Dr. Karida L. Brown, Professor of Sociology at Emory University, will visit the University of Kentucky campus to discuss her book, Gone Home: Race and Roots Through Appalachia, on Thursday, March 30^th at 5:00 pm in Kincaid Auditorium, Gatton College of Business and Economics. 

Dr. Brown’s visit is made possible through the Miriam Jane Van Dyke Barager Endowment for Diversity and Inclusion at the UK Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, and through co-sponsors the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program; the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies; the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment Office of Diversity; the College of Arts & Sciences Department of Sociology; and the Graduate School Office of Diversity and Inclusion. 

The event is free and open to the public.  

Also join us for a book discussion series discussing Dr. Brown's Gone Home: Race and Roots Through Appalachia leading up to her visit to campus! The book club kickoff events will be held Monday, February 20^th at 6:00 pm (Zoom) and Thursday, February 23^rd at 3:30 pm (at the Appalachian Center).

Discussion 1 | Week of February 27^th (Zoom and in-person options)

Discussion 2 | Week of March 20^th (Zoom and in-person options)

TO SIGN UP | Please complete this form by Friday, Feb. 3^rd - contact Dr. Jeongyoon Lee at Jeongyoon.Lee@uky.edu with any questions.

Please join UK’s College of Arts & Sciences faculty authors for readings and inspirations featuring their newest book releases

Reception to follow in the Alumni Gallery

Click here to RSVP

Join us for Dr. Turner's presentation titled The Blues on Black Mountain: Stories from The Harlan Renaissance on Monday, October 17th at 5:00 pm in the UKAA Auditorium in the William T. Young Library. 

Dr. Turner's The Harlan Renaissance is the 2021 Winner of the Weatherford Award for Non-Fiction. He is a distinguished alumnus of the UK College of Arts & Sciences and a 2021 inductee into the College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. 

Reception to follow at the Appalachian Center at 624 Maxwelton Ct. at approximately 6:30 pm. 

This event is co-sponsored by the Appalachian Center & Appalachian Studies Program, Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies, the Gaines Center for the Humanities, the African American and Africana Studies Program, and the Department of Sociology. 

"I asked the boy beneath the pines.
He said, “The Master’s gone alone
Herb-picking somewhere on the mount,
Cloud-hidden, whereabouts unknown.”
—Chia Tao, “Searching for the Hermit in Vain”

I argue that the "return of a lost commons," to cite Jared Sexton's term, is insufficient to address the bondage of the modern world. Looking at the television show Queen Sugar and the novel We Love You, Charlie Freeman by Kaitlyn Greenidge, I show that notions of land ownership and philosophical notions of the "self" under Western society fail to redress the wounds of slavery and land theft experienced by Native Americans and, by extension, after the Civil War, by African Americans. Instead, I build on abolitionist rejections of Western notions of the human as well as regimes of property in order to show that a method of non-ownership and no-self are articulated in Zen ideology. I align this alternative framework with the philosophies of Zen Buddhism, showing that the "life of homelessness" for the purpose of ego death, aligns with an abolitionist ethos. In doing so, I connect Afropessimism with Zen philosophy, in order to schematize methodologies of personal and collective liberation. In this talk, I will point to the maroon communities of the Caribbean as embodying an abolitionist ideology and reference the work of black Zen teacher Zenju Earthlyn Manuel in her forthcoming book The Shamanic Roots of Zen, connecting all of these epistemes in a framework that destabilizes capitalist progress narratives and suggests radical possibilities for imagining freedom beyond the hold. 

***

Stefanie K. Dunning is an Associate Professor of English at Miami University. She is a graduate of Spelman College and the University of California, Riverside, and a Ford Fellow. Her first book, Queer in Black and White: Interraciality, Same-Sex Desire, and Contemporary African American Culture, from Indiana University Press, was published in 2009. Her latest project, Black to Nature: Pastoral Return and African American Culture from the University Press of Mississippi was published in April 2021. In addition to her published books, she has been published in African American Review, MELUS, Studies in the Fantastic, and other journals and anthologies. She also has a podcast, called Black to Nature: the podcast, available for listening on all major platforms.

Please come by the Appalachian Center on Thursday, October 14, 5-6PM, for a drop-in to congratulate Professors Gurney Norman and Bill Turner on their induction (the next day) into the College of Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame. Both of them have made tremendous and far-reaching contributions to Appalachian Studies through their ongoing work. Here's a chance to let them know what that means, in person! Drop in and join us in congratulating them on this honor from A&S, and hear about their exciting current projects. Professor Turner's book, The Harlan Renaissance: Stories of Black Life in Appalachian Coal Towns has just been published by West Virginia University Press, and a new, expanded edition of Professor Norman's short story collection Allegiance: Stories has just been published by Ohio University Press.

This event is co-sponsored by the Appalachian Center & Appalachian Studies Program, the Department of Sociology, the Department of English, and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies.

Join us for the Appalachian Center "Appalachian Forum" series featuring Emily Hudson, community activist and one of the founders of the Southeast Kentucky African-American Museum and Cultural Center. Join us for her talk entitled "Yes, You Can Come Home Again" as she shares excerpts from her book, Soul Miner, and discusses her journey in search of her identity as an Appalachian and an African American. She will share about the genesis of SEKYAAMCC and how it is on a mission to provide a platform for "history to speak." 

5:00 pm Monday, November 1st, 2021

Event location William T. Young LIbrary UKAA Auditorium  & Virtual via Zoom.

To join via Zoom- register for the webinar here: https://uky.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_yfwRd000RlmGgvY50fAmAw

This presentation is co-sponsored by the UK Appalachian Center & Appalachian Studies Program, African-American & Africana Studies , and the Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies.