The Appalachian Center invites you to our drop-in coffee hour Thursday from 10-11 a.m.. We welcome students, faculty, staff, and community members for coffee and light refreshments. Come 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.

Join us in person, or virtually via Zoom. Click here to register for Zoom link.

UK's Department of Anthropology and U.S. Culture and Business Practices presents  Judah Schept, School of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University, discussing Cages in the Coalfields: Development, Criminalization, and Incarceration in Central Appalachia.

Date: Friday, Dec. 5, 2025
Time: 4-5 p.m. ET
Location: Lafferty Hall 216

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.
• 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. E.T. 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.

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.
• 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. E.T. 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.

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.
• 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. E.T. 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.

Please continue to check the conference webpage at this link for additional updates about the March 19-21, 2026 Appalachian Studies Association (ASA) Conference at Marshall University in Huntington, WV.

For University of Kentucky students and faculty presenting at the conference and traveling with the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program, you may contact Kathryn Engle, Appalachian Center director, at kathryn.engle@uky.edu or Shannon Markel, Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program department manager, at shannon.markel@uky.edu, for travel and other related event inquiries.

Join the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program for a seasonal event celebrating friendship and this year's graduates. A program to present the December APP graduating minors and certificate recipients begins at 4 p.m. with Friendsgiving immediately to follow. Feel free to bring a dish to share.

This event will be held at the Appalachian Center and virtually via Zoom. If you would like to join by Zoom, register at this link here.

If you would like to bring a dish to share, please complete the brief sign-up form linked here.

Join the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program for a seasonal event celebrating friendship and this year's graduates. A program to present the December APP graduating minors and certificate recipients begins at 4 p.m. with Friendsgiving immediately to follow. Feel free to bring a dish to share.

This event will be held at the Appalachian Center and virtually via Zoom. If you would like to join by Zoom, register at this link here.

If you would like to bring a dish to share, please complete the brief sign-up form linked here.

Join us for our SWAP (Sharing Work on Appalachia in Progress) presentation at the Appalachian Center or tune in virtually via Zoom. This year's SWAPs will showcase the research conducted by recipients of the 2025 James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia and the UK Appalachian Center Eller & Billings Student Research Award, as well as other scholars and students sharing their research.

Join us for our SWAP (Sharing Work on Appalachia in Progress) presentation at the Appalachian Center or tune in virtually via Zoom. This year's SWAPs will showcase the research conducted by recipients of the 2025 James S. Brown Graduate Student Award for Research on Appalachia and the UK Appalachian Center Eller & Billings Student Research Award, as well as other scholars and students sharing their research.