By Meg Mills

"Williamsburg Urban Revitalization Studio Collage" by Emily Preece.

At 500 million years old, Appalachia is one of the oldest environments on Earth. It stretches from southern New York through northern Mississippi. The region contains the entire state of West Virginia and portions of 12 other states including Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

The University of Kentucky College of Design sits on the doorstep of Appalachia. Proximity to the region inspired the College of Design to establish Studio Appalachia as a catalyst for a positive change by means of community engagement. Studio Appalachia pursues design research projects that address issues that have confronted the Appalachia region for decades.

By Sarah Jayne Johnson

The University of Kentucky John Jacob Niles Center for American Music’s "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" will welcome Sparky and Rhonda Rucker and Stray Local to campus this October to continue the concert series. Storyteller and multi-instrumentalist Sparky Rucker and his wife, musician Rhonda Rucker, will perform Oct. 5. The following week, indie band Stray Local will play Oct. 12. The free public concerts, which begin at noon, will be presented at the Niles Gallery in the Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center.

Old-Time ‘Ruck’us

Sparky and Rhonda

By Carl Nathe

Christopher Barton with stream monitoring equipment in Robinson Forest. Photo by Matt Barton, UK Ag Communications.

The University of Kentucky’s Christopher Barton (principal investigator) and Kenton Sena (co-principal investigator) recently were  awarded a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to modernize the stream monitoring network at UK’s Robinson Forest in southeastern Kentucky. This project will upgrade the existing network to enhance both data quality and data accessibility. Currently, the monitoring equipment is old and technologically obsolete, and requires a significant amount of upkeep time for data collection and processing.

Sena, who earned his Ph.D. from the 

By Olivia Ramirez and Kody Kiser

As the university for Kentucky, understanding and addressing the health needs of the people of the Commonwealth is the goal of many faculty, staff, clinicians and researchers. As a step toward improving health equity in the Commonwealth, the University of Kentucky Center for Health Equity Transformation (CHET) was established during the 2018 Board of Trustees meeting. 

On this episode of Behind the Blue, CHET director Nancy Schoenberg and associate director Carrie Oser discuss how, through research and training, CHET will increase the number of researchers and the amount of health-equity focused research at UK.

"[Kentucky] is one of several states where we see declines in life expectancy so there is a lot of work to be done. We believe that research can help inform the best practices that can support improvements in

By Danielle Donham

 The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center (UKAC) will be hosting an open house celebration from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 25, at its location on 624 Maxwelton Court. The recently-appointed associate director of the center and Appalachian Studies Program, Kathryn Engle, and new Scholar-in-Residence Gurney Norman will be on hand for a gathering filled with refreshments, entertainment, music and tours. This event is free and open to the community, UK students, faculty and staff members.

Food will be provided at the event with a short welcome presentation kicking off at noon. The open house will provide a chance to visit and learn about the work of the

By Ellie Wnek

Watch Andrew Finn Magill perform a couple Irish tunes above.

Fiddle music will fill campus as the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series presents performances by Andrew Finn Magill and Emily Miller and Jesse Milnes. On Friday, Sept. 21, fiddler Finn Magill will perform. The next week, Friday, Sept. 28, country and old-time duo Miller and Milnes will play. These free public concerts will take place at noon, at the Niles Gallery, located in the University of Kentucky Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center.

'Finn the Fiddler'

Raised in Asheville, North

By Danielle Donham

Don Pedi talks about learning to play the dulcimer for dulcimercrossing.com.

The next performances in the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series showcase the sounds, artistry and talents of Kentucky's Suffragists and Don Pedi. On Friday, Sept. 7, the Women's Suffrage Centennial Chorus will perform. The next week, Friday, Sept. 14, dulcimer musician Don Pedi will play. Both free public concerts will take place at noon, at the Niles Gallery, located in the University of Kentucky Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center.

By Sarah Jayne Johnson

The Other Years perform "Red Tailed Hawk" for "Lost River Sessions" presented by WKYU-TV.

This fall the "Appalachia in the Bluegrass" concert series will return to University of Kentucky's campus. Starting Friday, Aug. 31, the series of free public concerts will kick off at noon, in the Niles Gallery of the John Jacob Niles Center for American Music, located at UK's Lucille C. Little Fine Arts Library and Learning Center. The opening act is folk duo The Other Years.

Heather Summers and Anna Krippenstapel of The Other Years are both originally from Louisville, Kentucky. They were neighbors growing up

By Lindsey Piercy

The University of Kentucky strives to be a place where people of all backgrounds are welcome. Students, faculty and staff come from different cities, states and countries — creating a truly diverse campus.

Linguistics, the study of language, is one way to measure diversity. It doesn't just have to be a foreign language, there's also diversity within the English language. For example, when referring to soft drinks, do you call them "coke" or "pop"? The answer speaks volumes about where you're from.

