Among the six University of Kentucky professors receiving the 2011 Great Teacher Award for their excellence in the classroom by the UK Alumni Association is Assistant Professor of Anthropology Erin Koch.

Watch the video highlighting all the honorees

Started in 1961, the Great Teacher Award is the oldest continuous award that recognizes teaching at UK. The nominations are made by students. Selection of the award recipients is made by the UK Alumni Association Great Teacher Award Committee, in cooperation with the student organization Omicron Delta Kappa. Great Teacher Award recipients each receive a citation, an engraved plaque, and a cash award.

Erin Koch Feature Story - Health Inequalities and the State

Erin Koch is an assistant professor of

by Rebekah Tilley

photos by Richie Wireman and Brett Fisher

In the 2004 Academy Award winning film "Born Into Brothels," the picture painted of Indian sex workers is overwhelmingly tragic. For decades, dedicated feminists and social activists have poured resources into rescuing Indian women from lives of prostitution. Yet as Gender and Women’s Studies assistant professor Lucinda Ramberg suggests in her recently completed manuscript, "Given to the Goddess: South Indian Devadasis and the Sexuality of Religion," efforts to “rescue” a particular subset of Indian sex workers called devadasis from prostitution has effectively undermined their

Kentucky's Secret to Bourbon Production

http://envision.as.uky.edu/files/Audio/Bourbon/original.mp3

Bourbon is a Kentucky tradition and Alan Fryar, a UK hydrogeologist, explains the relationships between Kentucky limestone, ground water systems and bourbon.

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by Stephanie Lang



On the evening news, it is not uncommon to see polls charting public opinion on a variety of topics. The number of polls tends to spike around presidential elections, especially with topics surrounding approval ratings, national issues, and the economy. The degree of voter anger, angst, or contentment prominently posted in the polls is often a barometer of the larger political climate. And as you can imagine, those polls and resulting nightly news conversations can spark heated, informative, and oddly entertaining debates on the state of national politics.

But what trends can be found in poll numbers gathered in an increasingly media-saturated world? How do these poll numbers and nightly news conversations, for example, impact the way voters respond in presidential elections and how do voters react to pressing issues

Justin Wedeking's research shows following the norm can be detrimental to success in the Supreme Court  

By Rebekah Tilley

photos by Mark Cornelison

When it comes to complex legal issues before the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s all about how you look at it. And as Dr. Justin Wedeking discovered, a fresh approach usually results in a winning case.

In an article that will be published later this year in the prestigiousAmerican Journal of Political Science, the associate professor in the UK Department of Political Science found that when petitioners emphasized alternative ways of arguing about

<p>A recent article released by the Associated Press and featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader highlights the work of Dr. Bill Jansen and the United States Agency for International Development in Zimbabwe. Dr. Jansen, an anthropology graduate and A&amp;S Hall of Fame inductee, is currently working as a senior American advisor in Africa to combat the AIDS epidemic. A growing problem in both Zimbabwe as well as South Africa, Jansen&rsquo;s group is part of a program funded by the United States which is promoting circumcision to reduce the number of new AIDS cases.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Jansen&rsquo;s work is a prime example of the social responsibility we hope to instill in future A&amp;S graduates &ndash; both to their local communities and beyond &ndash; as they move forward in their own lives and careers. To read more about

Anyone who has ever had doubts about majoring in English – with questions about job prospects or a well-defined career path – should talk to Andrew Crown-Weber.

He was in the same boat when he came to UK, unsure as to where an English degree would lead him – the answer has been, just about anywhere and everywhere.

The Danville native always knew he enjoyed language. Growing up in a house that emphasized reading books over watching cable television, his connection with words has been firmly entrenched. Add in his wide-eyed enthusiasm for knowledge and his varied academic interests, and Crown-Weber found an A&S education to be the perfect launch pad for travel, learning and adventure.

