By Dara Vance

The University of Kentucky’s Department of Political Science is serious about research collaboration. According to Associate Professor Clayton Thyne, “the department has invested heavily in promoting professor-student collaborations over the past several years, and we have seen this investment pay off with a number of co-authored working papers, conference presentations, and published articles.”  He adds, “a major goal of the program is to develop students who have excellent research skills and have solid foundation when they enter the job market.”

 An example of professor and student collaboration is a project recently published in International Studies Quarterly (2015). Dr. Thyne and UK Political Science Ph.D. candidate Anup Phayal both study civil war and peace building. Thyne helped guide Phayal and co-author Prabin Khadka in their research

By Ashley Cox

(April 8, 2016) — Peter Fallon, poet and founder and director of Gallery Press, Ireland's preeminent publisher of poetry and drama, will explore the tradition of Irish literary publishing as part of the 2016 International Hammer Book Arts Biennale Lecture presented April 12. As part of his visit Fallon will also deliver a poetry reading on campus April 13. Both events are free and open to the public.

Fallon's Hammer Biennale Lecture, “The Purpose of Praise: Extending the Tradition of Irish Literary Publishing,” is the seventh in the history of the lectureship. The lecture will begin 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Great Hall, on the second floor of the 

By Andrea Gils

The forum, which will promote academic conversations and explore research collaborations, will be co-chaired by Zixue Tai and Kevin Real, associate professors in the UK College of Communication and Information (UK CI); hosted by Dan O’Hair, dean of UK CI; and organized by Tai.

Discussions at the forum will surround topics like journalism and mass

By Ashley Cox

(April 11, 2016) — The University of Kentucky Department of Physics and Astronomy is hosting Kentucky native and NASA civil servant Pamela Marcum April 14-15 for a Sky Talk titled "NASA’s SOFIA Observatory: Exploring the Universe from 42,000 Feet” and a meet-and-greet.

Marcum’s Sky Talk is open to the public and will take place 8 p.m. Thursday, April 14, in the Chemistry-Physics Building room 155. Her meet-and-greet will take place from 12-1:30 p.m. Friday, April 15, at the UK Appalachian Center, located at 624 Maxwelton Ct.

By Whitney Hale

(April 11, 2016) — When is Parmigiano Reggiano cheese not Parmesan cheese? When it’s not made in a small area in northern Italy. Explore this question and other issues related to regional brands and regional identities in the food industry with Agricultural Economics Professor David Freshwater 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in the Alumni Gallery of the William T. Young Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In support of the “Year of

By Natalie Riney

(April 6, 2016) — A recording-breaking 88 University of Kentucky undergraduates have been selected to present their research projects at the 2016 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) this week.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, this year’s conference will bring young researchers from around the world to the University of North Carolina Asheville April 7-9 where the students will share their research findings through poster and oral presentations. Each student will be given the opportunity to discuss their display and share their research results, illuminating how their work will have an impact on future research development.

“NCUR 2016 will be the second largest conference attended since its beginning in 1968,” said Bessie Guerrant,

By Whitney Harder

(April 6, 2016) — Often containing more than a billion times the mass than our Sun, supermassive black holes have perplexed humans for decades. But new research by University of Kentucky astrophysicist Isaac Shlosman and collaborators will help to understand the physical processes at the edge of time and space, providing the details of how supermassive black holes formed 13 billion years ago.

Shlosman, as well as Jun-Hwan Choi at the University of Texas at Austin, Mitchell Begelman at the University of Colorado Boulder, and Kentaro Nagamine at Osaka University (Japan), ran simulations where supermassive black holes are seeded by clouds of gas falling into potential wells of dark matter — the invisible matter that astronomers believe makes up 85

Janie-Rice Brother, an architectural historian of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey recently received the UK Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies' Campus and Community Excellence in Writing award for her blog titled Architecture and Landscapes from the Bluegrass and Beyond.

Brother has over 15 years of cultural resource experience in the Ohio River Valley, the Mid-Atlantic, and southeast. Prior to coming to UK, Brother spent four years at the Kentucky Heritage Council, the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), where she was responsible for review of the above-ground Section 106 projects in the state. While at the SHPO, she oversaw a county-wide survey that culminated in the documentation of over 800 rural and urban resources and numerous public presentations.

Brother studies the landscape of Kentucky and blogs about its vanishing heritage.

By Gail Hairston

(April 4, 2016) — Students in Stephen Voss’ "PS 476: Legislative Process" course helped craft a watchdog class project to follow legislation through the Kentucky State Legislature.

Voss, University of Kentucky associate professor of political science and a frequent media analyst and commentator on state and national politics, proposed “Frankfort Focus” to engage his students in the day-in, day-out workings of a state government.

The "PS 476" course enrolls a mixture of students. About two-thirds of them major in either political science or related fields. The rest are part of the UK Department of Political Science Kentucky Legislative Internship

By Whitney Harder

(April 4, 2016) — Crystal Wilkinson, award-winning author and current writer-in-residence at Berea College, will give a talk titled "Black Women and Mental Health in Appalachia" at the University of Kentucky on Tuesday, April 5.

The talk, free and open to the public, will be held from 3-4:30 p.m., in the UK Athletics Auditorium in the William T. Young Library.

Hosted by the UK Appalachian Center and UK African American and Africana Studies Program, the event will also include a reading by Wilkinson of her newest novel, 

By Gail Hairston

(March 31, 2016) — Teachers, parents and schoolchildren in Kentucky and around the world have a new online resource to learn about the history of Lexington’s extraordinary Davis Bottom neighborhood, the “Teaching Through Documentary Art: Lessons for Elementary and Middle School Social Studies Teachers” series.

