The exhibition of work will run through February 2012.

Harriette Arnow’s papers at UK Libraries provide a broad look at a writer’s life and work.  Included are materials that document her writing process, from first-draft manuscripts on dime store tablets, through various iterations and drafts, to printer page proofs. Also included are correspondence with family, editors, publishers and literary agents. Researchers will find mail from

By Kami L. Rice

As an undergrad at UK, Heather Worne was on a pre-med track, planning to study pathology or orthopedics in medical school or to expand on her interest in the skeletal system by becoming a physical therapist. Her plans changed, though, after she took Introduction to Biological Anthropology taught by Dr. Deborah Crooks, current associate professor of anthropology and Interim Chair for the Department of Anthropology.

During that course, Worne fell in love with biological anthropology and realized she liked the perspective anthropology brought to the study of medicine. “The way biological anthropology addresses human biology is different from the

By Krystal Delfino



Jessica Combs is someone who is willing to work for what she wants in life. After gaining admission into one of the most competitive doctoral programs in the country, she has more than exceeded expectations as a psychology graduate student here at the University of Kentucky. Already, Jessica has been a collaborator in the publication of 15 papers, as well as a few others still waiting to be put in ink. In addition to this, she was granted a Presidential Fellowship, an award that honors and provides financial support for a small number of outstanding doctoral students in the university. This year, she was also selected as the Mary Byron Fellow for 2011-2012. This fellowship is in honor of a woman who was killed

By Whitney Hale

A number of books featured at the 30th annual Kentucky Book Fair will feature University of Kentucky connections or are from authors working with theUniversity Press of Kentucky (UPK), located on the UK campus. The fair, co-sponsored by UPK, will be from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 12, at the Frankfort Convention Center, in Frankfort, Ky. The Kentucky Book Fair is free and open to the public.

 

Founded in 1981, the Kentucky Book Fair is the state's leading literary event. Over the past 30 years, the fair has recognized outstanding Kentucky authors and editors. The largest and oldest event of its kind in the state, the Kentucky Book Fair will host around 185 authors with

By Cathy 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 UK creative writing Professor Nikky Finney, whose book of poetry "Head Off & Split" is a finalist for this year's National Book Award. She discusses the book and reads a portion of one of her poems.

To listen to the podcast interview with Nikky Finney, 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 Erin Holaday Ziegler

The annual POW/MIA Run is a chance for Air Force and Army ROTC cadets from the University of Kentucky, along with Air Force ROTC cadets from the University of Louisville, to honor the sacrifices of the nation’s prisoners of war and those still missing in action.

ROTC cadets and faculty will run 29 miles — from the UK campus in Lexington to the Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Frankfort — on Saturday, Nov. 12.

Cadets and faculty will start their run at 6:30 a.m. in front of Barker Hall, located on Administration Drive on the central campus of UK. The runners expect to arrive at the memorial around noon.

Cadets will carry both the United States and POW/MIA flags along the entire route. The run will take place along Old Frankfort Pike.