The community of Lexington and the University of Kentucky are intimately connected, and these connections provide both points of contention and opportunities for mutual progress. Our leaders—Mayor Jim Gray and President Eli Capilouto—clearly recognize the important relationship between Lexington and UK, and a number of student groups and community organizations work diligently to improve our community. Still, more work needs to be done.
This event will…
1. Enhance our understanding of the needs of Lexington that faculty and students can address.
2. Improve our understanding of the framework currently in place for addressing community needs.
3. Celebrate the UK/Community collaboration that produced UK’s Peace Studies program.
Internationally renowned scholar and activist Vandana Shiva visited the University of Kentucky to present her lecture on "The Future of Food" and to discuss the many challenges of global sustainability. Shiva has been the author of more than 20 books on sustainable agriculture, development, feminist theory, alternative globalization, and bioengineering. Her work in the interdisciplinary field of sustainability has elevated her to the position of one of the field's foremost thinkers and has even earned her the title of "environmental hero" from Time Magazine.
Matt Wilson's GIS Workshop at the University of Kentucky builds connections to the community through partnerships with non-profit organizations such as Seedleaf and the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice.
A week ago I spent the morning meeting with an Israeli cultural anthropologist and education scholar well-known for his work on Peace education, Prof. Zvi Beckerman. As soon as I entered his office, I immediately felt at home, as the books from some of my favorite rhetoricians-- Kenneth Burke, Chaim Perelman, and others-- were sitting right there on his shelf, piled up and in plain view.
After graduating from UK in the spring of 2011, James Chapman wasted no time in getting started on his career path. A dual Political Science and International Studies major at UK, Chapman continued doubling up on his studies in graduate school: he is now pursuing a joint law degree and Middle East policy master's degree at George Washington University.
