By Julie Wrinn

Judge Deborah Deweese grew up in a blue collar neighborhood in the south end of Louisville and remembers watching TV most nights with her parents and brothers. The family’s favorite show was Perry Mason, and one night her dad said to young Deborah, “Why don’t you be a lawyer like him?”

“That resonated with me,” remembers Judge Deweese, “and I can’t say that I ever wanted to do anything else.” It was typical of her father’s insistence that she could do anything, “that there was no difference between me and my two brothers”—not an ordinary viewpoint at the time.

A 1981 Political Science major at UK, Deborah Deweese came on the bench in 1994 when there were just five women judges on the District Court in Jefferson County out of 21 total. Now the majority of the District Court judges are women, the Circuit Court is about half women, and the Family

By Jennifer T. Allen

Alexis Abdullah came to the University of Kentucky from Atlanta with the goal of experiencing different cultures and gaining new perspectives. Ryan Thorn came to Lexington from his hometown of Mercer, Pennsylvania, to experience a new part of the country. As UK seniors, both traveled 8,241 miles last summer to the southwest coast of South Africa to engage in an immersive experience unlike any they had before.

“When I came to college, I knew I wanted to study abroad at some point,” said Abdullah, a senior environmental and sustainability studies major. “I wanted to experience a different culture and gain perspectives that expanded my own. The opportunity to study abroad in South Africa appealed to my interests because of the history of social injustice and human rights struggles that are associated

By Whitney Hale and Mack McCormick

For the first time ever, the Kentucky Book Fair will be presented in Lexington from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Alltech Arenaat the Kentucky Horse Park. Now in its 36th year, the fair will feature more than 180 authors and editors showcasing their most recent books, including several writers from University Press of Kentucky (UPK) and the University of Kentucky. The fair is free and open to the public.

Presented by Kentucky Humanities, the Kentucky Book Fair attracts thousands of avid readers and patrons from

By Whitney Harder

School is tough for a lot of children, but the classroom can be especially stressful for kids struggling with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As a matter of fact, nearly 15 percent of Kentucky children are currently diagnosed with ADHD, the highest rate in the nation. Many struggle to pay attention, sit still or finish school work, overwhelmed with distraction and hyperactivity. Is medication the answer? 

Although medication may help to manage some symptoms of ADHD in the classroom, mounting research indicates that medicine alone doesn't necessarily lead to improved academic performance in the long run.

University of Kentucky researchers Elizabeth Lorch and Janice Almasi believe an answer may lie in a

Jared Delcamp never questioned where he would go to college. “Growing up in Kentucky and watching the Wildcats play makes you ready to be a part of the Big Blue Nation,” he said.

A native Kentuckian, Delcamp was born and raised in Monticello and chose to study medicine when he first came to the University of Kentucky as an undergraduate in 2000. He credits chemistry professor John Anthony with mentoring him throughout his college career, but when Delcamp first met Professor Anthony, he thought he wanted to pursue a career in medicine.

“I couldn’t decide if I wanted to do chemistry or medicine,” Delcamp said. “I thought chemistry was cool, but when you’re from a small town, if you’re smart, you’re supposed to be a doctor.”

It only took one semester for Delcamp to decide that he was passionate about chemistry. As an undergraduate, he continued to study under

By Kristie Colon

L to R: James Collard, Katherine Thompson, Penni Black, Madeline Krentz Gober

New findings from University of Kentucky faculty published in Scientific Reports reveals a novel cell signaling interaction that may prevent a key step in lung cancer progression.

Kentucky continues to lead the nation in incidence and death rates from lung cancer, and the UK College of Pharmacy is committed to reducing these numbers.

