By Nate Harling

If you have been anywhere near the University of Kentucky’s Don & Cathy Jacobs Science Building this month, it is more than likely you heard at least one language you have never heard before. Since the beginning of July, there have been people on campus speaking a plethora languages ranging from Mauritian Creole to Farsi to Kalaallisut, the language spoken by the indigenous people of Greenland.

Creolists Salikoko Mufwene (r) and Stéphane Térosier at the Hilary J. Boone Center.

The UK College of Arts and Sciences is hosting the Linguistics Society of America’s (LSA) biennial Linguistic Institute, the world’s largest extended gathering of linguists. Institute Program Director Jo Mackby was quick to dispel the common misconception that linguists only learn how to speak foreign languages.

“Linguistics is the

By Lori Minter

The University of Kentucky has released its Dean's List for the spring 2017 semester.  A total of 6,412 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/.

UK is the University for Kentucky. At UK, we are educating more students, treating more patients with complex illnesses and conducting more research and service than at any time in our 150-year history. To read more about the UK

By Whitney Hale

The University of Kentucky Office of Nationally Competitive Awards has announced that senior Benjamin Riley, of Louisville, Kentucky, has been awarded the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship. Riley is among 240 students nationwide awarded the Goldwater Scholarship this year. This year's Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,286 mathematics, science and engineering students who were nominated by the faculties of 470 colleges and universities nationwide.

Additionally, two other UK students, Aaron Mueller, of Louisville, and Connor VanMeter, of Lexington, were among 307 students to receive honorable mention recognition from the esteemed scholarship program.

The Barry M. Goldwater

By Lori Minter

A record number of students made the University of Kentucky Dean's List for the fall 2016 semester. The 7,408 students were recognized for their outstanding academic performance.  That's an increase of more than 200 over the previous record reached in fall 2015 when the number of students on the UK Dean's List surpassed 7,000 for the first time.  Last semester's Dean's List includes over 700 more students than the spring 2016 semester's list.

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

By Rebecca Stratton

Want to get to know the people behind some of the biggest student leadership positions on campus? We did, too! That's why we've introduced "see blue." #selfie — a series on UKNow that lets student leaders from across campus tell us a little bit more about themselves and their organizations. Up this week, Society for the Promotion of Undergraduate Research Co-presidents Aaron Mueller and Joy Kim.

Meet Aaron Mueller and Joy Kim, this year's co-presidents of the Society for the Promotion of Undergraduate Research! Mueller and Kim, both from Louisville, Kentucky, conduct very different types of research on their own, but they collaborate to support other students' passions and interests in research. These co-presidents are paving the way for new discoveries, and encouraging other students at UK to do the same. Learn more about them in their "see

The following University of Kentucky students have been awarded U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships (CLS) to study critical languages during the summer of 2016:

The Critical Language Scholarship Program is part of a U.S. government effort to expand dramatically the number of Americans studying and mastering critical foreign languages. These students are among the approximately 560 U.S. undergraduate and graduate students who received a CLS scholarship in 2016. Selected finalists hail from 48 states and the District of Columbia, and represent more than 200

By Blair Hoover

(April 27, 2016) — Provost Tim Tracy honored five faculty members and four teaching assistants with Provost's Outstanding Teaching Awards at the 2016 UK Faculty Awards Ceremony. The William B. Sturgill Award and the Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize were also awarded at the ceremony. The ceremony took place Thursday, April 21, in the Lexmark Public Room in the Main Building.

The William B. Sturgill Award was awarded to Carl Mattacola, a professor in the rehabilitation sciences program in the College of Health Sciences.

The Albert D. and Elizabeth H. Kirwan Memorial Prize was awarded to Gary J. Ferland, a physics and astronomy professor in the College of Arts and

By Kathy Johnson, Kelli Meyer

(April 27, 2016) — University of Kentucky Professor Andrew Hippisley has been selected to participate in the American Council on Education's (ACE) ACE Fellows Program, the longest running leadership development program in the United States. Hippisley, in the College of Arts and Sciences' Department of English, is one of 33 emerging college and university leaders chosen for the 2016-17 class of ACE Fellows.

