Alongside the UK Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program, the UK Graduate Appalachian Research Community announces the University of Kentucky’s 15th Annual Appalachian Research Symposium and Arts Showcase will be Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026.
Please see our full Call for Proposals for more information, and please share widely.
The symposium is open to all undergraduate and graduate students of all disciplines from any college and university interested in Appalachia. Registration is free for both presenters and registered attendees. The symposium is intended to foster a supportive community in which students from various fields can present their Appalachian-based research and creative work.
This year’s theme is Interdependent Possibilities: Cultures of Care, Practices of Place-Making. Attention to care and community provides an opportunity to bring together work on relationality and social justice across disciplines, including environmental studies, medicine and public health, life and physical sciences, and the social sciences and humanities. We will examine what care looks like and how we can understand care in relation to place. We welcome work related to the theme or other topics related to Appalachia.
Our keynote, Hopesick: Reckoning with Care, Community, and Recovery in Central Appalachia, will feature Dr. Abby Mack, Assistant Professor in the UK Department of Anthropology. Mack is an applied and engaged ethnographer and medical anthropologist with extensive training in linguistic anthropology, public health and the critical humanities. Her research program explores how people navigate everyday ethical and political dilemmas in providing and accessing care for psychiatric and substance use disorders in the United States, Los Angeles and Central Appalachia in particular.
Abstract Submission: To be considered for a presentation, submit a 200-250 word abstract (a brief summary/overview of your work) online by 5 p.m. ET Monday, Jan. 23, 2026: 2026 Abstract Submission Form.
Symposium Registration: To register to attend, sign-up online by 5pm ET on Friday, Feb. 14, 2026: 2026 Registration Form (for both presenters and non-presenting attendees).
Any questions, comments, or concerns should be directed to GARCommunity@uky.edu.