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NOW AVAILABLE Our Fall 2026 Newsletter

The Fall 2026 newsletter includes the many (many!) things happening over here in the UK Gaines Center including our 40th anniversary alumni reunion celebrations, our 2025-2026 mini-grant recipients, and spotlights on current senior fellow Marc Vazsonyi and alumna Cat Wentworth.

now accepting applications Gaines Humanities Cooperatives

The Gaines Center for the Humanities is excited to introduce “Gaines Humanities Cooperatives”—an initiative that fosters new and emerging working groups on Humanities-focused research, pedagogy, advocacy, and public scholarship. Envisioned as a generator of community across departments and colleges, Gaines Cooperatives assist in the formation of these university networks by providing funding, space, and other institutional support for coalescing around common interests and goals.

THE 2026 GAINES LECTURE FOR OUTSTANDING RESEARCH IN THE HUMANITIES Digitizing Prison Dreams: Incarcerated Podcasters and Their Views on Freedom

Join us for the 2nd annual Gaines Lecture for Outstanding Research in the Humanities featuring Assistant Professor Dr. Brandon Erby (Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies). Dr.

SAVE THE DATE A Conversation with Frank X Walker and Amy Murrell Taylor

Please join us for a reading from and conversation about Professor Frank X. Walker’s (Creative Writing) and Professor Amy Taylor’s (History) award-winning books, Load in Nine Times and Embattled Freedom. The conversation will be moderated by Professor of History and Senior Adviser to the President, George C. Wright. Their conversation will take place in the John Jacob Niles Gallery, 3.30pm-4.30pm, on Monday February 9. 

GAINES CENTER SPRING FORUM Public Education and Its Built Environment

Join us in Bingham Davis House on Thursday January 22, 4.00pm-5.00pm, for the Gaines Center Spring Forum featuring Eric Weber (College of Education) and Leen Katrib (College of Design).

Now Accepting Applications for the 2026 Gaines Fellowship Applications open until midnight, Monday February 2, 2026

The application for the Gaines Fellowship is open; applications will be accepted through Monday February 2, 2026.  The Gaines Fellowship is an intensive two-year program awarded to 12 outstanding undergraduate students each year. Selected fellows take a four-credit hour seminar course as a small cohort focused on the humanities with outstanding UK faculty both semesters of their junior year.

NOW AVAILABLE TO STREAM The 2025 Bale Boone Symposium with Ebony G. Patterson

The 2025 Bale Boone Symposium with Ebony G. Patterson is now available to stream on our YouTube channel. CLICK HERE TO STREAM

now available to stream 2025 Breathitt Lecture with Lucas Carlos de Lima

The 2025 Breathitt Lecture, Crystal Palaces: Designing a Better World Amidst Social Chaos presented by Lucas Carlos de Lima, is now available to stream on our YouTube channel.  Click here to view the lecture. 

Gaines Class of 2027 Gaines Center Selects Newest Cohort of Fellows

The University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities is thrilled to announce the selection of 12 undergraduates as the newest class of Gaines Fellows. These students will join the prestigious Gaines Fellowship Program in the Humanities for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Gaines Center featured in the Journal of Appalachian Studies

The Gaines Center for the Humanities' annual Lafayette Seminar featured in the latest edition of the Journal of Appalachian Studies. The article, authored by Associate Director Dr. Chelsea Brislin, revisited the two-day 2024 Lafayette Seminar, a series of public events on the topic of Monsters, Myths, and the Metaphysical. Check out the article in the Volume 30, Number 2 edition, available now at this link. 

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