A fascinating project, initiated by Jennifer Cramer and Kevin McGowan, faculty members of the Department of Linguistics in the College of Arts & Sciences, aims to capture the various voices of UK. The venture, dubbed Wildcat Voices, started nearly two years ago and continues to gain

By Gail Hairston and Kathy Johnson

Karen Rignall of the University of Kentucky has received a $50,000 Whiting Foundation Public Engagement Fellowship to pursue her research “Stories of Place in a Changing Appalachia,” a project in Eastern Kentucky, to bring “stories of place” and other traditions to bear on local land-use planning.

The Whiting Foundation announced yesterday (Tuesday) a new cohort of seven Whiting Public Engagement Fellowships, including Rignall’s, to showcase how the humanities enrich our lives.

In a written statement, Whiting Foundation leaders declared, “Never before has an understanding of history, philosophy, literature, and culture been so important. The humanities — too often underappreciated outside of academia — bring to bear careful inquiry and deep context, and help us absorb the

By Gail Hairston

The sweet strains of traditional mountain music still drift on the summer breezes of the Appalachians, reflecting off the hills and flowing through the valleys. 

But before Appalachian mountain music was first preserved on wax discs — as the arid winds of the Dust Bowl blew and the soup lines of the Great Depression grew — the musicians played on handmade fiddles, dulcimers, zithers and mandolins, and heard with the hearts of generations.

Until the mid-19th century, the vast majority of musical instruments responsible for the sound of mountain music — dulcimers, guitars, violins or fiddles, banjoes, zithers and mandolins — were handmade and passed down from one generation to the next. The tunes and musical traditions were the inheritance of a melding of English, Welsh, Irish and Scottish ballads with the customs of Germany, Eastern Europe and

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 story and how

By Jenny Wells

Volunteers planting trees on formerly mined land in Breathitt County, Kentucky. Photo by Michael Garland.

Earth Day 2017 may have been rainy in Kentucky, but that didn’t stop University of Kentucky students, faculty and staff from planting 2,500 trees.

The UK Appalachian Center collaborated with Green Forests Works (GFW) to host a volunteer tree planting event in Breathitt County, Kentucky, on April 22 in support of Earth Day and the United Nations Environment’s “Plant for the Planet: Billion Tree Campaign.” The event brought together over 50 volunteers, including local writers and artists, who planted indigenous hardwood trees and shrubs to restore forest habitat in an area that was previously mined for coal.

By Jenny Wells

Ron Pen (right) played the fiddle at the UK College of Arts & Sciences 
Appalachian Center's 40th Anniversary celebration.

The University of Kentucky Appalachian Center recently celebrated its 40th year on campus, recognizing the university’s partnership with the Appalachian region and honoring those who have contributed to the center’s development and success.

“A rich literary history from the likes of Harry Caudill, John Stephenson, Dwight Billings, Gurney Norman, Ron Eller, Ron Pen, Shaunna Scott, Frank X Walker, Mary Anglin, Eric Reece, Shannon Bell — just to name a few — helped give notoriety to the UK Appalachian Studies program,” said Chris Barton, director of the center. “Today, the center is considered a leader in research,

On Thursday, March 2, 2017, the UK Appalachian Center celebrated its 40th Anniversary and the retirement of three affiliated faculty members: Dwight Billings, Ron Pen, and James Hougland.  Guests gathered at the Hilary J. Boone Center on UK's Campus, and the UK Appalachian Center Director, Chris Barton, and the Appalachian Studies Director, Shaunna Scott gave talks about the Center's 40-year history and each of the faculty members' contributions throughout the years. More details can be found in the UKNow article here.

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/News/

Dr. Shaunna Scott was interviewed by a filmmaker and community activist about a proposed, community-based, participatory action research study of land ownership and taxation in Appalachia. In the interview she discusses the original land ownership study, later published as Who Owns Appalachia in 1983, and the impact of that work. She argues for why the time is right for a new study of land ownership in the region.

The Appalachian Land Ownership Study (1978-80) was a landmark participatory action research collaboration that analyzed land ownership and property tax patterns across six states in southern Appalachia.

Read the interview here. 

By Carol Lea Spence

By Whitney Hale

By Gail Hairston

Kentucky is privileged with a bounty of railroad museums and attractions, but the Elkhorn City Railroad Museum has a charm and history all its own.

With its unique collection of railroading tools, equipment, uniforms and instruments; enhanced by books and photos; and personalized by retired railroad employees eager to share their tales of life on the rails, the Elkhorn City Railroad Museum preserves and protects Eastern Kentucky’s pride and culture as well as its hope for the future.

This past spring semester, University of Kentucky sociology students in Associate Professor Shaunna L. Scott’s “Sociology of Appalachia” class were quick to recognize the potential of the small museum