The Appalachian Center will host VIRTUAL Coffee Hours every other Thursday from 10-11 AM through the summer! The Center invites students, faculty, staff, and community members to join us via Zoom. Bring your favorite beverage and snacks and visit with others interested in the region and learn more about the work of the Appalachian Center and the Appalachian Studies Program. Coffee Hour is a space to exchange ideas for programs, initiatives, and events, discuss regional issues, and share research in a casual, collegial atmosphere. Please see the Zoom info below.

Join us for a VIRTUAL SWAP (Sharing Work on Appalachia in Progress) presentation Tuesday, May 5, 2020 12-1:00PM via Zoom. Anna Branduzzi will present Increasing Diversity of Native Plants on Mineland Restoration Sites. This event is open to the public and all UK students, faculty, and staff. We hope to see you virtually! 

Join us for a Graduate Appalachian Research Community (GARC) meeting online via Zoom! All students, faculty, and staff interested in learning more about GARC and GARC's activities are welcome to attend. 

Join URL: https://uky.zoom.us/j/922776532

Join GARC for Ask-A-Pro at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference. 

Speakers include Affrilachian poet Frank X Walker and author/artist George Ella Lyon. On Sunday, March 15, 2020, beginning at 11:30am in the Social Staircase area of the Gatton Student Center. Ticketed lunch can be picked up in the ballroom. Sponsored by the University Press of Kentucky.

The Opening Ceremonies will welcome ASA attendees to Lexington, Kentucky, and kick off the conference with a range of voices addressing the conference theme, “Appalachian Understories.” The speakers include Venus Evans from the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission, Affrilachian poet Shauna M. Morgan, and author Anne Shelby. This public event will be in the Social Staircase area of the Gatton Student Center, on Thursday, March 12, 2020, 4pm-6pm. Light refreshments provided. Sponsored by the Kentucky Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Appalachian Studies Association Conference Plenary 4, "Health and Healing: What’s Hurting Us and Understories of Recuperation" 

Saturday, March 14, 2020, 4:00pm-5:15pm in the Gatton Student Center Worsham Cinema. The plenary explores barriers to health and adequate health care in Appalachia, as well as perspectives of healers who operate outside of clinical settings. Panelists include: Keisa Fallin-Bennet, Clinic Director, Transform Health, University of Kentucky; Danielle King, Director of Cultural Diversity, Hazard Community & Technical College; Joy Gritton, Associate Professor, Morehead State University; Chef Ouita Michel, Ouita Michel Family of Restaurants; F. Douglas Scutchfield, University of Kentucky, Lewis Honors College Faculty Fellow; Panel Chair: Lesly-Marie Buer, Research Director, Choice Health Network Harm Reduction.   

This event is a part of the Appalachian Studies Association Conference. 

Appalachian Studies Association Conference Plenary 3, Hope Spots: Stories of Growth and Resilience

Hope Spots: Stories of Growth and Resilience. Saturday, March 14, 2020, 11:30am- 12:45pm in the Gatton Student Center Worsham Cinema. In the spirit of the “understories” concept, this panel addresses the ways people confront stereotypes, myths, marginalization, and violence and meet them with resilience and hope. The panelists will engage with the ways that people feel hopeful and ways actions can nurture hope. The panel will feature Courtney Lewis, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at University of South Carolina - Columbia and author of Sovereign Entrepreneurs: Cherokee Small-Business Owners and the Making of Economic Sovereignty. Speakers will also include Alexander Gibson, Executive Director of Appalshop; Wayne Riley, Founder and Director of the Laurel County African American Heritage Center; Nina McCoy, Martin County Concerned Citizens, Betsy Taylor, Executive Director of the Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network, Kathryn Engle, Associate Director, UK Appalachian Center & Appalachian Studies Program and UK students, Alyssa Dyer, Grace Moses, Madison Mooney, and Christopher Barton, Green Forests Work. Panel Chair: Anna Biller, law student at University of Kentucky.

This event is a part of the Appalachian Studies Association Conference.

Deadline for the James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia and the UK Appalachian Center Eller & Billings Student Research Award applications.