By Whitney Hale

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 10, 2021) — 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 four alumni received honorable mention recognition from the NSF. Among them were several College of Arts & Sciences students.

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

By Meredith Weber

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 29, 2021) — The University of Kentucky Alumni Association Lyman T. Johnson African American Alumni Group, in partnership with the UK Office for Institutional Diversity, will host the 30th annual Lyman T. Johnson Torch Bearer and Torch of Excellence awards via Facebook Live at noon Monday, Feb. 1. The program honors and celebrates African American students and alumni from each college who epitomize the ideals of Lyman T. Johnson.

UK’s academic colleges select alumni whose faith, hard work and determination have positively affected the lives of people on the UK campus, the city, state or nation. These individuals receive the Lyman T. Johnson Torch of Excellence Award. These colleges also choose students within their respective college whose academic achievement and ability to impact the lives of others would warrant them to

By Richard LeComte 

Five recently hired faculty members associated with the African American and Africana Studies interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts & Sciences are broadening the range of diverse and inclusive course offerings to University of Kentucky students. The five new hires are JWells, Vieux Touré, Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, Brandon M. Erby and Aria S. Halliday. 

“It is important to hire Black faculty in these areas and all areas, because their individual and collective research expertise is essential to the mission of the University,” said Damaris B. Hill, interim director of the African American and Africana Program.  “This

LEXINGTON. Ky. (Nov. 19, 2020) — The University of Kentucky's GradResearch Live! hosted the 3-Minute Thesis competition online this year. The 24 research presentations by graduate students and postdocs garnered more than 9,500 total views on YouTube.  Among them were several graduate students in the College of Arts & Sciences. 

The competition challenges presenters to tell their research story in three minutes or less using one static slide to an imagined audience of nonspecialists. This is the eighth year the UK Graduate School has offered the competition, which has until now

By Ryan Grives

LEXINGTON, Ky. (June 11, 2020) — The University of Kentucky recognized two College of Arts & Sciences faculty members and three teaching assistants with the 2020 Outstanding Teaching Awards.

This annual award recognizes faculty and graduate teaching assistants who demonstrate special dedication and outstanding performance in the classroom or laboratory. A selection committee based in the Provost's Office for Faculty Advancement and the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching reviewed nominations and gave the awards. 

"The diversity of disciplines reflected in the Outstanding Teaching Award winners speaks to the breadth and depth of expertise that distinguishes the University of Kentucky," said Provost David

By Catherine Brereton

Students in GEO 365 Race, Food and Environment found themselves sitting at a “kitchen table” rather than in a traditional classroom for their final exam at the end of the fall 2019 semester.

The setting was part of Priscilla McCutcheon’s work to break down barriers, foster conversation and empower her students to engage in a low-pressure but sometimes uncomfortable discourse.

 “The kitchen table became a place where we could let our hair down and become critical of ourselves and our place in our communities,” said McCutcheon, assistant professor of geography.

McCutcheon’s innovative approach to such topics as Black geographies, race and racism and food and sustainable agriculture has earned her the first Rickie Sanders Junior Faculty Award by the Feminist Geographies Specialty

By Richard LeComte

The College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding TA Awards recognize excellence in undergraduate instruction by teaching assistants. Fifteen teaching assistants were recognized for the 2019-2020  academic year .

Eligible students are current A&S graduate student teaching assistants in at least their second year of graduate work and must be responsible for instruction in some or all of a course offered by the College. The TAs recognized this year taught in courses offered through A & S departments and interdisciplinary programs. 

“Graduate Teaching Assistants are fundamental to the high-quality education that the College of Arts & Sciences provides to undergraduate students,” said Sarah M. Lyon, A&S associate dean for graduate studies. “I am routinely impressed with their hard work and the contributions they make to pedagogical

By Carol Lea Spence

A new statewide consortium with its headquarters at the University of Kentucky is developing interdisciplinary climate research and teaching collaborations to empower people to become well-informed stewards of the environment. The mission of the Kentucky Climate Consortium is to act as a catalyst for climate research and education in the state by providing networking opportunities for Kentucky-based climate scholars and educators from universities, nonprofits and government organizations. This will enable them to leverage their expertise and passion to collaboratively pursue climate-related research, teaching and public outreach.

Co-founders Carmen Agouridis, associate dean in the

By Madison Dyment

LEXINGTON, Ky. --- Maria Horn, a master’s student in the UK's College of Arts and Science’s Geography Department’s New Maps Plus digital mapping graduate program, recently was awarded the top prize in the NACIS Student Dynamic Maps Competition for her digital map “Conservation Areas in South America.” The competition is a national-level contest for students in the field of dynamic mapping in cartography. Horn is the second consecutive student from the UK Geography Department to win the prize. 

Horn, a native of Bolivia, received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Gabriel Rene Moreno University in Santa Cruz. She moved to the United States after getting married in 2006. Because she

By Katie Cross Gibson

With more than 50 distilleries in the state, bourbon is as synonymous with Kentucky as horses and basketball. As one of the Commonwealth's signature industries, bourbon distilling has influenced the landscape and heritage of the region for more than two centuries.

University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences former faculty member and Provost’s Distinguished Service Professor Karl Raitz’s “Bourbon’s Backroads: A Journey Through Kentucky’s Distilling Landscape” blends several topics — tax revenue, railroads, the mechanics of brewing, geography, landscapes and architecture — into a primer and geographical guide with history of the development of Kentucky's distilling

By Lindsey Piercy

Sue Roberts, associate provost for internationalization and professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, has been named a fellow of the American Association of Geographers (AAG).