Early on he landed in Jonathan Allison’s class on James Joyce and William Butler Yeats, which led to an opportunity

<p>This semester, distinguished alumni from the College of Arts and Sciences shared their thoughts on how current and prospective UK&nbsp;students can get the most out of their college experience. To hear what they have to say,&nbsp;listen to&nbsp;their <a target="_blank" href="http://envision.as.uky.edu/connectivity/10-11-10/Advice_for_Current_Stu… our <a target="_blank" href="http://envision.as.uky.edu">Envision 2020 website</a>.</p>

Ph.D. Student By Rebekah Tilley

Photos by Mark Cornelison



Culture expresses itself in a myriad of familiar ways – our music, fashion, entertainment, literature. Perhaps less noted is the way that culture impacts our bodies including the very manner we are brought into the world and the food that nourishes us during gout first year of life.



As a graduate student in geography, Rebecca Lane turned to social theory to provide a more in depth understanding of the theoretical structures within her own discipline that inform her research on medical and feminist geography while benefitting from the perspectives of other graduate students and instructors outside her own discipline.



“I needed this type of knowledge,” said Lane when asked how social theory impacted her research portfolio. “

University of Kentucky alum James Booth has found a perfect combination in statistics and genetics.

A Blackpool, England native, Booth studied at the University of Leeds before coming to the United States to study in the Bluegrass. He earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics and his master’s degree in statistics at Leeds before looking at Ph.D. programs.

“I decided to go to the United States for my graduate program and I really only looked at three universities,” Booth said. Those three were Florida State University, Cornell University and UK.

UK professor Joe Gani was well-known among math and statistics faculty at Leeds and Booth ultimately headed to Kentucky in January 1982.

Booth landed in New York before heading south. “It was the first time I came to America and

Ph.D. Student

By Rebekah Tilley

Photos by Richie Wireman

Who’s afraid of a little theory? Unfortunately, many of us would rather clean our bathrooms than painfully work through the writings of Derrida and Foucault. Geography doctoral candidate and social theory student James Looney found that for many graduate students, the UK Social Theory Program takes the edge off gaining a solid theoretical foundation in their own academic disciplines.

“Theoretical training tends to be two things in many graduate programs – woefully lacking and threatening,” said Looney. “The Social Theory Program allows a place where one can access and learn about theory. It takes care of the unfamiliarity and the inaccessibility of theory.”

Looney is a cultural and social geographer who focuses his research on cultural landscapes, and much of his work is

by Michelle Ku

photos by Mark Cornelison

As a college student at Michigan State University in the ’60s, Tom Janoski worked on an automotive assembly line at a Chrysler plant in Trenton, Mich.

Janoski was a piston shooter, which happened to be the second hardest job at the plant. He would pick up a piston that was located on a rack above him, compress the rings on it, stick it into a cylinder, place it into a hole in the upside down engine block, and pull a handle that would punch the piston into the engine block.

For the first two weeks on the job, about every 15th piston would get stuck. Most of the time, he would be able to straighten it before the engine block moved to the next person’s station, but about two to three times a day, Janoski couldn’t fix

PhD Student

By Leah Bayens

Photos by Mark Cornelison

Philosophy doctoral candidate Christa Hodapp is sorting out an issue most people superficially acknowledge before returning to business as usual: humans are animals.

“The traditional, neo-Lockean claim is that you’re fundamentally a person, which is a rational, thinking being, and you happen to be related to an animal in some way,” Hodapp explained. Thus, many people imagine that personhood separates us from the likes of dogs, horses, and ants. In the process, they also tend to place humans on a higher rung than our nonhuman counterparts.

Hodapp, however, refuses to split nature and mind in this way. Instead, her dissertation, Personal Identity and the Biological View of Human Persistence, foregrounds the notion that human beings are not simply related to

Cadet Spotlight by Jason Kazee



Keep moving forward. Words such as these can get you through daily challenges, lifelong struggles, or even just around the next corner. Though these words are not found in the United States Army Code of Conduct, soldiers and civilians alike can rely on them. Cadet Battalion Commander Brennan Parker depends on them to carry him through whatever may lie ahead.



