By Mike Farrell, Blair Hoover

(April 14, 2015) — James C. Duff, director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and a one-time walk-on for the University of Kentucky freshman basketball team, will deliver the annual State of the First Amendment Address Tuesday, April 14, on UK's campus.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. appointed Duff to a second term as director of the courts effective in January. He also served from 2006 to 2011. Between terms he served as president and CEO of the Freedom Forum and CEO of the Newseum in Washington, D.C. The Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation, champions the First Amendment as a cornerstone of democracy.

The First Amendment Celebration is sponsored annually by the Scripps

By Clark Bellar

(March 24, 2015) — University of Kentucky Association of Emeriti Faculty (UKAEF) presented fellowship awards to three UK graduate students at a ceremony Feb. 10. Each award includes a stipend of $2,500.

Since 1996, 59 fellowships have been awarded totaling $84,500. Three or four fellowships are presented annually to full-time graduate students. These awards are made possible through donations from UKAEF members as well as from the Commonwealth of Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund.

This year's UKAEF Fellowship awards are named in honor of Jean Pival, 25-year faculty member in the

By Gail Hairston

(March 24, 2015) — University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Year of the Middle East has scheduled three events this week. They are:

“The Arab Spring: The Youth Revolts of the Arab World Aren't Over” with Juan Cole

Tuesday, March 24, 7 p.m.

UK Athletics Association Auditorium, William T. Young Library

The youth revolts of 2011 and after in the Arab world have permanently changed the face of the region. While most observers have mainly interpreted them through the lens of high politics, this lecture argues that the big story here is the rise of a new generation of young Arabs, the Millennials, who have innovated in grassroots organization (including, but not limited to new ways of using social media for politics). It is too soon to know how the political struggles that they initiated will end, but

By Lydia Whitman

(March 12, 2015)   The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has chosen 12 outstanding undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 academic years. Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities.

Gaines 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

By Mariah Rhodes

(Feb. 26, 2015) — A symposium this week at the University of Kentucky will explore the experience of Jewish Refugees in China, who fled east to escape Nazi persecution before and during World War II. "Taking in Strangers: Comparing Asian and Jewish Moral Traditions" will run from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 27, in the UK Athletics Auditorium in William T. Young Library. The symposium is free and open to the public.

In conjunction with the traveling exhibition, "Jewish Refugees in Shanghai (1933-1941)," which is on display through March 4, in Young Library, the UK Confucius Institute and UK Libraries have teamed up with UK's

By Whitney Hale

(Feb. 12, 2015) — An exhibition and symposium at the University of Kentucky will explore the experience of Jewish refugees in China. The traveling exhibit, "Jewish Refugees in Shanghai (1933-1941)," which is on display through March 4 in William T. Young Library, chronicles the story of thousands of European Jews who fled to China to escape Nazi persecution before and during World War II.  An opening reception for this free public exhibition will be held noon today (Thursday), Feb. 12, at The Hub in Young Library.

"It's a great opportunity for us to be able to host this historically significant exhibit," said Jeremy Popkin, the William T. Bryan Chair of History and faculty member of UK's Jewish

by: Whitney Hale

(Feb. 3, 2015) — As the sesquicentennial of the Civil War draws to a close this year, University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities will examine the war's impact on history and culture in the years that followed as part of the 2015 Bale Boone Symposium on the "Legacies of the American Civil War" Feb. 4, 10 and 12.

"Legacies of the American Civil War" will bring together national recognized historians and cultural scholars in an exploration of  the war’s impact on American life not simply in the past, but also in the present and future. All the events featured below are free and open to the public.

The 2015 Bale Boone Symposium will open with a keynote lecture presented by

by: Lydia Whitman

(Feb. 2, 2015) — The University of Kentucky College of Arts and Science's Committee on Social Theory will host its 2015 lecture series, “Transnational Lives,” throughout the spring semester. This well-established series, organized around a different topic each year, gives the public access to lectures by four international scholars visiting the university campus to address a particular aspect of social theoretical thought from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. All lectures will be held on Fridays at 2 p.m. and are free to the public.

Committee director Marion Rust said these are among “the most exciting intellectual opportunities available to the UK community.”

by: Gail Haiston

(Jan. 28, 2015) — Today, a unique group of University of Kentucky professors and Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Joel Pett are leading a discussion of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.

The public forum, organized by faculty members of the College of Arts and Sciences’ Program of French and Francophone Studies, is slated at 3-4:15 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28, in the east end of the Student Center, Room 211.

The discussion will focus on the recent deadly attacks on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and a Parisian kosher market, as well as provide context for the social and political debates that continue to emerge in the wake of the attacks.

Pett, political cartoonist for the Lexington Herald Leader since1984, is a

by Sarah Schuetze

Sitting at the front of the room at a seminar table crowded with more students than anyone imagined, professor Francie Chassen-Lopez said, “I always say I have one foot on either side of the border.”

Chassen-Lopez is one of the four instructors teaching Social Theory 600, a graduate seminar called “Transnational Lives.” The professors include Ana Liberato, Cristina Alcalde, and Steven Alvarez—each representing a different discipline and approach to the course. “What makes this so exciting,” Alcalde said, “is we’re all coming at this from different perspectives.”

