By Tom Musgrave

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 20, 2025) — When Georgia-based artist Basil Watson submitted his proposal for the Lexington Freedom Train monument, he said he saw an opportunity to highlight an important story.

“A lot of Black stories have not been told, and I am a part of that community that has been denied the recognition,” he said. “So, this meant another opportunity for me to get involved in telling a Black story. Those are not the only stories to be told, but they are important stories that need to be told now.”

He was there June 19, when the monument — a sculpture depicting abolitionists Lewis and Harriet Hayden,

By Amy Jones-Timoney

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 16, 2025) — A new faculty trustee and a new staff trustee have been elected following the University Community Election of Faculty and Staff Representatives to the Board of Trustees. On April 25 the election cycle opened to fill one faculty seat and one staff seat for three-year terms starting July 1. Nomination submissions closed May 4, and voting took place May 8 through May 14.

Karen Petrone, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of History in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-director of the UK-Jewish Heritage Fund Holocaust Education Initiative, has been elected to serve as a faculty trustee. The faculty trustees 

By Jenny Wells-Hosley 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 5, 2025) — Last fall, the University of Kentucky Office of the Provost announced the second cohort of the Institutional Multidisciplinary Paradigm to Accelerate Collaboration and Transformation Awards winners. 

The IMPACT Awards initiative, an internal funding program from the Office of the Provost, launched in 2023 to support innovation and transformation within UK’s college. Fifteen colleges, including UK Libraries and the Graduate School, are working collectively to break new ground on ways to advance Kentucky. Among the

By Cassady Brockman 

LEXINGTON, Ky – Andrew Chan has taken the topic of civil rights in the United States and focused his attention on the interaction between two minoritized groups: Black Americans and Asian-Americans. 

“We’re trying to reconceptualize a lot of connections between African Americans and Asian Americans,” said Chan, who’s a history major in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences. 

According to Chan, this newly developed intersectional field “relies on the idea that there’s a lot of overlap between African American History and Asian American history.”  

The intersectionality Chan studies led him to present at the 64th annual meeting of the Southeast Conference of the Association for Asian Studies at UK

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky – Coming out of Kentucky’s foster care system, Hannah Tackett faced a number of challenges in the way of her goal of attending the University of Kentucky. Yet here she is. 

“I wanted to give myself the best of the best, because I knew that I was willing to do whatever I needed to get what I needed to get the best life that I could have," said Tackett, a history major in UK’s College of Arts and Sciences. “I wanted to go to UK because, with my background, it was like a dream that I never thought I could achieve — to go to such a big university. But I did it.” 

Tackett, who’s from Pikeville, is getting assistance from the state, but she’s also benefitting from the College’s First Gen Trailblazer Fund, which helps undergrads who will be the first in their family to graduate from university

By Lindsey Piercy 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 19, 2025) — Nestled in the rolling hills of central Kentucky, Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill stands as a testament to a once-thriving utopian community.

With its impeccably preserved 19th-century buildings, rich cultural history and dedication to education, it functions as a dynamic learning environment for both students and historians.

This past semester, a group of University of Kentucky history graduate students embarked on an innovative practicum

By Jennifer T. Allen 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 24, 2025) — Plamedi Nsensele feels called to help others navigating their new life in the United States. 

“As an international student at the University of Kentucky, I see it as a blessing to pursue my education without the fear of needing help,” said Nsensele, a neuroscience and biology major from The Democratic Republic of the Congo. “Now, through the Step-Up Program, I’ve had the opportunity to work with immigrants from the same country as me, but with different circumstances.” 

Step-Up is an innovative service-learning program supporting high school students from immigrant and refugee families. The program helps them integrate into the United States. The program was recently awarded a Provost Impact Award for the 2024-25 academic year.

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 8, 2024) — On Nov. 9, community members are invited to gather at the Lyric Theater & Cultural Arts Center in Lexington for a powerful exploration of Kentucky’s history of racial violence.

The symposium, “Reckoning, Remembering, Restoring: A Symposium on the History of Racial Violence in Kentucky” aims to “confront the often-overlooked history of racial violence across the state and explore the role of digital humanities in telling this essential story.”

The symposium, which runs 9 a.m.-4 p.m., is free and open to the public, though

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Joseph Clark, associate professor of history in the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences, has started a fellowship with the National Humanities Center in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. 

Each fellow will work on an individual research project and can share ideas in seminars, lectures and conferences. As one of 31 fellows, Clark will work on the book project “Witchcraft and Contraband in the Early Modern Caribbean.”  

“During my time at the NHC I’ll be drafting my chapters and taking my work to seminars and workshops,” Clark said, “At the same time, I’ll be processing the archival research I’ve already completed in Spain and Mexico and figuring out what additional research I will need to undertake to complete the book.” 

