UKNow is highlighting the University of Kentucky’s 2022-23 University Research Professors. Established by the Board of Trustees in 1976, the professorship program recognizes excellence across the full spectrum of research, scholarship and creative endeavors at UK. 

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 27, 2022) — Carrie Oser, the DiSilvestro Endowed Professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been named one of 14 University Research Professors. 

The 2022-2023 University Research Professorship Awards honor faculty members who have demonstrated excellence that addresses scientific, social, cultural and economic challenges in the Commonwealth, across the

By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 20, 2022) — More than two years into the University of Kentucky’s $87 million HEALing Communities Study (HCS) to address the opioid epidemic in Kentucky, it is possible to see the life-changing impacts it has already made in the eight counties of the study’s first wave.

Launched in 2019, the ambitious four-year study includes a multidisciplinary team of more than 25 researchers spanning seven colleges across UK, and leverages existing resources and initiatives in partnership with communities to implement various strategies to reduce opioid deaths across Kentucky. 

Evidence-based practices implemented by the HCS team in partnership with behavioral-health and criminal justice agencies

By Kate Maddox

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 6, 2022) — The University of Kentucky is celebrating two book winners of the Weatherford Awards, which were announced at the 45th annual Appalachian Studies Association conference March 17-20 at West Virginia University.

“The Girl Singer” by Marianne Worthington was published by the University Press of Kentucky and won in the poetry category. "The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Lives in Appalachian Coal Towns" (WVU Press), written by UK alumnus and College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame member William H. Turner, won in the nonfiction category.

Crystal Wilkinson, UK associate professor of English, was a runner

By Dee Dlugonski

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 6, 2022) — The University of Kentucky Women’s Forum held a virtual awards ceremony Wednesday, March 30, to honor four awardees who reflect the accomplishments and legacy of Sarah Bennett Holmes. The 2022 Sarah Bennett Holmes award winners are: Carrie Oser (faculty), Mehrana Mohtasebi (graduate student), Clarissa Cheatwood (staff) and the UK Neurology Department’s Wellness and Resiliency Committee (team).

These awards recognize individuals and teams who promote the growth and well-being of women at the university and across Kentucky. Faculty, staff and graduate student recipients receive a monetary award and a plaque. The team and its members receive a framed certificate for their achievement. All winners are named on plaques in the Main

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 8, 2022) — The University of Kentucky Women’s Forum will celebrate the 2022 Sarah Bennett Holmes Award winners from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Wednesday, March 30, via Zoom. The award recipients from four categories — staff, faculty, graduate student and team — will be recognized during the event. All awardees have exemplified great work in their efforts and contributions to issues that affect women at the university and across the Commonwealth.

To join this virtual event to celebrate all of the nominees and award winners, please use this link: https://uky.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5jvTG9vinBA7Uto. Please register by 5 p.m., Tuesday, March 29.  Among the faculty

By Elizabeth Chapin

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 4, 2022) — Research from University of Kentucky faculty and students working to reduce the burden of substance use disorders in Kentucky and beyond was showcased at UK's Substance Use Research Event (SURE) on March 1.

The annual event, supported by the Office of the Vice President for Research, gives substance use researchers at UK the opportunity to present their work, network and build collaborations.

More than 200 attendees from 13 colleges across UK participated in SURE, which included 70 presentations and poster sessions on the latest basic science, pre-clinical, clinical and community research addressing substance use.

“We are excited to be back in-person and host this unique forum

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Jan. 19, 2022) — The University of Kentucky Department of Sociology and the UK Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program will welcome Aaron Thompson, the president of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, at 2:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 3.

Thompson’s lecture, “Making Higher Education Matter to Kentucky,” will take place at Gatton Student Center Room 331. The lecture will be presented online as well. To join virtually, register at https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/

By Jenny Wells-Hosley

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 1, 2021) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center will showcase the work of student researchers through its Sharing Work on Appalachia in Progress series starting next week. The series will run through the Spring 2022 semester.

Many of the presenting students are supported through the center’s James S. Brown Graduate Student Awards for Research on Appalachia and the UK Appalachian Center Eller & Billings Student Research Awards.

The presenting researchers represent four colleges and seven departments from across UK’s campus.

“We look forward to

By Lindsey Piercy

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 2, 2021) — Robyn Lewis Brown, associate professor in the Department of Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky, has been awarded a Switzer Fellowship from the National Institute of Disability, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research.

She is one of only four recipients nationwide to receive the prestigious fellowship for the 2021-2022 academic year.

“It is a privilege and honor to receive this award," Brown said. "And I look forward to the research it will allow me to pursue."

Brown will use the funding to expand on her research concerning the effects of the

By Richard LeComte

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- A volume co-edited by University of Kentucky sociology professor Thomas Janoski has received the International Lean Six Sigma Institute’s Best Book Award for 2021. The book was recognized at the group’s October conference. 

