By Sarah Geegan, Jonathan Spalding

With the incredible success the Division of Classics in the College of Arts and Sciences has demonstrated in the last decade, it is no surprise that recently two of its students, Lisa Jagoda and Claire Heitzman, have been awarded the Otis Singletary Fellowship as they prepare for graduate school in the fall. 

The fellowship is a one-time scholarship awarded to graduating seniors who are continuing their post-baccalaureate education at UK. Paralleling the growth of the

By Jonathon Spalding

For two millennia, the leading intellects of Western Europe expressed their most sophisticated thoughts in a language that is now largely considered extinct.

Although there are no remaining native Latin speakers, the language has transcended across time and cultures, lending itself to religious traditions and academic study, as well as uses in the fields of law, medicine and science. It is for this reason that the Division of Classics, within the UK Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures (MCLLC), approaches Latin as a living language that can be read, written, spoken and deeply cherished. 

In the last decade, the M.A. program in classics has undergone tremendous growth, attracting students from some

By Jessica Powers, Gail Hurston

Every student looks for their niche in college, and often a club exists to unite them with other students who have the same interest. Lodz Pierre, a Haitian native, recognized the minority she represented at the University of Kentucky and decided to create a student organization to unite others with similar heritage and an interest in Caribbean culture by forming the Caribbean Student Association (CASA).

"UK's student population is increasing in diversity, but most of the students are not of Caribbean ancestry. The Caribbean student population at UK is probably one of the most underrepresented minorities on campus," said Pierre, president of CASA. "But despite its small percentage, I believed that the number was great enough to create a club in

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky won the 2012 Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education for the Discover Germany-Discover USA program.

Issued by the Institute of International Education (IIE), the Andrew Heiskell Award honors initiatives in international higher education among IIE's association of more than 1,100 member institutions. The awards showcase the most innovative models for international partnership programs, study abroad and internationalizing the campus, with emphasis on programs that remove institutional barriers and broaden the base of international teaching and learning on campus.

IIE will honor seven different initiatives on nine campuses at its seventh annual Best

By Sarah Geegan

Gerald Janecek, recently retired professor of Russian and Eastern Studies, won the Outstanding Contribution to the Profession Award for 2011 from AATSEEL, the American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages.

A member of AATSEEL since 1972, Janecek also received the award for outstanding contribution in 2007. His work reflected the association's goals to advance the study and promote the teaching of Slavic and East European languages.

Janecek served as editor for AATSEEL's quarterly publication, The Slavic and East European Journal since 2001. Under his leadership, the journal persisted as the most highly respected philologically-oriented

Reed DeMarco was born outside of Detroit, MI and earned his B.A. in Classics from Wayne State University in Detroit in 2007. He was then awarded a teaching assistantship for his graduate studies at the University of Kentucky, finishing his degree in 2009. After Kentucky, Reed moved back to Michigan to pursue a teaching certification at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids. Upon finishing all the necessary certifications and exams, Reed was happy to accept a position teaching solely Latin at an all boys’ Catholic high school, Brother Rice, in Bloomfield Hills, MI, close to his hometown.

Reed has been teaching at Brother Rice since 2010 and finds it a great fit for him. He started an active Junior Classical League chapter and is proud to have his 45 members act as hosts for the Michigan Junior Classical League’s spring convention in April 2012. Currently there are two

When my students ask me why I became a Latin teacher, I often tell them it was fate. This, obviously, is the short answer I give during class time when they have asked an off-topic question to avoid conjugating deponent verbs or learning about gerunds and gerundives. The truth of the matter is that I have grown to love the Latin language and couldn’t imagine my life without it. I was introduced to the wide world of Latin in college, continued my education until I was satisfied with my level of learning, and then  entered into the teaching profession at a college preparatory school.

The long and the short of it:

My first day on Western Washington’s campus for freshman orientation was bright and sunny. Naturally, I accessorized with short, hot-pink hair and old army fatigues I had found at the Army Navy supply for cheap. I walked over to my assigned classroom and sat

RJ “Publius” Parsons came to the University of Kentucky after several years in which he taught high-school music and Latin in Miami, Florida, and Glendale, California. He has done extensive research into impressionistic music theory, medieval polyphony, and renaissance counterpoint most recently creating a musical score of sacred motets written by the sixteenth-century Flemish composer Noe Faignant. Throughout his musical tuition RJ has enjoyed employing texts that were written entirely in Latin, as for centuries it was the language of scholarship in all disciplines and especially music. He took so much pleasure in using the Latin skills he had obtained in school that he decided to teach it!

