The University of Kentucky's Passport to the World series is entering its fifth year and with that anniversary comes a number of exciting announcements. This upcoming year the program will highlight an entire region - the Middle East.
Professors Janice Fernheimer and Paul Chamberlin are at the helm of The Year of the Middle East, which begins in the Fall 2014 semester, and they have ambitious plans for the program over its yearlong duration. The professors sat down with us to discuss some of those plans and to enlighten us a bit on the culture of the Middle East.
Studying abroad is considered an unforgettable experience for many of the University of Kentucky’s students. A typical study abroad program transports a group of students to a foreign country. These opportunities offer new perspectives, connections, and fond memories. The Zolondek Scholarship sets itself apart by offering students the opportunity to travel abroad on their own.
During the summer of 2013, Bailey Ubellacker, a double major of Spanish and Elementary Education, spent three weeks abroad studying and experiencing the Italian Renaissance. Bailey Ubellacker was the recipient of the Zolondek Scholarship, which allowed her to challenge herself as she traveled alone and shaped her own study abroad experience. In this podcast, Bailey Ubellacker discusses her time in Italy and what she has brought back with her.
What do politics have to do with the end of the world? UK Philosophy graduate Joan Braune recently finished her dissertation, which is focused on Erich Fromm's role - and break from - the Frankfurt School. She thinks that the connection between political renewal and dreams of catastrophe are detrimental to progress. Braune discussed some of her research at Villanova University's April 2013 conference, "Apocalyptic Politics: Framing the Present," and shares her research in this podcast.
This fall, University of Kentucky Philosophy Professor Stefan Bird-Pollan will be leading a class that hopes to expand the ways in which students interact with film. In the course, PHI 300: The Philosophy of Film, students will examine the aesthetics of film from the early 20th century through the 1970s. Through this aesthetic exploration, Bird-Pollan hopes to expose the ways in which our relationships with films directly impact the way we relate to the rest of the world around us.
In this podcast, Bird-Pollan discusses how the class will address a broad range of films both domestic and foreign; the processes of film creation that shape our interaction with them; and how he hopes to use the class to move past the "I like it or don't" binary.
This November, scholars and activists from around the world will gather at UK to attend the 5th Biennial Conference of the International Herbert Marcuse Society. Arnold Farr, a philosopher and social theorist here at the University of Kentucky, is organizing the conference, which seeks to examine “Emancipation, New Sensibility, and the Challenge of a New Era.”
University of Kentucky alumni Debdas Mukerjee graduated in 1962 with his Ph.D. in genetics. After UK, Mukerjee contributed his expertise to the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center before his career finally carried him to the Environmental Protection Agency where he was a Senior Environmental Health Scientist for the United States.
All of this was not Mukerjee's plan but he found that both the University of Kentucky and the state itself opened the doors of America to him in way he would never have imagined. In this podcast, Mukerjee reminisces on his "innumerable" memories at UK and gives some advice to current students so that they too can get the most from their academic experience.
On April 6th, 2013, the UK Department of Philosophy will host its 16th annual Philosophy Graduate Student Conference. Organizer Justin Spinks is bringing together scholars and students to ponder and discuss the relationship between Philosophy and Community. Held in WT Young Auditorium for a full day, the conference is free and open to the public. Spinks also talks about his involvement with UK's Committee on Social Theory and how their interdisciplinary nature has inspired him to apply his academic knowledge to issues outside of academia.
One such researcher is Professor Gary Ferland of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Since the late 1970s, he’s been using computer modeling software to carry out experiments that would otherwise be impossible. With his widely used program Cloudy which simulates clouds of interstellar matter out in space and UK’s high-tech supercomputing infrastructure, Ferland and his students have been able to help answer some of the biggest questions facing astronomers as well as society.
Fibromyalgia causes pain that can be felt in muscles, joint and even skin. Although it is the most common musculoskeletal condition after osteoarthritis, it is often misunderstood and misdiagnosed.
Philosophy 100 satisfies a UK Core requirement in Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities - and Amanda Lusky describes what it entails. Introduction to Philosophy: Knowledge and Reality explains metaphysics and epistemology, two central tenets of philosophy, and strives to connect the ways that fields of knowledge intersect and overlap.
