LEXINGTON, Ky, -- Amber Sergent, a social studies teacher at Woodford County High School in Kentucky, was named the 2023 Kentucky High School Teacher of the Year during a ceremony Sept. 20.

Sergent earned a master’s degree and doctorate in American history at the University of Kentucky. She has taught in Woodford County since 2017. 

“In working with Dr. Sergent, I have had the opportunity to witness firsthand how fair and equitable she is with students, in every instance demonstrating compassion and care,” said Morgan Howell, principal of Woodford County High School. “She takes time to truly understand and listen to student concerns both in and out of the classroom while working to establish strong relationships. The love and care she has for her students is exceptional. It is hard to put into words and quantify the difference someone can make in another person’s life,

By Micha'la Hood and Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 12, 2022) — It’s been 157 years since the end of American slavery, but the journey to telling the true history of that era has only just begun.

University of Kentucky’s Amy Murrell Taylor helps tell that critical story in two upcoming PBS documentaries — "Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom" and "Becoming Frederick Douglass."

Murrell Taylor is the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Professor of History in the College of Arts and Sciences and the author of two award-winning books, “Embattled Freedom: Journeys Through the Civil

CHSS Workshop Series Grants

The Cooperative for the Humanities and Social Sciences’ Workshop Series Grants are supported by generous donors and the College of Arts and Sciences.  These grants offer funding for faculty and graduate students to create a series of workshops for reading, writing, and discussion of a particular theme across disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.

During the Spring Semester of 2022, CHSS supported four Workshop Series Grants. These workshop events presented new pedagogical and research ideas within A&S and across other UK Colleges as well. Below, we spotlight each series of workshops. We would like to thank our donors and everyone who participated in these workshops, and to congratulate those who planned and executed these innovative events.

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 17, 2022) — Stephen Davis, an associate professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded a 2022 ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grant.

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Justice Grant Program is designed to promote and provide resources for digital humanities projects that aim to diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital

By Danielle Donham

Looking to learn more about the history of Juneteenth and civil rights in Kentucky? The University Press of Kentucky’s Civil Rights catalog has you covered.

With titles spanning the topics of African American studies, race and sports, and the struggle for Black equality, there are plenty to choose from.

Several of the titles in the catalog are authored and edited by University of Kentucky faculty members and community members, including Gerald L. Smith, Derrick E. White, Crystal Wilkinson — all faculty in the UK College of Arts and Sciences — and former faculty member Nikky Finney. The

By Lindsey Piercy

Stephen Davis, an associate professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded a 2022 ACLS Digital Justice Seed Grant.

The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Digital Justice Grant Program is designed to promote and provide resources for digital humanities projects that aim to diversify the digital domain, advance justice and equity in digital scholarly practice, and contribute to public

By Kody Kiser and Ryan Girves

Sunday, June 19, 2022, will mark the second year of the federally celebrated holiday, Juneteenth. 

Long celebrated in the Black community, Juneteenth marks the day U.S. Army Gen. Gordon Granger announced to the people of Galveston, Texas, that slavery was over — more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

In recent years, we as a country have pushed for more. More discussion, more acknowledgment, more reform. With that has come more recognition of African American history that has been largely marginalized.

As the country continues to progress, so does the University of Kentucky, who made Juneteenth an academic holiday in 2020. The announcement came after the release of a multi-step action plan to increase the commitment to — and investments in — access and

by Jenny Wells-Hosley

This week, the University of Kentucky and surrounding communities will celebrate Juneteenth — the federal holiday that commemorates the emancipation of enslaved Black Americans — with a variety of community events.

While the Emancipation Proclamation was issued Jan. 1, 1863, declaring more than three million slaves living in the Confederate states free, it was not until Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, two years later, on June 19, 1865, that the last enslaved U.S. populations were informed of the proclamation. Since then, the date has served as a symbol for freedom and celebration for Black communities. This year marks the second time Juneteenth will be observed as a federal holiday in the U.S., as well as the second year the University of Kentucky will be closed in observance (Monday, June 20).  

Below is a list of events UK

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Essays by two recent University of Kentucky graduates have won the 2022 Ireland Prize in History. One essay, by Pedro Fernandes Esteves Fonseca, deals with the fraught efforts of the Inquisition in colonial Brazil, while the other, by Elena Liu, examines the Spanish Flu pandemic in Mexico. 

The award, from the Department of History in the College of Arts & Sciences, carries a $10,000 prize, which was split between this year’s winners. The prize honors Robert M. Ireland, a retired history faculty member who taught at UK for 41 years. The award encourages and rewards outstanding historical research and

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 31, 2022) — A new initiative led by Jewish Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky will provide educators from across the Commonwealth with the professional development and teaching tools necessary to enhance K-12 Holocaust education.

Funded by a grant from the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence, the UK-JHFE Holocaust Education Initiative will create opportunities for interdisciplinary content sharing, pedagogical training and collaborative planning.

The program aims to empower Kentucky teachers to meet the challenges of state-mandated legislation. In 2018, the

By Shanna Wilbur

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 24, 2022) — University of Kentucky Libraries has awarded the 2022 UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement to UK American history professor Tracy Campbell.

Created in 1990, the medallion honors a Kentucky resident whose accomplishments represent the pinnacle of education and creative thought in the fields of science, literature, art and philanthropy. Medallion recipients are determined by the UK Libraries National Advisory Board after receiving nominations from the public. Past recipients include John Anthony, Wendell Berry, James Still, Bobbie Ann Mason, Thomas D. Clark, Laman A. Gray Jr., Guy Davenport, George C. Herring, Adalin Wichman, John Egerton, Karl Raitz, George

By Olaoluwapo Onitiri 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- We often hear about rags to riches stories: how some people come from a tough background and push their way to a better situation down the line. Juan Montilla Pabòn has embarked on a similar path. He will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in May from the University of Kentucky with a major in political science and a minor in history. UK’s Employee Education Program has given him a big boost toward reaching his dream.  

“Since I moved to Kentucky after leaving Louisiana, I knew that UK was the best option for me,” said Montilla Pabòn, who works as a patient clerical assistant with UK HealthCare. “UK has a

By Emma Reilly

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 27, 2022) — University of Kentucky Libraries will host a Spring Celebration to honor Tracy Campbell, the 2022 recipient of the UK Libraries Medallion for Intellectual Achievement. The celebration will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 12, in the William T. Young Library on UK’s campus. A reception will follow with cocktails and heavy hors d'oeuvres. This event is free and open to the public, but reservations are requested; individuals can RSVP at bit.ly/UKLSpringCelebration. 

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 26, 2022) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center is honoring seven students with its annual research awards.

Four graduate students received the James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia, and two graduate students and one undergraduate student received the center's Eller and Billings Student Research Award.

"Every year students from across the university conduct outstanding research projects in the Appalachian region," said Kathryn Engle, director of the Appalachian Center. "The Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program is thrilled to support these students and their summer work." 

The James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on

By Richard LeComte

Summer fun in Appalachia: hiking, climbing, camping, swimming—and holding somebody’s removed femur in a hospital.

UK student Logan Turner got to participate in that last activity while working a summer observation internship in Pikeville Medical Center in 2021. He participated in AppalachiaCorps, a new program run by the College’s Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program and funded with help from UK’s Women in Philanthropy.

AppalachiaCorps helped fund Turner’s work with the Eastern Kentucky hospital as a run-up to his applying to medical school. His goal is to be an ophthalmologist.

“I was doing physician shadowing, so a lot of

By Richard LeComte

Lily Vossekuil, Elizabeth Lorch and children working to improve their comprehension came together in the summer of 2021 to show how undergraduates and faculty can collaborate on research that benefits the Kentucky community. 

Vossekuil, a psychology major, did her research under the direction of Lorch, associate dean for research and professor of psychology, and her colleague Angela Hayden. They worked together in a first-year program organized by the Office of Undergraduate Research and the College of Arts & Sciences, funded by the University’s Office of the Vice President for Research and by donors to provide intense research experiences in the summer and throughout the academic year for

By Danielle Donham and Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 2, 2022) — In times of crisis and uncertainty, we look to those with knowledge and experience to lead us through understanding. From economics and trade to warfare and culture — our faculty members at the University of Kentucky are generous in sharing their expertise to help the campus community and beyond comprehend events that are unfolding in real-time.

UKNow spoke with Robert Farley (senior lecturer, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce), 

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 15, 2021) — “We cannot understand where humanity has been and where we are going without Black Studies.”

This is the mantra of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS) — a multidisciplinary research institute based in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of African American and Africana Studies.  

The institute hosts more than 50 nationally and internationally recognized researchers with expertise in fields such as Black futures and 21st century race in digital cultures; slavery and inequality in Central Kentucky; race and sport; global Blackness (from Appalachia to Zimbabwe); and gender and sexuality in Black lives. These affiliated faculty represent 11 colleges across UK, and they are developing initiatives

By Kody Kiser and Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 14, 2022) — In the fall of 2020, the University of Kentucky announced plans to establish the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS) — a multidisciplinary program designed to highlight UK’s growing research around issues of race and racism.

The interdisciplinary institute establishes research clusters across the campus and promotes the university’s growing research and scholarship on topics of importance in African history and African American history, such as slavery and the quest for freedom, racial discrimination and violence, and the long struggle for civil rights.

This year, the university announced continued annual funding of $200,000 through UK’s Office for