The Department of Physics & Astronomy is excited to welcome professor Dale Kocevski to its faculty!

We hear a lot about "energy independence" and "renewable energy," but what do those terms actually mean? A class is being offered to answer these questions and introduce students to concepts and debates around energy: where it comes from, how we use it, and what the future of energy looks like.  

In the weeks and months leading up to the 2012 election, the University of Kentucky and the College of Arts and Sciences held events to help students become more engaged with the political process. One such event, as detailed in another article, was a collective viewing of the second of three Presidential debates this season.

In 2011, the Department of Modern & Classical Languages, Literatures & Cultures gained a new faculty member: Francis Bailey, the current director of the TESL MA program. It's a new degree program that will train graduate students to teach English as a second language.

The Department of Physics & Astronomy is excited to welcome professor Renbin Yan to its faculty!

This coming October 25th through 27th, the University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program is set to kick-off their ambitious Global Mountain Regions Conference. The three day event is a transnational exploration and conversation of the shared economic, social, and historical challenges that mountain regions face within both national and global contexts.

What can we tell about future elections by observing the past? Political scientist Stephen Voss gives us a few examples from past elections - and analyzes some recent developments - in order to articulate the ways that electoral votes can slide from one place to another and disrupt the electoral trends of the past. From population shifts to industrial boom and bust, the United States is in a state of change, and so are its Presidential elections. 

The UK Political Science department chose someone with experience and a solid educational background to present a topical seminar on local government: former Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry. This semester, he's showing students how local governments work by bringing in guest speakers each week from various local governments around the region. Students facilitate the discussions, and experts impart their knowledge and experience to the course.

By the time this year's Presidential election rolls around, many voters will be as turned off as they are excited. Why? The constant presence of political ads that saturate almost every nook and cranny of the media market. But what makes these ads possible? The answer is the incredible influx of money into modern politics that is used to bludgeon as often as it is to persuade and inform voters.