By Richard LeComte 

Check out this gallery of photos from the dig. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Behind the older but spiffed-up University of Kentucky buildings along East Maxwell Street, beneath a canopy, UK students methodically dig two orderly, rectangular and deep holes. In said holes, they find what seems to be the foundation of a former outbuilding, some 1960s pull-tabs from old soda cans, pieces of ceramics and shards of china and glass — treasures from a recent past.  

“So far we found a lot of pieces of miscellaneously colored glass and random pieces of iron, like a nail or a hinge or a car part,” said Katie Reidy, a senior psychology major who’s in the class. “We found an L-shaped car part made out of iron, and we’ve found some old pull-tabs, too. It is

By Jennifer T. Allen

“The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns” by UK alumnus William H. Turner has been nominated for the Book of the Year Award by the Museum of African American History in Cambridge, Mass. The Museum of African American History (MAAH) Stone Book Award is an annual prize that encourages scholarship and writing within the field of African American history and culture.

“Pulitzer Prize winner Alex Haley (Roots) used to say, ‘If you ever see a little frog up on a 6-foot fence, somebody picked it up and put it there.’ Dr. Larry Tarpey (economist), Dr. John B. Stephenson and Dr. Doris Y. Wilkinson (sociologists) were my teachers at UK between 1966-1968. Each affirmed for me what they called ‘the unique -- but universal -- experience of Blacks in Appalachia,’” Turner said. “I came to UK as a junior from the

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

By Trey Conatser and Jill Abney

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 27, 2022) — The Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching  launched the Teaching Innovation Institute in 2020 as an incubator for cutting-edge instructional techniques. Two faculty cohorts have completed the program with a third on the way for the next academic year. The three cohorts have involved 61 faculty from 14 colleges and 46 departments or schools.

Members of the 2022 cohort of the Teaching Innovation Institute are: 

By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 24, 2022) — The first cohort of interns in a new Kentucky Geological Survey program are spending their summers contributing to statewide research projects focused on geologic resources, environmental issues and natural hazards affecting Kentucky.

The new Paul Edwin Potter Internship Program is giving University of Kentucky students interested in geoscience research the opportunity to engage in a hands-on research project for 10 weeks throughout the summer. Although the program was limited to UK students during its first year, it will be expanded in future years to include students from other universities.

Supported by a gift from the

By Jesi Jones-Bowman

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 23, 2022) — The Office of Undergraduate Research has selected 16 undergraduates for the 2022 Commonwealth Undergraduate Research Experience Fellowship program.

The new CURE Fellowships, sponsored by UK Office of Undergraduate Research and the Office of the Vice President for Research, empowers undergraduates to become leaders for their communities by providing opportunities to develop new knowledge and skills through research within UK’s seven research priority areas: cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes & obesity, diversity and inclusion, energy, neuroscience and substance use disorder.

“Conducting summer research will provide me with

By Lauren Parsons

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 20, 2022) — More than 60,000 pages of Fayette County’s historical property records containing information about enslaved people from the late 1700s through 1865 will soon be available to the public online thanks to a partnership between the Fayette County Clerk, University of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies (CIBS), the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative, Blue Grass Community Foundation and its Knight Foundation Donor Advised Charitable Fund.

The Fayette County Clerk began digitizing documents during the 1990s, but the books of historical property records remained on paper, including transactions detailing names of individuals sold and bought as slaves, mortgages naming enslaved people as

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

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

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

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

Results from two separate research studies, led by University of Kentucky postdoctoral scholar Valeria Olivares and graduate student Arnab Sarkar, will be presented during the American Astronomical Society’s (AAS) semiannual meeting, taking place in Pasadena, California, this week.

As the largest astronomy conference in the United States, the AAS meeting will bring together more than 2,000 astronomers, educators, students and journalists to highlight the nation’s most groundbreaking work in the fields of physics and astronomy.

“Approximately 30 works from around the world are being highlighted at the AAS press conference, representing some of the highest impact findings of this year,” said Yuanyuan Su, assistant professor in the UK Department of Physics and Astronomy and faculty mentor to

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

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that 10 students and recent graduates have been selected to receive government-funded National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowships. In addition, a UK doctoral student and two alumni received honorable mention recognition from the NSF. 

As part of the five-year fellowship, NSF Fellows receive a three-year annual stipend of $34,000 along with a $12,000 cost of education allowance for tuition and fees for a research-based master's or doctoral degree in a STEM (science, technology, engineering or mathematics) field. In 2022, the NSF awarded approximately 

By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 9, 2022) — Poor sleep is linked to a wide range of medical issues, including hypertension, diabetes, depression, obesity and cancer. With more than a third of U.S. adults reporting insufficient sleep, researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe sleep deprivation as a public health epidemic.

The public health burden of sleep deprivation is especially high in Kentucky: Residents are some of the nation’s most sleep-deprived, particularly in rural Appalachia. In that area,  25-58% of adults report insufficient sleep, defined as less than six hours a day.

Two College of Arts and Sciences professors at the University of Kentucky have received a $3.7 million grant from the 

By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 8, 2022) — David Weisrock, professor and chair of the Biology Department in the University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences, has received one of the the 2022 Excellent Undergraduate Research Mentor Award. The award recognizes exceptional leadership and support of student researchers.

Presented each year by the Office of Undergraduate Research, this student-nominated award recognizes UK faculty members who demonstrate an outstanding commitment to mentoring undergraduate researchers, provide exceptional undergraduate research experiences, as well as support and promote the undergraduate research initiatives on campus. This year, students nominated a record 41

By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 8, 2022) — Julia Bursten, associate professor in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Philosophy, works together with scientists to help improve scientific methods for their experiments.

As a philosopher of science, Bursten studies epistemology, or the logical and conceptual foundations of scientific knowledge. Her highly interdisciplinary work merging philosophy and scientific research has been supported by both the National Endowment for the Humanities  and the National Science Foundation.

Bursten’s work supported by the NEH is focused on the philosophy of nanoscience, the study of structures and materials on an

by Amanda Nelson

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Researchers at the University of Kentucky have released a 10-minute film titled “Becoming Myself: Positive Trans & Nonbinary Identities.” It features narratives from the lives of seven transgender and nonbinary identified young adults, reflecting on their experiences navigating gender identity.  

The film’s executive producers, based in the colleges of Arts & Sciences and Education, are Zak Clements, Ph.D. candidate in counseling psychology; Ellen Riggle, professor and chair in the 

By Meredith Weber

Wildcat Network, a new networking platform, has launched and you’re invited to join.

The free online community is exclusive to University of Kentucky alumni, students, parents and campus partners. It provides a directory and mentorship platform and is designed to empower connections across the globe through personal and professional networks.

Wildcat Network serves as a platform for: 

Mentoring connections can be made between alumni or between alumni and students. Employment opportunities are pulled from 

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 writing by history students. 

Liu, a recent graduate from Charleston, West Virginia, saw many parallels between the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918 and measures to contain the spread of COVID today — hence

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Twists and turns in business have led Dan DeHart from bourbon country -- and a degree from the University of Kentucky – to starting Gander Panama Rum. He earned a B.S. in mathematics from UK in 1988 and served as a director of Capital One and vice president of First Data Corp. But in 2013, he started DeHart Spirits, which produces the premium Gander Panama Rum, which is aged in bourbon barrels and is distributed through fine alcohol stores. The Panama operation includes its own sugar-cane fields and processing facilities, which makes it less vulnerable to trade disruptions brought on by the COVID pandemic. Now he’s ready to discuss how what he learned in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences has led him to making premium rum.

Q: How did your math major help you in your business career?

A: It was a combination of