Inspired by two stunning murals featured in the award-winning documentary “Davis Bottom, Rare History, Valuable Lives,” the innovative lesson plans were developed by archaeologists and educators with the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS), jointly administered by the University of Kentucky’s Department of Anthropology and the Kentucky Heritage Council, and the Davis Bottom History

By Ashely Cox

(March 31, 2016) — The tumultuous tone of the 2016 presidential race has focused renewed attention on the role of polling — and pollsters — in the political process. Traditionally, polls were internal documents used to shape campaign strategies, fundraising appeals and voter turnout. Today, however, polling has become a very public event — who's ahead, who's behind — supplanting issues, positions and personalities in driving campaign media coverage.

For many years, the standards of measurement used in polling became more accurate over time and usually had a high degree of accuracy. Lately, however, several recent polls, both nationally and in the last two Kentucky statewide elections, have differed considerably from actual election day results. So why are a growing

By Weston Loyd

(March 30, 2016) — Kentucky Women Writers Conference presenters Danielle Dutton, Dana Spiotta and Crystal Wilkinson all have new books released this month. Each author will teach a two-day fiction workshop at the conference later this year, scheduled for Sept. 16-17 in Lexington.

"Having a new book is by no means a requirement for appearing at our conference," Kentucky Women Writers Conference Director Julie Kuzneski Wrinn said. "But the excitement surrounding a new book can translate into excitement for the conference, especially with three fiction writers who are each publishing a new novel in the same month."

Danielle Dutton’s novel “

By Whitney Hale, Whitney Harder

(March 30, 2016) — The relatively new concept of university cities is the focus of the 2016 Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues presented by the University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities. This year's event will bring together Lexington Mayor Jim Gray and Mayor Wade Troxell, of Fort Collins, Colorado, in a lunch discussion on the value of a community being considered a "university city." "University Cities: A Conversation with Mayors" begins noon Thursday, April 7, at Commerce Lexington Inc., located at 330 E. Main St. in downtown Lexington.

Often referred to as a college town, Lexington has evolved into a "university city" in recent years according to research by Lexington's

By Terrence Wade

(March 30, 2016) —The University of Kentucky has been named a 2016 Kentucky Academy of Science (KAS) Enhanced Affiliate. Faculty, staff and students of UK may join KAS for free thanks to the Enhanced Affiliate Membership Program. KAS is a nonprofit organization fostering scientific discovery and understanding in the Commonwealth and currently has more than 3,000 members — an all-time high.

Membership in KAS is open to anyone with an interest in science. Members receive news, announcements, and job and research opportunities from KAS. They can also apply for research grants and publish in the Journal of the Kentucky

By Andrea Gils Monzon, Gail Hairston

(March 29, 2016) — The University of Kentucky Division of Undergraduate Education and UK Education Abroad recently awarded $5,000 for the spring 2016 Undergraduate Research Abroad Scholarships (UGRAS) to junior biology student, Holden Hemingway; senior equine science student, Haley Reichenbach; and senior English and philosophy double major, Alexander Parmley. All three awardees will be conducting independent research projects abroad this summer.

“UGRAS gives students the opportunity to participate in original, cutting-edge research and promotes interaction with international scholars through immersion in the research environment,” said Evie

By Terrence Wade

(March 24, 2016) — Distinguished Professor in Arts and Sciences for 2015-16 Charles R. Carlson, will present the honorary lecture on March 28, titled “Breathing Entrainment for Self Regulatory Gain: Using Programmatic Research to Improve the Management of Motion Sickness and Chronic Orofacial Pain.” Carlson is a professor of psychology in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences. The Distinguished Professor’s reception and lecture will be held at 7 p.m. Monday, March 28, in the UK Athletics Auditorium of William T. Young Library.

Carlson’s presentation describes his examination of chronic muscle pain in the head and neck

By Tasha Ramsey

Speech is an integral part of our development as children and one that continues to develop throughout our lives. Because of this, we don't often spend much time thinking about speech and what it reveals about our identities. However, one professor in the Linguistics Program at the University of Kentucky spends much of his time researching the aspects of speech and social identity. 

According to Dr. Kevin McGowan, Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Program in the College of Arts & Sciences, "Every time we open our mouths to speak we convey not only the words we intend to say but also who we are, where we’re from, how we feel about what we’re saying, how we feel about our listener, how healthy we feel, and the list just goes on and on."

McGowan received a Ph.D. in linguistics

By Dara Vance

The Classical Association has awarded Laura Manning, a master's student studying classics in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures, a scholarship to participate in a panel presentation at the association’s 2016 annual conference in Edinburgh, Scotland.  

Manning will be presenting her paper “Living Latin at the University of Kentucky,” and is excited for the opportunity to interact and speak Latin with international scholars. “I will have the chance to share ideas with classics scholars from around the United Kingdom and around the world,” Manning said.

Manning will be discussing the University of Kentucky’s innovations in classics pedagogy and the way UK students benefit from the program.

Manning is a non-traditional student, with three adult children and a grandchild, and finds the Institute for

By Gail Hairston

(March 21, 2016) — The extraordinary photography of Ethelee Davidson Baxter will be on exhibit in the first floor atrium of the University of Kentucky William T. Young Library from March 21 through April 22. The theme of Baxter’s exhibit is “Diversity of Lifestyles: Women Around the World.”

Baxter, who was named to the UK College of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2014, found a second career in photography after many years presiding in a courtroom. Her work can be viewed at http://www.leebaxterphotography.com/index.html#.VusiJ_krLhd.

“Travel has always been my passion, especially travel to remote and unusual destinations. Since my retirement