“The Cambridge International Handbook of Lean Production,” was published in May. Janoski and his co-editor, Darina Lepadatu of Kennesaw State University, feature a series of essays that explore both the business advantages and human costs of lean production. The management theory stresses eliminating waste, synchronizing delivery of parts to be “just-in-time” for use, rotating workers through a series of jobs and productivity – also known as the Toyota system. Janoski contrasts lean production with “Fordism,” as in Henry Ford, which features assembly-line mass

By Haley Evans

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 22, 2021) — Four University of Kentucky faculty members have been named Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows during the 2021-22 academic year. They represent the 13th cohort of SEC ALDP Fellows.

Established in 2008-09, the program seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. Main features of the program include a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own fellows and two SEC-wide three-day workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, members of cohort 13 will participate in virtual sessions and in-person workshops. The University of Georgia hosted a virtual

By Jesi Jones-Bowman

UK undergraduate researchers Bridget Bolt and Gretchen Ruschman. Students are encouraged to explore undergraduate research opportunities at the Research + Creative Experience Expo.

At the University of Kentucky, undergraduates have access to outstanding research and creative work activities led by world-class faculty and staff that promote self-discovery, experiential learning and lifelong achievement.

Explore exciting undergraduate opportunities at the first annual UK Research + Creative Experience Expo 3-5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 13, around the Gatton Student Center’s Social Staircase.

“The goal of the Research + Creative Experience Expo is to introduce undergraduates to the diversity of research and creative work conducted at UK,” said Chad Risko, faculty

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Aug. 11, 2021) — New pilot grants at the University of Kentucky are supporting innovative research to further understand causes and treatments of substance use disorders.

Since they were launched last year, UK’s Substance Use Research Priority Area pilot grants have already assisted 16 faculty and student researchers. Their projects support the area's mission to prevent and reduce the burdens of substance use disorders through conducting and translating transdisciplinary and innovative research to inform clinical services, public health practice and policy.

“We have several SUPRA pilot grant mechanisms that are affording opportunities for more undergraduate and graduate students to get involved in

LEXINGTON, Ky. (July 27, 2021) — The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center has honored eight students with its annual research awards. Three graduate students received the James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia, and four graduate students and one undergraduate student received the center's Eller and Billings Student Research Award.

“The Appalachian Center is again excited to support a wide range of student research,” said Kathryn Engle, director of the Appalachian Center. “From history to social science to health to the natural sciences, our students are doing groundbreaking work in the region.”

The James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia is given to honor

When Covid-19 arrived in spring 2020, it precipitated a wave of cancellations that often hit graduate students the hardest in terms of lost opportunities. But thanks to an alumni-funded scholarship and an alumni-funded award, Rachel Davis, a fourth-year Ph.D. student, was able to spend summer 2020 productively. She received the Robert A. Ladner Scholarship for Graduate Excellence in Sociology and the Howard Beers Summer Research Award.

Financial support from these two awards enabled her to focus exclusively on academics. She spent summer preparing for her doctoral qualifying exams and collaborating with Professor Tony Love on her Beers project, studying the effects of FOSTA legislation (the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act) on online sugar baby (women with sugar daddies) communities.

“I spent the summer of 2019

LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 24, 2021) — It's a question that is critical to families and communities across the Commonwealth — how do we tackle the opioid epidemic?

The University of Kentucky is helping to organize and host the second annual Edward Kremers Seminar in the History of Pharmacy & Drugs in hopes of continuing the conversation surrounding addiction and recovery.

The 2021 “Kreminar” will feature virtual seminars about the history and contemporary status of opiates, opioids and addiction.

“The Cooperative for the Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS) is pleased to co-sponsor these events because it is important

By Whitney Hale

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 26, 2021) —The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced Madeline Williams has received a Fulbright Canada-MITACS Globalink Research Internship. Through this highly competitive opportunity, she will undertake advanced research projects virtually for 10 to 12 weeks.

Williams, a sociology and political science junior in UK College of Arts &Sciences and member of Lewis Honors

By Richard LeComte 

LEXINGTON, Ky. – Laws originally designed to protect family farm owners from frivolous lawsuits have, in some states, grown in scope to protect the practices of industrial agriculture – a phenomenon that’s drawn the interest of UK researcher Loka Ashwood. 

"Originally these laws were a way to get agricultural exemptions to nuisance suits,” said Ashwood, assistant professor of environmental sociology in UK’s College of Arts & Sciences. “These nuisance suits are fundamentally about, OK, if somebody infringes upon my right to enjoy or use my property, technically I or my local government can file a nuisance suit. But right now, right to farm laws are about curbing the ability of real people and local government

By Aimee Nielson

LEXINGTON, Ky. (March 30, 2021) — When Quentin Tyler was a student in the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food and Environment, he often found himself in Professor Lionel Williamson’s office.

“I just stopped to say hello, but when I looked at my watch, sometimes three hours had passed,” Tyler said. “He was so knowledgeable, and he taught me many life lessons. I’m forever grateful for him.”

Williamson was just one of Tyler’s mentors at UK that steered him onto his current career path and impacted his philosophy on leadership. After graduation, Tyler remained at UK, first as an extension associate for recruitment and retention. Later, he directed the college’s Office of Diversity as assistant dean. In 2018, Tyler became