The College of Arts & Sciences is pleased to announce that the recipients of the 2012-13 A&S Outstanding Teaching Awards are Drs. Christia Brown (psychology), Brenna Byrd (MCLLC), Yanira Paz (Hispanic Studies), and Bradley Plaster (physics & astronomy).

Dr. Christia Brown has been in the psychology department since 2007 and is affiliated with the Children at Risk Research Cluster, Gender and Women’s Studies, and the UK Center for Poverty Research.  She exemplifies teaching excellence.  She creates an innovative learning environment in every classroom she enters, whether through engagement activities in her large lecture courses or debates in her smaller seminars. One of her students stated, “This is the best class and professor I have ever had at UK.”  Outside the classroom she is a

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky will host the 65th annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference (KFLC), an internationally esteemed colloquium for scholars of language, literature and culture, beginning Thursday, April 19, across the UK campus.

The event will unite scholars from across the world, as the largest U.S. conference dedicated to all aspects of the study of language and its peoples, from technology to teaching, from film to literature, from linguistics to cultural studies. With keynote speakers, discussion panels, research presentations and exhibits, the conference will address issues pertaining to language through multiple platforms.

Doug Slaymaker, executive director of the KFLC and associate professor of 

By Whitney Hale, Lea Mann

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities has chosen 10 outstanding undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 academic years.

Gaines Fellowships are given in recognition of outstanding academic performance, demonstrated ability to conduct independent research, an interest in public issues and a desire to enhance understanding of the human condition through the humanities. Fellowships are awarded for the tenure of a student's junior and senior years, or for the last two years of a five-year program; students in all disciplines and with any intended profession are given equal consideration.

UK's 10 new Gaines

By Colleen Glenn

Congratulations are in order for graduate student Jonathan Meyer who has been awarded a fellowship to attend The American School of Classical Studies at Athens next year. Meyer, a Master’s student in the UK Classics Department, will spend the 2012-2013 school year in Greece studying the history and culture of ancient Greece and the Hellenic world.

“When I found out that I had won the fellowship, I was thrilled,” said Meyer. “For months I had imagined myself living in Athens and walking daily in the footsteps of Socrates. Now I knew that that dream was about to be realized.”

A student and teacher of Latin, Meyer also specializes in the Greek language and passed examinations in ancient Greek translation and Greek literature as part of the selection process for

By Whitney Hale, Sarah Geegan

A duo of Japan's foremost Tsugaru shamisen performers, Oyama x Nitta, will perform for a Bluegrass audience at an upcoming concert presented by the Japan/America Society of Kentucky (JASK), the University of Kentucky Japan Studies Program and the Asia Center. The concert, part of the statewide Kentucky Cherry Blossom Festival, will take to the stage 3 p.m. Sunday, April 1, at Memorial Hall.

The Tsugaru shamisen is a banjo-like instrument from the Tsugaru region in Aomori Prefecture in the northernmost part of Japan’s central island of Honshu. Oyama x Nitta is comprised of Tsugaru shamisen performers Yutaka Oyama and Masahiro Nitta, who are

By Sarah Geegan

The revolutions throughout Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and other nations in the Arab world have inspired earnest debate among experts. Are the ideological underpinnings of the revolutions democratic, religious, liberal or non-ideological? Will these revolutions spearhead an Islamist takeover of the Arab world? Professor Asef Bayat, of the University of Illinois, will address these questions Friday, March 23, in the William T. Young Library auditorium.

The UK College of Arts and Sciences and the Muslim World Working Group will present the symposium titled, "Understanding the Arab Spring." The event will include a lecture from Bayat, "The Arab Spring: Are the Islamists Coming?" as well as commentary from three UK professors.

Bayat is a

By Sarah Geegan

The University of Kentucky Asia Center, in the latest installment of its 2012 Spring Speaker Series, will present an exploration of Buddhism and it's place in daily life on Friday, March 23.

The event, which will include two lecturers, will expose students to Buddhism and the social and practical roles it plays in various societies. Professors Ruth Baer from the UK Department of Psychology and Jeffery Samuels from the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Western Kentucky University will present.

Baer, esteemed for her work in clinical psychological therapy,

Robert Wagoner was an undergraduate and graduate student in Classics at the University of Kentucky.  He earned a BA in Classics and Philosophy in 2002, and an MA in Classics and a Graduate Certificate in Latin Studies in 2004.  As a graduate student at UK, Robert pursued both Greek and Latin studies.  He was active in the Institutum and attended the summer Conventicula.  Robert taught intermediate Latin courses and assisted in with courses in Greek and Roman Mythology and Classics in Film.

Upon graduation, Robert pursued doctoral studies at the University of Arizona, where his strong foundation in the classics were an indispensible aid in his studies.  Though no longer teaching Latin, Robert found many opportunities to foster his love for both Greek and Latin.  Robert’s

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 classics program, awards such as these contribute to the continued success in attracting some of the best students from around the world, and especially in keeping the ones who already call the classics program home

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 of the world’s most

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 order to

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 Practices in

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 journal in the

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 in

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 had

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 rigor and

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 results revealed that

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