story by Guy Spriggs

English professor and writer-in-residence Erik Reece has expressed his views on the coal industry and energy policy in Kentucky in such works as his 2006 book “Lost Mountain.” He also believes the University of Kentucky has an opportunity to effect positive change and become a more energy-responsible institution.

Reece understands the influence of coal in Kentucky, but feels that the effects coal has on Kentucky’s environment and local economies are largely overlooked.  “It’s a very cheap source of energy because there’s so much of it, but the problem is that people aren’t factoring in the true cost of coal,” Reece said.  “We’re not paying for the externalities in terms of all the dirty water, the

"They’ve taken the real Martin Luther King and gone—and we have to reclaim him," said University of Kentucky professor Adam Banks, evoking a Langston Hughes poem to describe the ways media commentators have sampled soundbites from King and ignored the movement he led and the causes he stood for.
 
Banks, an Associate Professor of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Media in UK’s College of Arts and Sciences, is using King and the Civil Rights movement to kick off "The Digital Griots Project," an idea designed to bring African American communities in Lexington and Syracuse, N.Y., together in dialogue by linking oral traditions, literacy and technologies.

by Saraya Brewer
photos by Richie Wireman

Like many graduate students, University of Kentucky English Ph.D. candidate Sarah Schuetze lights up when she talks about her research. That in and of itself is not particularly strange – what’s perhaps a bit unusual about it is that her focus of study is rather dark, at times bordering morbidity. Schuetze’s academic concentration is disease – the culture of hysteria surrounding it, and the various ways it has affected characters’ lives in American literary texts throughout history.

She admits that it’s a bit odd, but she’s okay with that.

“I’m really attracted to things that are sort of peculiar,” she said. “I try to study things that are interesting and weird, because that’s what attracts me to a book.”

To that end, Schuetze’s fascination with disease is not

University of Kentucky's main campus was shaken awake late Friday morning as two Black Hawk helicopters touched down on the Main Building lawn to help out a UK program.

UK’s Army ROTC was headed for a weekend of training on Friday, and ROTC officials were able to give 20 cadets a lift from the Army National Guard in style.

According to Captain Joey Orr, the top 20 cadets were from the program's Order of Merit List, which is determined by grades, performance in physical training and program participation.

Most cadets don't see the aviation side of the Army while in the ROTC program at UK, according to Orr. "Our goal is to show cadets their options. It should excite them not only about their future as Army officers, but what the potential has for that future as leaders,” he said. “It’s our job to give them

A Kentucky-produced educational film on the state's archaeology did more than just debut on the west coast.

"Historic Archaeology: Beneath Kentucky's Fields and Streets," produced by the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS), the Kentucky Heritage Council (KHC) and Voyageur Media Group, Inc, garnered three awards at the 8th Annual Archaeology Channel International Film and Video Festival in Eugene, Ore. This program, the third volume in the council's popular “Kentucky Archaeology” series, was made possible with support from the Federal Highway Administration and the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Chosen as one of only 18 films screened in front of judges and an audience during this year's festival, the film won for Best Script and Best Public Education Value, and was one of three finalists in the Most Inspirational category. 

The Archaeological

The University of Kentucky will welcome a Nicholas County native to campus this fall as the university continues its mission to unite and strengthen its Appalachia programming.

Internationally renowned cultural anthropologist Ann Kingsolver has accepted the positions of director of the Appalachian Studies Program and director of the Appalachian Center at UK.

“I am thrilled that Dr. Kingsolver will be joining us in the College of Arts and Sciences and at the university,” said 

When the University of Kentucky established the Committee on Social Theory in 1989, it was one of the first of its kind.

The committee, in the College of Arts and Sciences, provides one of the most engaging teaching, research and learning experiences at UK, including 75 affiliated faculty from 17 departments and schools across campus. 

The 2010-2011 school year has been a record-breaking one for the Classics Division of the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures. Four students have been recognized for their achievements: 

Rachel Philbrick, a graduate student in classics at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded one of only 33 Jacob K. Javits Fellowships from the U.S. Department of Education. The Javits Fellowship is awarded to students of superior academic ability who plan to undertake graduate study in the selected fields of arts, humanities and social sciences.

As part of the Javits Fellowship, the U.S. Department of Education awards fellowships to students on the basis of demonstrated achievement, financial need and exceptional promise. The selection is made by a panel of experts appointed by the Javits Fellowship Board. The Javits Fellowship covers study at the doctoral and Master of Fine Arts level in selected fields of arts, humanities and social sciences

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has selected 11 outstanding undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2011-12 and 2012-13 academic years.

Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of students’ outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, interest in public issues, and 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.

The 11 students selected as Gaines Scholars are as follows:

"It's 11:57 a.m., and I'm hurrying to class with my backpack on. A colleague stops me in front of the Chemistry-Physics Building and says, 'You look like a student!' Actually, I am."
 
So begins the story of Alan Fryar, a University of Kentucky geology professor who elaborates on his midlife undergraduate experience in this week's Chronicle of Higher Education.
 
Fryar, who is also the director of graduate studies for the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at UK, began taking French language classes on campus last semester.
 
"At 46, I'm an associate professor of geology and one of 25 students in an elementary French class here at the university," he explains in the Chronicle Review. "I'm nearly twice the age of my oldest classmate and 20 years older than my

The Rural Sociological Society has recognized Shannon Bell and Richard York for Best Article. The article, “Community Economic Identity: The Coal Industry and Ideology Construction in West Virginia,” was published in March 2010 in Rural Sociology, the Society’s journal. Shannon Bell is an assistant professor of sociology at UK; Richard York, who co-authored the article, is a professor at the University of Oregon. 

In their article, Bell and York address the relationship between capitalist modes of production and ecological destruction. Using the Appalachian coal industry as a case study, they demonstrate the ways in which declines in coal industry jobs and the

There is a wonderful program at Appalshop in Whitesburg, KY called the Appalachian Media Institute that I am excited to have the opportunity to work for this summer.  Appalshop was founded in 1969 as a non-profit multi-media arts and cultural organization dedicated to preserving Appalachian culture as well as addressing the issues that the Appalachian region is confronted with.  They have a community radio station that broadcasts throughout the area as well as internationally streaming on the web.  They have also produced numerous films, some of which were played at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City last fall. 

Check out all that Appalshop has to offer here: 

A former chemistry student digs with small tools, the size of those a dentist might use, next to an aspiring business titan from another life, who lightly brushes away dirt clods with almost maternal care.

"Sometimes I'll be working, and three or four hours will fly by," the former business student says. "It's absorbing."

Both are part of a team working to record and analyze the remains of over 125 patients buried on the historic grounds of Eastern State Hospital, the second-oldest psychiatric hospital in the United States.

David Pollack, director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS) and adjunct  professor of anthropology at the University of Kentucky, has brought together professional archaeologists and anthropology graduate and undergraduate students for the project. 

Pollack and his team of 10 braved cold in February and storms in April

Christie Shrestha, a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, was contacted by the United Nations' High Committee on Refugees to publish an abridged version of her MA thesis, which was published in 2010. Her thesis, "Power and politics in resettlement: a case study of Bhutanese refugees in the USA," is based on research conducted in 2009 in Lexington, Kentucky.  

The article, as it appears in the UNHCR series, "New Issues in Refugee Research," can be found here. 

Director of the Center for Drug Abuse Research Translation and Department of Psychology Professor Michael Bardo has been named a 2011 William B. Sturgill Award recipient. The award is presented anually to a graduate faculty member for outstanding contributions to graduate education at the University of Kentucky.

"Winning the Sturgill Award is such a high honor for me because my past trainees have been so successful," Bardo began. "It has been a great pleasure to stay in contact with many of them on an annual basis at professional meetings in psychology and neuroscience. Watching them grow from trainees into true

During America's colonial period, the trans-Appalachian west, though largely terra incognita to people living on the eastern seaboard and occupied by significant numbers of native peoples, lay open to initial forays by hunters, explorers, surveyors, and settlers. The earliest overland travel routes to traverse western Virginia lands, country that eventually became the Commonwealth of Kentucky, were established between the 1750s and 1780.

Richard Waterman, professor in the Department of Political Science, has penned a novel entitled "The Oracle: The Succession War." The novel is a science-fiction take on politics, ambition, and the complex relationships that arise in the context of

 Tonya and Jackie Jones giggle like best friends over the remnants of a casual lunch. You almost feel like you're intruding in attempts to capture their attention. Mother and daughter never seem to tire of each other's company, especially considering they live together in the Jones family home in Lexington and both work part time at the Inn on Broadway downtown.

"We do everything together," Jackie Jones laughed. "And this is no different."

In this instance, Jackie is alluding to her impending May Commencement Ceremony, where she will graduate with a degree in history. Tonya Jones will have a front row seat for her daughter's graduation, as she is receiving a degree in history from UK as well.

"I refused to let her graduate before me,"