Clark’s area of expertise lies

One of public television’s most popular series, "Secrets of the Dead," brings its historical analysis to Kentucky.

The series, which uses the latest science to challenge prevailing ideas and share fresh perspectives on historical events, investigates an incident from Kentucky history known as the “Simpsonville Massacre,” when 22 Civil War soldiers from the 5th US Colored Cavalry on a cattle drive to Louisville were ambushed and slain by outlaws.

The episode “The Civil War’s Lost Massacre,” which was co-produced by KET, revisits the events of January 25, 1865, tracing the stories of several of the Kentucky soldiers and their families with help from guest historians, two of whom hail from Kentucky: Jerry Miller, a former state legislator from Louisville,

By Joe Bandy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 27, 2024) — The University of Kentucky Alumni Association announced the selection of 32 students who will serve as Alumni Ambassadors for the 2024-25 academic year. As official student hosts of the UK, Alumni Ambassadors promote the university at numerous events in partnership between the Office of the President, Office of Philanthropy and the UK Alumni Association.

Alumni Ambassadors represent the best and brightest of UK students, demonstrating high achievement in their collegiate careers and a dedication to the advancement of the university. Students must maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher and represent diverse backgrounds, cultures and areas of campus involvement.

By Daniel Flener 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 24, 2024) — The University of Kentucky International Center, UK College of Arts and Sciences, UK College of Fine Arts and UK Residence Life will hold a two-day celebration of UK’s international community on Sept. 26-27.

“Global UK: A Celebration of Our Campus Mosaic” will feature a student panel and special film screening and will culminate in an international festival at Alumni Commons.

“This event will be a fantastic celebration of our incredible international community here at UK,” said Francis Musoni, associate professor of history and director of international studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. “There are more than 100 countries represented

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Amy Murrell Taylor, the T. Marshall Hahn Jr. Professor of history in the University of Kentucky's College of Arts and Sciences, is chairing the panel selecting the 26th Frederick Douglass Book Prize. Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition gives the prize, which recognizes a book addressing the history of slavery, resistance and abolition. 

Taylor’s book “Embattled Freedom: Journeys through the Civil War's Slave Refugee Camps” received the prize in 2019. 

The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and the Gilder Lehrman Center established the Frederick Douglass Book Prize in 1999 to stimulate scholarship in the field. The

The University of Kentucky has announced recipients of the 2024 Faculty Awards. The College will have an awards program and reception in early fall to recognize the recipients. More information will follow soon.

2024 College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Awards recipients are: 

Outstanding Teaching Award

Excellence in Teaching Large Courses Award

Innovative Teaching Award

Outstanding Undergraduate

The March 29 edition of the National Public Radio podcast "It's Been a Minute" features an interview with University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences history professor Anastasia Curwood on her biography of U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm. The podcast examines the history left out of the new Netflix film "Shirley," which follows the presidential run of Chisholm. Curwood is the author of "Shirley Chisholm: Champion of Black Feminist Power Politics." Curwood talks about how Chisholm's identities informed her approach to the campaign. 

By Janice W. Fernheimer, Karen Petrone and Jeff Polson 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 22, 2024) — The following op-ed was written by Janice W. Fernheimer, Karen Petrone and Jeff Polson. The opinions expressed are their own, not those of the University of Kentucky.

***

Antisemitism has been on the rise in Kentucky and across the U.S. since 2016, including a 36% increase nationally

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 19, 2024) — Today we honor U.S. presidents, past and present.

From those who served as war heroes to those who resigned in disgrace, behind every textbook page is a real person who did all sorts of fascinating — and sometimes odd — things on the way to becoming leader of the free world.

We’re going to unpack a treasure trove of those interesting facts soon.

But first, some tidbits about the holiday itself.

Did you know, Presidents’ Day started out as a day of remembrance for only one president, George Washington?

Following Washington’s death in 1799, Americans began honoring his birthday, Feb. 22. At first, the celebration was not federally observed, but it

By Kody Kiser and Kayla Gales 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 15, 2024) — This year marks the 75th anniversary of Lyman T. Johnson’s historic legal triumph against the University of Kentucky, a milestone that marked him as the first Black student to integrate the university.

A lifelong champion of education and its transformative potential, Johnson was an advocate for equality in both education and broader society, drawing inspiration from his experiences as

By Jennifer T. Allen

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 8, 2024) - When Tantalissia Champs and James Lin registered for a slavery and records practicum taught by Kathryn Newfont in the fall of 2023, they had no idea how impactful their experience would be.  

“Being in the class and realizing that we were part of something bigger than ourselves; that we were bringing out the stories and the lives of enslaved people primarily in Kentucky was very

By Kody Kiser and Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 6, 2024) — “Every single one of them said, ‘My God, I had no idea something like this happened.’ I think they are learning something about their communities that they didn’t know before.”

Anastasia Curwood, history professor and director of the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies at the