Promoting the Humanities throughout Campus and the Commonwealth

Our Year on Origins

Coinciding with the United States’ quarter millennial, the Gaines theme for 2025-2026 explores the meaning of origins through the prism of disciplinary viewpoints offered by the humanities, the arts, and the sciences. The Gaines Fellows seminar highlights the multiplicity of beginnings not only for Lexington and the United States but also for current technologies, social institutions, political movements, the planet, humans, and other species as the city and nation commemorate—and reckon with—our 250th anniversaries

Gaines Newsletter: Fall 2025

News and Upcoming Events

The 2026 Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues Humanities in Action: Origins and New Directions Registration Now Open

Apr 16, 2026

The Gaines Center for the Humanities will host the 2026 Lafayette Seminar, “Humanities in Action: Origins and New Beginnings,” from 3.00pm until 5.00pm on Thursday, April 16, in the Hardymon Theater, Davis Marksbury Building.

now accepting applications Gaines Humanities Cooperatives

Apr 15, 2026

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 Breathitt Lecture with Beaux Hardin Black Que(e)ries: Bridging Communities through Poetic Origins from Black Archives Registration Now Open

Apr 9, 2026

Beaux Hardin, a University of Kentucky College Arts & Sciences senior, has been selected to give the 31st annual Edward T. Breathitt Undergraduate Lectureship in the Humanities. Hardin’s lecture will discuss poetry as a creative medium that invents new language, ultimately connecting people from around the world and creating an immaterial space that redefines identity.

a gaines center for the humanities mini grant event Everything in Common: Nothing to Lose The 2026 Social Theory Symposium

Apr 3, 2026

Sponsored by a Gaines Center for the Humanities mini grant, the 2026 Social Theory Symposium, featuring author Peter Linebaugh, will take place on Thursday 2 and Friday 3 April, 2026. Date Time Event Location

A GAINES CENTER for the humanities MINI GRANT EVENT The Keeping Space

Apr 2, 2026

Save the date for the screening of The Keeping Place, a short documentary by Jena Seiler and Nicole Martin, on Thursday April 2, 6.00pm, at the Lyric Theater. A panel discussion will follow the screening. This event is sponsored by a 2025-2026 Gaines Center Mini-Grant.

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