The AAG fellows program recognizes geographers who have made significant contributions to advancing the discipline. Fellows serve as an advisory body to the AAG — to discuss and create initiatives, advise on challenges and mentor early and mid-career faculty members.

The honorary title of AAG Fellow is conferred for life and is a testament to the leadership and devotion Roberts has shown in her field. “This is a huge honor for me, and it is a bit hard to believe it is happening,” she said.

Roberts'

By Lindsey Piercy

The University of Kentucky is proud to announce the first graduates of New Maps Plus ⁠— an online graduate program in innovative digital mapping.

The master's degree, offered by the Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences, is part of continued efforts to expand curriculum in geographic information systems (GIS) and digital mapping. The online program provides technical training in GIS by incorporating cutting-edge techniques, while also challenging students to critically engage with potential pitfalls of online mapping.

 “I am thrilled with our first cohort of graduates from our first completely

By Lori Adams

The University of Kentucky has released its Dean's List for the spring 2019 semester. A total of 6,562 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance. 

To make a Dean’s List in one of the UK colleges, a student must earn a grade-point average of 3.6 or higher and must have earned 12 credits or more in that semester, excluding credits earned in pass-fail classes. Some UK colleges require a 3.5 GPA to make the Dean’s List.

The full Dean's List can be accessed by visiting: www.uky.edu/PR/News/DeansList/.

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that seven recent UK graduates and four doctoral students have been offered Fulbright U.S. Student Program scholarships. The UK recipients are among approximately 2,000 U.S. students who will travel abroad for the 2019-20 academic year.

Recipients of Fulbright grants are selected based on academic or professional achievement, as well as demonstrated leadership potential in their fields. The program operates in more than 140 countries.

This year's UK students offered Fulbright grants, from a university record 37 applications, are:

By Madison Dyment

There are many different ideas that come to mind when you think of the University of Kentucky's “service learning” approach, but Mapshop takes this concept to another level. Branching from the New Mappings Collaboratory in the Department of Geography, the initiative uses expertise in geospatial software and technical resources to assist the City of Lexington in raising critical mapping capacities.

“We started in 2015 with this kind of borrowed idea from other universities that have a very active community-based research role,” Matthew Wilson, director of Mapshop, said. “We basically wanted to explore how we can unbundle community-based work outside of the classroom.”

For Mapshop,

By Rebecca Longo and Lindsey Piercy

The Department of Geography in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky will host the 47th annual Ellen Churchill Semple Day from 2-4 p.m. Friday, April 26. The event, which is open to the public, will be held at the UK Athletics Auditorium in William T. Young Library.

Guests will experience an afternoon open colloquium by distinguished Professor Emeritus Karl Raitz. He will discuss “An Archipelago of Risk: Making Bourbon, Landscape and Heritage in Nineteenth-Century Kentucky.” For the past 35 years, Raitz has examined the manner in

By Amy Jones-Timoney, Kody Kiser, and Lindsey Piercy 

The University of Kentucky community is celebrating Women’s History Month. Throughout March, UKNow will feature the women — past and present — on whose shoulders we stand and whose hard work has made our achievements possible. With a combination of fierce resolve and deep compassion, UK women have left indelible marks on our university. Join us as we highlight these #WomenOfUK.

Sue Roberts, the University of Kentucky’s associate provost for internationalization, is aware each day how much smaller the world seems than the day before.

As a professor of geography in the UK College of Arts and Sciences, Roberts is a

By Hannah Edelen

Charles Altendorf, a 2011 University of Kentucky alumnus, is using the skills he developed and honed as a geography student in the College of Arts & Sciences to help improve the mapping system at his current job with the Hardin County Water District No. 1. Working on a pilot project, Altendorf is attempting to convert the water district’s data analysis from traditional digital mapping to an open source method.

From a young age, Altendorf was drawn to maps and mapmaking. “When I was a kid, I would get a new Rand McNally Atlas every year,” he said. However, Altendorf began his time at UK as an engineering major, partly because he was never exposed to geography courses in high school and was not aware that it was possible to study geography professionally. “After struggling my first year at UK, I realized you could major in geography,” Altendorf said

By Rebecca Longo

Stanley Brunn, professor emeritus in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, has been named a fellow in the American Association of Geographers (AAG) 2019 class.

Fellows of the AAG serve as a body to discuss and create initiatives, advise on challenges and mentor other faculty members. Obtaining this role is a great recognition to the leadership and devotion that Brunn has shown in the field.  

Brunn’s fellowship recognizes and honors the educator for pioneering “new areas of research, including the geographies of electronic communications, of mega-engineering projects and a reinvigorated geography of religions.”

“The AAG award is much appreciated as I have been active in

By Madison Dyment

Kerry Gathers’ map detailed the economic impact of the whaling industry throughout the 19th century.

Kerry Gathers, a student in the New Maps Plus online graduate program in the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences, recently received the national first prize in the Dynamic Map competition at the North American Cartographic Information Society annual meeting.

Gathers’ map detailed the economic impact of the whaling industry throughout the 19th century. To properly map out this information, he drew upon past records of historic American whaling voyages through a database.

“I've been interested in the history of whaling since reading 'Moby Dick,' which inspired me to read more and more