Hippisley joined the UK faculty in 2007 as an assistant professor of linguistics and became a full professor in 2012. He is director of the Linguistics Program in the College of Arts and

By Tasha Ramsey

Speech is an integral part of our development as children and one that continues to develop throughout our lives. Because of this, we don't often spend much time thinking about speech and what it reveals about our identities. However, one professor in the Linguistics Program at the University of Kentucky spends much of his time researching the aspects of speech and social identity. 

According to Dr. Kevin McGowan, Assistant Professor in the Linguistics Program in the College of Arts & Sciences, "Every time we open our mouths to speak we convey not only the words we intend to say but also who we are, where we’re from, how we feel about what we’re saying, how we feel about our listener, how healthy we feel, and the list just goes on and on."

McGowan received a Ph.D. in linguistics

By Whitney Hale

(March 10, 2016) — What is the role of public art in an educational environment? How should we engage with our institutional past, in terms of art already at the University of Kentucky, and any proposed future projects? Who decides about public art on campus and how is the university community involved in the process?

Those questions and more will be explored by experts in the fields of art, education and arts administration at the campus forum "Art in Public Places." The free public event will run from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday, March 21, at the UK Athletics Auditorium in the William T. Young Library.

"Visual art on a university campus can be stimulating or baffling or boring, or combinations of all three at different times.

By Kathryn Macon

(March 8, 2016) — The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for Humanities has selected 12 exceptional undergraduates as new scholars for the university's Gaines Fellowship Program for the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 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.

Gaines 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

By Gail Hairston

(Feb. 25, 2016) – Cha Winja warhamas!

Translation: “We speak Wenja here!"

Wenja?

It isn’t surprising that only a very few people — so far, at least — recognize “Wenja” as a language. Even fewer can speak Wenja. But after a teaching session next week, the University of Kentucky campus could harbor the single largest concentration of Wenja speakers in the world.

Two UK assistant professors of linguistics — Andrew and Brenna Byrd — are intimately familiar with Wenja. They imagined and brought to life Wenja and other prehistoric-sounding languages for the new video game “everybody” is talking about, "Far Cry Primal©" by Ubisoft, released earlier this week. People are talking because "Far Cry Primal" is a rarity in the gaming world. The 10,000-year-old world focuses on

By Whitney Hale

(Sept. 14, 2015) — Constitution Day, also known as Citizenship Day, commemorates the ratification of the United States Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787. Each year on Sept. 17th, federally funded educational institutions are required to hold educational programming in honor of this historic event. 

The University of Kentucky is honored to celebrate Constitution Day 2015 with a full day of exciting and informative events. Under the direction of the Office of the President and the Office of the Provost, the UK Division of Undergraduate Education (UGE) has led the charge in organizing UK

By Gail Hairston

(June 1, 2015) — There is a surplus of summer camps available for local children, but the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences offers a summer day camp experience beyond the norm — camps focusing on linguistics, geography, creative writing and philosophy that not only keep kids occupied, but engaged, active and informed.

UK Department of Geography's summer MapCamp is a weeklong day camp for children in middle school that includes exercises in map making and outdoor geo-challenges. Attendees will participate in the ancient craft of cartography, build digital interactive maps to share with the world and conduct campus treasure hunts with GPS-enabled mobile devices.

MapCamp runs June 22−26 or July 6-10, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in UK's state-of-the-art GIS and Cartography Lab (Room

By Sarah Schuetze

When preparing a meal, a standard cooking time can be shortened by increasing heat or pressure.  How do you begin to condense the “cook time” of a college semester? 

Fifteen weeks of class sessions, assignments, readings, discussions, projects, and tests…Sometimes it doesn’t feel long enough to fit everything in. However, UK Linguistics professor Mark Lauersdorf and visiting professor Joachim Scharloth collaborated on designing a compressed course comprised of just five days.

Instead of heat and pressure, Lauersdorf and Scharloth used intensive student interaction and a condensed schedule to serve up a

by Gail Hairston 

(Sept. 30, 2014) — More than an “s” has been added since the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Science was created in 1908 with only seven faculty members. In fact there was a College of Arts and Science even before the institution was named the University of Kentucky; the institution was called the State University, Lexington, Kentucky (previously Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky and State College) until 1916.

In those 106 years, several of today’s largest colleges were birthed from the original College of Arts and Science’s former programs, including today’s College of Education, College of Communication and Information, College of Social Work and College of Fine Arts.

The college grew quickly under the inspiration and commitment of President James Patterson, whose statue now graces the plaza next to