Lung cancers are often diagnosed in later stages, with very few treatment options available. Often patients develop a resistance to a targeted therapy, resulting in a need for a variety of therapies that can be administered in stages

By Nate Harling

Harrison Bailey (’49) had a palpable presence on UK’s campus while he pursued his degree in geography, both maintaining an active presence in his fraternity, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and leading the charge in the acquisition of a charter for the University’s chapter of the International Geographical Honor Society, Gama Theta Epsilon. The charter bearing his name still hangs in the offices of the geography department to this day, but Bailey is not done leaving his mark on the University of Kentucky. Through his generous giving, the Harrison and Eva Lewis Bailey Geography Student Travel Endowment Fund has been established. The fund will award travel scholarships to geography majors seeking to study in Mexico. This is the second endowment fund he has graciously established at UK, having previously funded the Harrison and Eva Lewis Bailey Alumni Lecture Series in

Chemistry professor Pete Kekenes-Huskey is a recipient of the Petroleum Research Fund Doctoral New Investigator grant from the American Chemical Society that supports fundamental research directly related to petroleum or fossil fuels.  The $110,000 award will seed the development of computational models for predicting methane transport in zeolitic materials, which could help improve our ability to extract valuable chemicals from an abundant catalyst. Methane is a primary content of raw natural gas that is released as a byproduct of shale oil extraction and is a very useful precursor to sought-after chemical products, including more useful liquid hydrocarbons. Methane processing has been explored in zeolite catalysts, which are inexpensive, porous, highly adsorbent, naturally-occurring minerals. Zeolites are already valued at $30 billion for petroleum 

By Gail Hairston

University of Kentucky Professor Emeritus Edward Stanton’s young adult, prehistoric fiction novel “Wide as the Wind” has received a second international award — the coveted Moonbeam Children’s Book Award, presented by the Jenkins Group for authors, illustrators and publishers from the United States, Canada and six additional countries.

Earlier this year, “Wide as the Wind” (Open Books Press) won the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Award for Young Adult Fiction.

Described by the publisher as “a timely piece of environmental fiction,” “Wide as the Wind” is the first novel of any genre to deal with the stunning, tragic history of Easter Island and its implications for our modern world. It has been described as “both a stirring novel of adventure and a prophetic tale for our times.”

That’s an impressive achievement for any book, much

By Jenny Wells

This weekend, the University of Kentucky Department of Mathematics will host the first Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival for middle and high school students across the state.  The event will be held 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Nov. 4, in the Don & Cathy Jacobs Science Building.

"This is part of a national initiative begun in 2013 to have students work on mathematics puzzles in a collaborative, noncompetitive and fun environment," said Margaret Readdy, UK professor of mathematics, who is organizing the event with Richard Ehrenborg, also a UK professor of math. "Professor Ehrenborg and I became interested in this after I brought our two sons to a Julia Robinson Math Festival in Princeton three years ago while on sabbatical. It was a

By Gail Hairston

World Languages Day and more than 250 Kentucky high school students return to the University of Kentucky campus Nov. 1.

Two UK College of Arts and Sciences departments, the Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures and the Department of Hispanic Studies, have planned a full day for the young students.

The students, who are studying either Spanish, French, German, Latin, Chinese, Russian or Japanese, will attend two classes in the morning and then have a question and answer session with current UK students and alumni regarding careers and opportunities in language and cultural study.

World Languages Day will continue with Assistant Professor Molly Blasing, who will discuss the college’s Keys

By Laura Brower

A convocation took place to signify the UK-BITZH partnership and provide an opportunity for College of Arts and Sciences and Gatton College representatives to meet with BITZH second-year students who were interested in attending UK.

A delegation of University of Kentucky administrators and deans visited Beijing Institute of Technology at Zhuhai (BITZH) in early September. On Saturday, Sept. 9, a convocation took place to signify the UK-BITZH partnership and provide an opportunity for the College of Arts and Sciences and Gatton College of Business and Economics representatives to meet with BITZH second-year students who were interested in attending UK.

The executive director of the International

By Tatyanna Pruitt

Laura Greenfield, a UK College of Arts & Science geography alumna, was recently awarded the Sargent Shiver Youth Warriors Against Poverty Leadership Award by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. The award is presented to recognize and honor the vision, passion, and dedication of young people on improving the lives of families and communities.

Greenfield is the member-leader of Kentuckians For the Commonwealth’s (KFTC) Environmental Justice Analysis Work Team for the Empower Kentucky Project. She collaborated with other KFTC members to do an Environmental Justice Analysis for Kentucky, helping to further understanding of the relationship between pollution, health, race, and poverty.

