By Sarah Geegan

What is Reggabilly?  “It’s music and stories from Southern Appalachia inspired by the heartbeat of Rastafari,” says Red Pepper recording artist Ras Alan about his blend of reggae music and mountain traditions.

Ras Alan, a Grammy Award nominee, has released four albums, performed at the National Mall in Washington D.C., and has three albums archived in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institute. His next stop — the University of Kentucky.

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, Appalachian Studies Program, UK Student Government Association and the Graduate Appalachian Research

By Kathy Johnson

Kentucky poet, novelist and environmentalist Wendell Berry has been named the 2012 Jefferson Lecturer in the Humanities by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  This is the highest honor the federal government betstows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.

Berry, a University of Kentucky alumnus with a degree in English and former creative writing professor at UK, will deliver the 41st Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities at 7:30 p.m. Monday, April 23, 2012, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.  The lecture is titled "It All Turns on Affection."

To read the NEH news release, click here.

This has been a notable year for

By Whitney Hale

University of Kentucky's Nicole Schladt, an international studies and gender and women's studies sophomore, and Sarah Smith, a history junior, have been awarded two of six English-Speaking Union (ESU) Scholarships presented by the English-Speaking Union Kentucky Branch. The scholarships will cover Schladt and Smith's expenses for summer study at the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge respectively.

The Kentucky Branch of the English-Speaking Union awards a limited number of scholarships to qualified Kentucky college students for courses offered at institutions in the United Kingdom. Scholarship awards include tuition,

By Mike Lynch

Feb. 7, 2012, marks the 200th anniversary of the last and possibly strongest event of a series of very strong earthquakes that shook eastern North America in the winter of 1811-12. The events occurred on what became known as the New Madrid Seismic Zone (NMSZ), located along the Mississippi River in northeastern Arkansas, southeastern Missouri, northwestern Tennessee, and western Kentucky.

Because seismic instruments were not available at that time, today's seismologists can only estimate what the likely magnitudes might have been, based mostly on eyewitness accounts and newspaper reports from that time. The magnitudes of the three largest shocks ranged between 6.8 and 7.7 on the Richter scale, which also didn’t exist at the time of these events.

Two departments at the University of Kentucky, the 

By Sarah Geegan, Guy Spriggs

The American Anthropological Association recently appointed University of Kentucky anthropology Professor Sarah Lyon as editor of the Anthropology of Work Review (AWR).

AWR is the journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Work, a section of the American Anthropological Association.

“(AWR) is a journal that looks at the variety of work and all of its forms,” said Lyon. “It looks at labor and work around the world and across time from an anthropological point of view.”

The role of AWR editor seems tailor-made for Lyon, who specializes in economic anthropology with a focus on the intersections of culture and economy.

By Sarah Geegan

                   Matt Wilson on GIS Workshop from UK College of Arts & Sciences on Vimeo. To view a transcript of the video above, click here.

The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences is partnering with the 

A&S Passport to the World

Year of China – awaken the past, discover the future



A&S 100 – 001 - Dr. Keiko Tanaka

Tuesdays and Thursdays

6:00 – 7:40pm

Whitehall Classroom Building Room 118

Course offered from February 21st to April 19th

This 2-credit, 8-week course will aim to introduce undergraduate students to various aspects of Chinese society and culture. Students will be required to attend various Year of China events in addition to in-class presentations by guest speakers and film presentations. Each month, diverse scholars and professionals will be invited to give presentations around the monthly theme.

For enrollment information, contact Kari Burchfield at klburc2@uky.edu

By Jessica Powers, Gail Hurston

Every student looks for their niche in college, and often a club exists to unite them with other students who have the same interest. Lodz Pierre, a Haitian native, recognized the minority she represented at the University of Kentucky and decided to create a student organization to unite others with similar heritage and an interest in Caribbean culture by forming the Caribbean Student Association (CASA).

"UK's student population is increasing in diversity, but most of the students are not of Caribbean ancestry. The Caribbean student population at UK is probably one of the most underrepresented minorities on campus," said Pierre, president of CASA. "But despite its small percentage, I believed that the number was great enough to create a club in

By Keith Hautala

The Martin School of Public Policy and Administration is now requesting nominations for the  2012 William E. Lyons Award for Outstanding Service to the University of Kentucky, the community and the Commonwealth. 

This award is given each year to an individual associated with the university who has given outstanding service to UK, the community or the state. It is named in honor of William E. Lyons (1935-1994), professor of political science and public administration, director of the Martin School, chair of the Department of Political Science, chair of the Lexington-Fayette County Merger Commission, member of the Urban County Council, and chair or member of numerous other university and government committees.

Those wishing to nominate a person for the award, which

By Jay Blanton, Amy Jones, Kody Kaiser

To see a text trancription of the video, click here.

Jen LeMaster wanted to go to college. But as a young girl growing up in Ashland, she learned early that it wouldn’t be easy financially. Her family couldn’t simply write a check for tuition and books.

So, LeMaster started looking at community colleges and other options that might not cost as much – that is, until she received a scholarship that allowed her to attend the University of Kentucky.

Now, more than 10 years later, standing in a premium luxury box at the

By Katy Bennett, Chelsea Melchor

Obamacare is a highly debated issue seen in the news and on the floor of Congress that leaves many Americans scratching their head in confusion on just what this controversial bill is about. Come hear the two opposing cases about Obamacare 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 1, in Worsham Theater. This event is free and sponsored in collaboration by the Student Activities Board and the Student Government Association.

"Obamacare: You May Love It, You May Hate It, But Do You Know Why?"will present two speakers of opposing views to the new health care law. Stephen Voss will present the case for Obamacare and Davida Isaacs will present the case against it, ultimately addressing the main question, "Is the individual mandate constitutional or not

Allison Harnish has recieved the Dissertation Year Fellowship Award. Allison Harnish works in a frontier farming region outside one of Africa’s largest national parks, and in her dissertation she investigates how gender- and age-based differences in household labor roles prompt men, women, boys, and girls to differently experience declines in natural resources.

To listen to a podcast where she discusses her research on displacement and resettlement in Southern Province, Zambia, click here.

Ryan Anderson has received the Dissertation Enhancement Award.  His dissertation research focuses on the politics and conflicts surrounding a large-scale tourism development project on the Baja California peninsula.

By Gail Hurston

University of Kentucky Diversity Education & Community Building (DE&CB) students with the assistance of faculty and staff members have organized a full month of activities for the 2012 Black History Month Collaborative.

“As Black History Month chair for the first time,” said UK student Brittany Clayborne, “I'd like to say that I'm honored to be hosting such a position within the Black Student Union. I'm learning every day, and enjoyed it because of the hardworking students and faculty around me that have done all they could to make this a strong month. I'm excited for these programs because not only am I helping others learn more about their heritage, I'm learning about myself. I feel like everyone on campus should be eager to participate as a result of the time and

By Sarah Geegan

Two University of Kentucky faculty members will travel to India from Jan. 29-Feb. 3 as part of a delegation formed by the Institute of International Education (IIE), to foster ties in higher education between India and the U.S.

Asia Center Director Keiko Tanaka, and Srimati Basu, associate professor of Gender and Women's studies, and will join high level administrators from 10 other U.S. colleges and universities on a study tour to Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. They will meet with their counterparts at diverse Indian institutions to learn more about the nation's higher education system

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

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

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

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.