At the American Classical League convention’s spoken Latin seminar held at Loyola Marymount University, RJ first met Drs. Milena Minkova and Terence Tunberg and although he

Jonathan Meyer studied classics and religion at Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI) and Yale Divinity School before coming to the University of Kentucky. He has also participated in the summer Latin program directed by Reginald Foster (OCD). He has taught students in Latin and Greek at the high school and college levels and has assisted in graduate courses dealing with biblical studies, religious history, and ancient Greek history. At the University of Kentucky, he has taught courses in beginning and intermediate Latin and Greek. In 2011 he received a Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Sciences.

His research interests include the epic tradition, ancient religion, and neo-Latin literature; his translations of selections from Homer’s Odyssey and the Legenda Aurea have been published and will appear in the forthcoming The Gospel of Judas

Hailing from Carmel, CA, William Little completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University in 2010 and subsequently earned a Master’s Degree in Medieval Studies at Fordham University, where he wrote a thesis exploring the practice and use of Biblical exegesis at the eleventh-century court of Matilda, Countess of Tuscany.  His interests lie in the intellectual and literary history of the Latin Middle Ages, in particular Biblical exegesis and the reception of classical texts (especially poetry).  Seeing as such areas of inquiry demand a deep familiarity with the Latinity of many different times, places, and genres, the program in Classics at the University of Kentucky immediately appealed to him on account of its openness toward the entirety of the Latin patrimony, approaching texts from classical antiquity and those of the Middle Ages and beyond with the same level of

Donald Handshoe, a senior and a double major in Classics and Anthropology, divides his time between his studies and his work, both of which as it turns out have to do with archaeology, his passion.  His recent studies have included Latin, Greek, and Italian, but also courses in ancient geography, the history of the Roman Empire, and masterpieces of classical literature.  All of this is impressive enough, but what is especially noteworthy is his contribution to the excavations directed by UK professor Paolo Visonà at Monte Palazzi in southern Italy.

Because only 10% of the site had been excavated, Professor Visonà contacted the University of Kentucky's Archaeological Research Facility to inquire about geophysical testing, and in the summer of 2010 Donald traveled to the site to conduct electrical resistance and fluxgate gradiometry testing.  The

This is how Joey Bradley, a UK alumnus with a major in Russian, tells about the impact of Russian Studies at UK on his life.

In the words of the late Steve Jobs, "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards." In retrospect, it may seem odd that a Russian degree received from UK in 2001 led me to software development. However, the instruction at UK prepared me to think different. In my opinion, writing computer code required the same thought process as communicating in Russian.

Currently I work as a software developer in Washington DC for the Department of Labor. I previously worked with the Office of Personnel Management, the National Park Service, Defense Information Systems Agency and Telecommunications Industry Association. In 2006 I co-founded a software company called Odology, which built easy to use applications for

Hannah Arthur Bell graduated in 1999 from the College of Arts & Sciences with a major in English and a minor in Russian Studies.  During her sophomore year, Hannah traveled with her father to St. Petersburg, Russia, to see one of his plays performed at the University of St. Petersburg.

Hannah had no prior knowledge of Russia, but immediately fell in love with the art and culture of St. Petersburg; so much so that she talked her mother and grandmother into returning with her on a group tour that next spring.  

Hannah quickly became determined to focus the last 4 semesters of her college curriculum to "all things Russia".  It was during her 2nd language course, headed by Professor Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby, that she decided to spend the summer in Vladimir to attend the KORA exchange program at the State University.  Two

Marcello Lippiello earned his MA in Classics and the Graduate Certificate in Latin Studies at the University of Kentucky, both in 2005.  Highlights included the opportunity to prepare an original Latin translation of Plato's Lysis (under the excellent guidance of Professor Minkova) as part of his MA exams, as well as a number of experiences teaching introductory level Latin and leading group discussions for Professor Rabel's Ancient Stories and Modern Film course.  Marcello's experiences in the Institute for Latin Studies and in teaching during this time helped him to discern a calling to a career as a teacher of the Classics.

More opportunities to teach would follow at Duke University, where Marcello enrolled as a doctoral student in Classical Studies in 2005.  While at  Duke, he taught Introductory Latin, Intermediate Latin (

Antoine Haaker was born in Boulogne-sur-mer (France) and did his undergraduate studies in Classics at the University of Lille. During the summer, he once travelled to Rome in order to attend the Latin course of Father Reginald Foster. Father Foster is a Carmelite who used to work in the Vatican at the Latin letters office where official documents of the Church are written in or translated into Latin. For Father Foster Latin is still a living language, and this is how he teaches it. He speaks it in front of his students and proposes to read passages from the whole range of Latin literature, from antiquity down to the twentieth century.

“My professors in France hardly read aloud the texts we were translating in class, let alone speak Latin. Besides, they only dealt with strictly ancient Roman literature. So, going to Rome and meeting Reginald Foster was an eye-opener.”

Rachel Philbrick was born and raised in Cambridge, Mass., and attended high school at the Commonwealth School, a small, private institution in Boston’s Back Bay. Commonwealth’s small size fostered a stimulating intellectual environment, encouraging interactions between students and faculty. It was here that Rachel first encountered Latin, studying it for four year and travelling, in her junior year, to Italy with her Latin class.

From there, Rachel entered Cornell University as a biology major. In her sophomore year, she added Latin as a second major under the mentorship of Prof. Michael Fontaine and, in May 2007, completed degrees in both Latin and Biology & Society. She spent the summer of 2006 in Rome, Italy, studying at Fr. Reginald Foster’s Aestiva Romae Latinitas, where she encountered a vibrant intellectual community akin to that she had enjoyed in high

Miller came to the graduate program in classics at the University of Kentucky in the autumn of 2006, drawn by the Institute for Latin Studies and the allure of learning to use Latin as a language rather than seeing it as a puzzle or a code standing between an author and a reader.  Though taught as an undergraduate in the passive style that characterized nineteenth and twentieth century Latin pedagogy in America, and having used those same techniques in his own secondary school teaching, Miller quickly came to appreciate Kentucky's active methodology, an approach in line both with Latin teaching strategies of centuries past and with best practices current in modern foreign language education. 

He did not realize, however, that the Institute would not only teach him the language inside and out but would also expose him to a much broader range of genres and styles than

By Kathy Johnson

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center, Appalachian Studies and the Graduate Appalachian Research Community are making a call for papers for the 2012 UK Appalachian Research Symposium and Arts Showcase. The topic of the work must be related to Appalachia, original, and produced in the last three years. 

The deadline for submitting an abstract of work online is midnight Dec. 15. The submission can be made by going to the GARC tab on www.

By Erin Holaday Ziegler

The University of Kentucky Confucius Institute will welcome a renowned international education expert to campus next week to discuss the current state of Chinese education in the U.S. and around the world.

University of Vermont emeritus professor of education Juefei Wang will give a talk titled “Chinese Education in a Changing Society” at 3 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6, in the William T. Young Library.

The esteemed professor and program director of the Freeman Foundation founded the University of Vermont Asian Studies Outreach Program and served as its director for 14 years.  In that role he created a statewide program for Asian studies in schools in Vermont, organized more than 1,000 teachers, school administrators, and high school and college students to visit

Joseph Tipton is currently a predoctoral fellow in the Department of Classics at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to teaching courses in Greek history, ancient mythology and classical literature, he is writing his dissertation which deals with the philosophical commitments underlying the Athenian democracy in the Periclean period as evidenced in philosophical, historical and dramatic texts.

Joseph was a graduate student in the Classics program at the University of Kentucky from 2001 to 2003. During these two years he pursued both Greek and Latin studies in the department. He appreciates most the work he did in the Institutum Studiis Latinis Provehendis. In the Institutum he gained not just a command of the language, but also an insight into the nuances of the language that has proved invaluable in subsequent work. He has also gained an understanding