“I cannot even express how honored I am for the nomination and for receiving this

By Kathy Johnson

The University of Kentucky Center for Equality and Social Justice (CESJ) has released two policy briefs dealing with subjects of heightened interest nationally and in Kentucky — immigration reform and LGBTQ legal protections.

Created last year, the CESJ is an interdisciplinary research center that promotes equality and social justice through collaborative scholarship and education. It also advocates for social justice in public policies and laws. Faculty members from a broad range of disciplines at UK serve as affiliates of the CESJ, and Christia Spears Brown, professor in the Department of Psychology, serves as its director.

The position paper titled "Immigrants Benefit the Community and Economy" was written by Jenny Minier, professor in the 

By Gail Hairston and Alicia Gregory

Jane Calvert, associate professor of history in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, is committed to showing the human side of one of America’s Founding Fathers, John Dickinson, through the John Dickinson Writings Project.

As the Dickinson project’s founding director and chief editor, Calvert is collecting, transcribing, editing and publishing the complete writings of Dickinson, who wrote more for the American cause than any other Founding Father.

As a young history professor, disillusioned by American politics and culture of the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Calvert had a lot of questions about her homeland. And being a passionate historian, she naturally turned to history for answers.

In the midst of her dissertation on the history of Quaker society in America, she noticed that the

By Bryant Welbourne and Kathy Johnson

Four University of Kentucky faculty members have been named to the Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program (SEC ALDP) during the 2017-18 academic year, which also marks the program's 10-year anniversary.

The SEC ALDP seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. It has three components: a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own participants (i.e., fellows); two SEC-wide workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants; and a competitive fellowship designed to provide administrative growth opportunities for former fellows.

This year’s first SEC-wide workshop is under way through Thursday at Louisiana State University and the second will be held Feb. 21-23, 2018, at Auburn University. 

By Jenny Wells

In celebration of the American Chemical Society's National Chemistry Week, the University of Kentucky Department of Chemistry will host a demonstration show for school-aged children and their families this week. The "Reaction Attraction" will begin 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27, in Room 121 of the Don & Cathy Jacobs Science Building (JSB).

This public event serves as the department's primary outreach activity during National Chemistry Week..

"Young and not-so-young scientists will enjoy the colors, sounds, smoke and fire at a show guaranteed to entertain and even educate," said Steven Yates, professor of chemistry and Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor. "UK Professor Jack Seleque, a master showman who looks

By Christine Woodward, Zach Griffith, Sophonie Bazile, and Adrian Ho

The editorial collective of disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory is pleased to announce the call for papers for its 27th volume to be published in the summer of 2018. The volume will explore “archives” and the editors seek submissions that look at a range of archives, including national, personal and community archives, to investigate the ways in which documents, images, objects and places serve various purposes and occupy different types of cultural, intellectual and physical spaces. 

The volume will include interviews from four diverse scholars: Karen Till, Kimberly Christen, Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra and Michelle Caswell. Each scholar

By Mack McCormick and Whitney Hale

Poet Jane Gentry was a beloved and influential University of Kentucky educator, mentor to generations of young writers, former poet laureate for the Commonwealth, and a unique Kentucky voice. A retrospective of the celebrated poet’s work, “The New and Collected Poems of Jane Gentry,” edited by UK Professor of English Julia Johnson and published by University Press of Kentucky (UPK), was named this year's Thomas D. Clark Medallion recipient and will be recognized at an award ceremony Oct. 26, at the Filson Historical

By Nate Harling

This year, the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences offers an undergraduate certificate in international film studies.

Directed by French and Francophone Studies Professor Jeffrey N. Peters, the program gives students the opportunity to formalize their film coursework. Requiring 16 total hours of coursework over five classes chosen from the wide array of film classes offered at UK, the program culminates in a capstone project in which students write an additional research paper. The paper synthesizes the analytical skills and historical and formal insights gained over the course of the international film studies curriculum.

Emma Friedman-Buchanan, one of the first students to participate in the new undergraduate certificate in international film studies, is a Lexington native and