Parker recently took part in a 12-cadet relay that carried the game ball from Joker Phillips’ hands in Commonwealth Stadium and delivered it to a team from the University of Louisville’s ROTC program. The team ran 46-miles to a town located mid-way between Lexington and Louisville, Kentucky. The cadets from the University of Louisville took over from mile 46 and delivered the football to Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. Capped off by Brennan

by Robin Roenker

photos by Jennifer Roberts



The University of Kentucky Philosophy Department welcomed four new faculty members in fall 2010: Tim Sundell, Stefan Bird-Pollan, Meg Wallace, and Natalie Nenadic.



Their interests within the field couldn’t be more diverse—ranging, respectively, from the philosophy of language and linguistics to ethics to contemporary metaphysics (i.e., the nature of reality) and the problem of sexual objectification of women in today’s society.



But while their concentrations differ, each shares a love of philosophy itself, a love, as Wallace puts it, of “turning an argument around in [your] head for a while” until you get at a truth, however large or small, that offers insight into our word, our lives, or ourselves.



At UK, they each feel they

By Rebekah Tilley

Imagine a famous artist painting a portrait of another artist, long dead, based only on the description of someone who knew the person in life. Then imagine scholars hundreds of years later, attempting to determine the accuracy of the likeness and the origins of the artistic techniques of the portrait.

Now imagine that instead of artists, they are philosophers: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716) and Immanuel Kant (1724-1804). In an attempt to work out some of the mysteries of these two philosophers and their relationship to each other, the UK Department of Philosophy, in conjunction with the North American Kant Society, hosted the third annual meeting of the Leibniz Society of North America on September 25-27.

Kant is

<p>Thanks to faculty, staff, alumni and students who helped to make the last week a grand success, from the Distinguished Scholar lecture, to the Hall of Fame ceremony, to our A&amp;S Homecoming festivities.<br />
&nbsp;<br />
Our South Africa Initiative was featured in an article in the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.kentucky.com/2010/10/24/1492155/connecting-south-africa-and-… Herald-Leader</a> on Sunday. The film series has a few more exciting installments to show, including speaker <a target="_blank" href="http://southafrica.as.uky.edu/Guests/EddieDaniels.aspx">Eddie Daniels</a

<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.as.uky.edu/news_events/events/Pages/HomecomingWeekend2010.as… weekend festivities</a> are on the horizon, and a variety of opportunities to show pride in A&amp;S and UK are coming up. </p>
<p>To begin, on Wednesday, October 20th, Distinguished Professor Ernie Yanarella will be giving a lecture. The following Friday, October 22nd, marks the annual Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which celebrates the accomplishments of the A&amp;S family.</p>
<p>Finally, A&amp;S is hosting a Tailgate party before the kickoff against the Georgia Bulldogs. Join us for food, fun, and live music as we mark the midpoint of another productive semester.</p>

Craig McIntosh

Cadet Spotlight

Kicking Off a Career of Leadership

by Andrew Batista

Football Time in the Bluegrass never begins until Craig McIntosh feels that the moment is right. While he channels his adrenaline, 68,000 fans in Commonwealth Stadium pause with anticipation each Saturday as McIntosh, a walk-on student athlete and University of Kentucky Army ROTC cadet, kicks away a football and thus begins the Wildcats’ weekly gridiron battles.

“Kicking a football is much more of a mental challenge than a physical performance,” said McIntosh. “When you’re kicking off, you’ve got one shot, and it’s either hit or miss. It’s not like you can hustle on the next play to recuperate mistakes you might have made. Ultimately, in that moment it’s just you and the ball.”

McIntosh takes his exceptional focus and discipline,

<p>I&nbsp;had the honor of introducing the first installment of &quot;Have You Heard From Johannesburg,&quot;&nbsp;a seven-part documentary that is showing one installment a week during this semester.</p>
<p>The first installment was called &quot;Road to Resistance.&quot;&nbsp;To listen to my speech, <a target="_blank" href="http://southafrica.as.uky.edu/multimedia/podcasts/10-10-05/Kornbluh_Lec… here</a>.</p>