University of Kentucky College of Arts & Sciences

Kentucky has a vast and varied history, but there are still pieces of its past that lay undiscovered. Randolph Hollingsworth, a historian working at the University of Kentucky, taught a course in Kentucky women's history during the Civil Rights era. Hollingsworth's students dug through archives, drafted papers, and even created some new Wikipedia pages in the History of women in Kentucky category. The students' findings and discussions are all available at the Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era website.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

Most of us heard that the world was going to possibly end on December 21st, 2012, and that it was predicted by the traditional Mayan calendar. In this podcast, Rusty Barrett, a linguist and scholar of Mayan culture and history, explains the superstitions and misunderstandings surrounding December 21st, and a little bit about how the Mayan calendar works.

SPOILER ALERT: The day after our interview, Barrett recieved an email from a Mayan organization (Grupos de Mujeres y Hombres por la Paz) in Guatemala, selling calendars for 2013 to raise money. This doesn't bode well for all those end-of-the-world prophecies.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The words “hip” and “hipster” carry around a lot of baggage. Often, due to misconceptions, "hipster" is used as an insult meant to suggest some sort of failed or inauthentic attempt at being "hip." But what if that isn’t what “hip” is? What if “hip” isn’t some obsession with the fleeting but a more permanent state?

Professor Thomas Marksbury hopes to address some of these questions in his class UKC 310: History Of Hip in the 2013 Spring Semester. The class, which satisfies a UK Core requirement in Intellectual Inquiry in the Humanities, encouraged students to trace their own paths through the history of “hip”, a meditation on its permutations throughout history and those individuals who embodied it.

This podcast was produced by Patrick O'Dowd.

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.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

More than thirty of the world's leading morphologists are contributing to a book that will be out in spring of 2014 - and they're working together with the help of an online collaboration tool developed by the Hive. Professors Andrew Hippisley and Greg Stump are currently compiling and editing the upcoming Cambridge Handbook of Morphology. In this podcast, Hippisley and Stump describe the book, and how and why they are putting it together.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The UK Political Science department chose someone with experience and a solid educational background to present a topical seminar on local government: former Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry. This semester, he's showing students how local governments work by bringing in guest speakers each week from various local governments around the region. Students facilitate the discussions, and experts impart their knowledge and experience to the course. In this podcast, Newberry shares his experiences as a professor and some of the aspects of local government discussed in the course.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

What can we tell about future elections by observing the past? Political scientist Stephen Voss gives us a few examples from past elections - and analyzes some recent developments - in order to articulate the ways that electoral votes can slide from one place to another and disrupt the electoral trends of the past. From population shifts to industrial boom and bust, the United States is in a state of change, and so are its Presidential elections.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

The fluids we drink can hold cultural and historical significance -- but what about the way they affect our physiology? In 2012, a new course, A&S 100-024, The Science Behind What We Drink, revealed professor Rita Basuray’s fusion of the two. By examining the role of water, beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and cola in terms of historical significance and the ways in which they interact with the human body, the class connected science and the humanities. Basuray’s class also bridged the gap between campus and community by bringing in local businesses such as Mon Tea and campus organizations like the UK office of Substance Education & Responsibility to the course.

This podcast was produced by Cheyenne Hohman.

Fast Track for Calculus is a residential academic preparation program for highly qualified students. Fast Track to Calculus is designed to prepare students for rigorous undergraduate mathematics classes. In this podcast, Dean of Arts & Sciences Mark Kornbluh and Mathematics Director of Undergraduate Studies David Royster discuss the goals of the program and how it will work.

In room 33 of the Chem-Phys building, you’ll find UK’s laboratory for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR). The facility's director is Anne-Frances Miller, an associate professor of both Chemistry and Biochemistry.

In this podcast, professor Miller talks about the wide range of applications of NMR, how researchers can use it, and about her own research on enzyme mechanics.

This podcast was produced by Stephen Gordinier.