In many ways,

by: Carl Nathe

(Jan. 23, 2015) — George C. Wright, who began his career in higher education as a faculty member in the history department at the University of Kentucky, has been appointed to the NCAA Division I Board of Directors. Wright's term runs until the fall of 2019.

The Board of Directors oversees six NCAA committees that focus on essential topics including academic performance, infractions, and legislation. It consists of presidents, athletic directors, senior woman administrators, faculty representatives and student-athletes.

Wright, who recently began his second decade as president of Prairie View A&M University in Texas, is a

 by: Jay Blanton and Whitney Hale

(Jan. 22, 2015) — Former U.S. Senator Wendell H. Ford not only left an indelible mark on the Commonwealth, but on his university — the University of Kentucky.

For decades, he was intimately involved with the Martin School for Public Policy and Administration, and a public policy research center in UK Libraries bears his name.

UK Libraries also is home to his correspondence, papers and oral histories that document his long public service career as a legislator, lieutenant governor, governor and senator.

The following are quotes from prominent UK

by Whitney Hale

(Jan. 16, 2015) – In celebration of the University of Kentucky sesquicentennial, UK Special Collections Research Center is releasing the diary entries of former student Virginia Clay McClure. The diary chronicles the day-to-day activities of McClure's junior and senior years at the State University of Kentucky (now UK) from 1910-1912. McClure's 19th and 20th diary entries, dated Jan. 16 and 18, 1911, chronicle hijinks between friends and a game between faculty and the institution's varsity basketball team.  

Jan. 16th, 1911.  Lillian, Addie, Bess, Marion, Lillie, Maria, Pauline, Susan, and I met to see “Madam Sherry” on general admission. I had taken Edna’s coat away from her on the campus that afternoon, and Pauline wore it back to the 

by: Gail Hairston

(Dec. 16, 2014) —At Kentucky’s recent 28th Annual Equal Employment Opportunity Conference, the Commonwealth’s Personnel Cabinet Secretary Tim Longmeyer and Arthur Lucas, executive director of the state Office of Diversity and Equality, presented the annual Charles W. Anderson Laureate Award to Gerald L. Smith, associate professor of history in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences.

Anderson Laureates, the highest honor bestowed by the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet, are given to individuals recognized for significant contributions to equal

by Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards announced that history senior and Army ROTC cadet Dahlia d'Arge, of Paris, Kentucky, has been named a Marshall Scholar. The scholarship will finance two years of graduate study for her at an institution of her choice in the United Kingdom. D'Arge is the third UK student to receive the honor from the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission. 

"University of Kentucky students compete and succeed at a national level in academic competition, research and for national awards," said 

by Kathy Johnson

(Nov. 14, 2014) — WUKY's "UK Perspectives" focuses on the people and programs of the University of Kentucky and is hosted by WUKY General Manager Tom Godell.  Guest host today is WUKY News Director Alan Lytle who welcomes UK alumna and history instructor Maryjean Wall, author of a new book on one of Lexington's most colorful historical characters — Belle Brezing.

To listen to the podcast interview from which "UK Perspectives" is produced, click here.

"UK Perspectives" airs at 8:35 a.m. and 5:45 p.m. each Friday on WUKY 91.3, UK's NPR station.

by Whitney Hale, Mack McCormick

(Nov. 12, 2014) — Now in its 33rd year, the Kentucky Book Fair will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at the Frankfort Convention Center. This year’s fair will feature around 200 authors showcasing their most recent books including several authors from the University of Kentucky and University Press of Kentucky (UPK).

Sponsored by The State Journal, and co-sponsored by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, 

by Gail Hairston

(Nov. 5, 2014) — “Democracy at Risk Around the World” will be examined at the next University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ Year of the Middle East: Crossroads of the World event Nov. 7.

The Quantitative Initiative in Political and Social Research (QIPSR) contributes to The Year of the Middle East calendar with this fifth annual conference, featuring:

by Gail Hairston

(Oct. 23, 2014) — Mark Wahlgren Summers, the Thomas D. Clark Professor of History at the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, has published his 10th book, “The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction.”

Summers takes a new look at the Reconstruction years, focusing on the nation’s need to form an enduring Union without sacrificing the framework of federalism and republican democracy.

"As one of the country’s most respected 19th-century political historians, Dr. Summers’ latest book showcases his strengths in research, writing and storytelling,” said Mark Lawrence Kornbluh, dean of the UK College of Arts and Sciences. "In ‘The Ordeal of the Reunion,’ a new synthesis

by Gail Hairston

(Oct. 17, 2014) — An expert in U.S. foreign relations in the Middle East since 1940 will discuss the historical foundations of the current crises in the region at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20, in the UKAA Auditorium of the University of Kentucky's W.T. Young Library. The event, "Messy Little Wars: U.S. Approaches to Iraq Since 1990," is part of the UK College of Arts and Sciences event Year of the Middle East.

As an Ohio State University research scholar, Professor Peter Hahn has been supported by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Truman Library Institute, the John F. Kennedy Library, the Lyndon Johnson Foundation, the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute, the Office of United States Air Force History, and the U.S. Army Center of Military History.

His most recent