DIVERSITY EXPERTS AT UK

Faculty and research experts at the University of Kentucky (UK) are available to speak to the news media about a variety of topics ranging from finance and economics to literature and the arts. Members of the media wishing to interview or consult with these individuals should call (859) 257-1754.

Categories:

African American Studies

Jeffory A. Clymer, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 6965
E-mail: jeff.clymer@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Transnational Contexts of Literature
    Economics and Literature
    Critical Race Theory

Rynetta Davis, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 6984
E-mail: rynetta.davis@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. African American Literature

Arnold Farr, Professor, Department of Philosophy
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9414
E-mail: arnold.farr@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. African American Philosophy/Philosophy of race
    Martin Luther King
    Marxism
    Critical theory
    German idealism
    Social/political philosophy 

Nikky Finney, Professor, Department of English and Provost's Distinguished Service Professor
Contact Phone(s): (859) 323- 6997
E-mail: finney@uky.edu or nikkyfinney@gmail.com
Specialization:

  1. Creative Writing
    Poetry

Joyce MacDonald, Professor, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6987
E-mail: joyce.macdonald@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Shakespeare
    Renaissance Drama
    Race Theory

Alyssa MacLean, Postdoctoral Scholar, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 4587
E-mail: alyssa.maclean@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Transnational studies
    Nineteenth-century American literature and culture
    African American literature
    Canadian studies

Joanne Melish, Associate Professor, Department of History
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1014
E-mail: jmelish@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. History of racial production in the United States
    Slavery and emancipation
    19th century American culture and social history
    19th century African American history

Gerald Smith, Associate Professor, Department of History and Co-Editor of Kentucky African American Encyclopedia
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1357
E-mail: glsmit01@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. African Americans in Kentucky
    Martin Luther King, Jr.
    Race and Sports
    Civil Rights Movement in the US Since 1930
    African American Urban History, Race Relations

Frank X. Walker, Associate Professor, Department of English, Director, African American and Africana Studies Research Program
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 1634
E-mail: fxwalker2@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Affrilachian Poetry
    African American Studies
    Poetry

Jakobi Williams, Assistant Professor, Department of History
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1859
E-mail: jewi223@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Resistance and the social justice revolutions within the historic African American community
    African American history
    20th century United States history
    Black Panther Party
    Black Power/Civil Rights movements

Nazera Wright, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 6975
E-mail: nazera.wright@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Nineteenth and Twentieth Century African American Literature
    African American Studies
    Childhood Studies
    Girlhood Studies
    Women and Gender Studies
    Archival Studies

Appalachian Studies

Mary Anglin, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1051
E-mail: mary.anglin@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Medical anthropology
    Breast cancer/reproductive health
    Women's health, with emphasis on reproductive cancers and HIV
    Cultural anthropology
    Gender
    Political economy
    Appalachia and U.S., Latin America
    Ethnographic research in North America: rural Southern Appalachia, urban West Coast of the U.S.
    Culture, power and political economies
    The intersections of gender, race, ethnicity, class and (trans)nationality
    Environmental contamination and risks to health and livelihood

Shannon Elizabeth Bell, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6883
E-mail: shannon.eliz.bell@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Environmental sociology
    Gender and social movements
    Barriers to local participation in the environmental justice movement that has risen up against mountaintop removal mining in Central Appalachia

Dwight Billings, Professor, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4412
E-mail: billing@pop.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social inequality
    Appalachian and regional studies
    Poverty
    Sociological theory
    The sociology of religion

Ron Eller, Associate Professor, Department of History
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6857
E-mail: eller@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Appalachian history, politics and culture

Gurney Norman, Associate Professor and Director of the Creative Writing Program, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 1154
E-mail: gnorman@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Fiction
    Film
    Literary and cultural history of the Appalachian Region

Karl Raitz, Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6948
E-mail: gegraitz@email.uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. American landscapes, historical geography, U.S., Appalachia, photography and geography, visual methods

Shaunna Scott, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6882
E-mail: shaunna.scott@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social inequality
    Gender
    The politics of identity and commemoration
    Participatory action research and social movements in Appalachia and Northern Ireland
    Understanding and promoting democratic practices and social justice projects in conflictual, stratified, rural contexts

Frank X. Walker, Associate Professor, Department of English, Director, African American and Africana Studies Research Program
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 1634
E-mail: fxwalker2@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Affrilachian Poetry
    African American Studies
    Poetry

Sexuality and LGBTQ Studies

Janice Oaks, Full-Time Lecturer, Gender and Women's Studies, English
E-mail: joaks2@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6681 
Specialization:

  1. The novel as a peculiarly female enterprise
    Performance of gender in literary works by women
    Cross-gender ventriloquism in early American novels
    The intersection of feminist theory and pedagogy

K. J. Rawson, Full-Time Lecturer, Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Media
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6979
E-mail: k.j.rawson@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Transgender archiving–both separate from and in conjunction with queer archiving
    How transgender people and communities rhetorically relate to and use history

Ellen Riggle, Professor, Department of Political Science and Gender and Women's Studies
E-mail: Pol164@email.uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-7036
Specialization:

  1. The effects of minority stress on the well-being of GLBT individuals and same-sex couples
    Legal status issues for same-sex couples.
    Political psychology
    LGBT studies

Melissa N. Stein, Assistant Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9205
E-mail: melissa.stein@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. The body
    Racial thought
    Sexuality and queer history
    U.S. cultural and intellectual history
    African-American history
    Women's and gender history
    Critical race studies
    Gender studies
    Feminist science studies
    The history of science and medicine

Women & Gender

James Albisetti, Professor, Department of History
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4343
E-mail: jcalbi01@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. History of education and the professions
    Social history of the middle classes
    Women’s history

Cristina Alcalde, Associate Professor, Gender and Women's Studies and Affiliated Faculty, Latin American Studies and Co-director, A&S Wired
E-mail: cristina.alcalde@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9719
Specialization:

  1. Gender and violence/nonviolence
    Latin America (with an emphasis on Peru and the Andean region)
    Latinos/as in the U.S
    Gender and race
    Intersections of state
    Institutional and interpersonal violence
    Domestic violence
    Migration
    Latino masculinities
    Motherhood and marginalized experiences of pregnancy

Srimati Basu, Associate Professor, Gender and Women's Studies and Anthropology
E-mail: srimati.basu@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4372
Specialization:

  1. Gender and violence/nonviolence
    Women and Law
    Violence against women
    Marriage, Kinship
    Mediation and Alternate Dispute Resolution (especially in marriage)
    Legal Anthropology
    Women in Development
    South Asia
    Feminist Theory and Methodology
    Work, Property and Women

Susan Bordo, Otis A. Singletary Chair in the Humanities and Professor of English and Gender and Women's Studies
E-mail: bordo@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-1895
Specialization:

  1. Eating disorders
    Cosmetic surgery
    Beauty and evolutionary theory
    Racism and the body
    Masculinity and the male body
    Adoption,
    Impact of contemporary media

Virginia Blum, Professor and Director, Graduate Studies, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6991
E-mail: virginia.blum@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Nineteenth-Century American Literature
    Fiction
    Women's Literature and Gender Studies
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Critical Theory

Francie Chassen-Lopez,Professor, Department of History and Support Faculty, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-4344
E-mail: frclopz@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Latin American History
    Modern Mexico
    Women and Gender in Latin America Race
    Ethnicity in the Americas

Jeffory A. Clymer, Associate Professor and Associate Chair, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 6965
E-mail: jeff.clymer@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Transnational Contexts of Literature
    Economics and Literature
    Critical Race Theory

Patricia Cooper, Chair and Associate Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
E-mail: patricia.cooper@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6856
Specialization:

  1. Race, gender and work
    Class and gender
    The workplace
    Women and spirituality

Patricia Ehrkamp, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6952
E-mail: p.ehrkamp@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Urban, political, cultural geography, migrant transnationalism; geographies of citizenship; identities and space; gender

Kathi Kern, Associate Professor, Department of History
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-3555
E-mail: kern@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Women's rights movement in nineteenth-century America
    Research and service outreach to public school teachers

Liang Luo, Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures, and Cultures
Contact Phone: (859) 257-9139
E-mail: liang.luo@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Modern Chinese literature, performing arts, film and popular culture
    Modern Chinese and Japanese intellectual and cultural exchanges
    Gender politics in modern China
    East Asian cities (Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing, Chongqing, and Hong Kong)
    International avant-garde and modern China

Janice Oaks, Full-Time Lecturer, Gender and Women's Studies, English
E-mail: joaks2@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6681 
Specialization:

  1. The novel as a peculiarly female enterprise
    Performance of gender in literary works by women
    Cross-gender ventriloquism in early American novels
    The intersection of feminist theory and pedagogy

Pearl James, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6978
E-mail: pearl.james@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
    Film
    World War I
    American Modernism
    Propaganda Posters
    Gender Studies

Claire Renzetti, Professor, Department of Sociology and Endowed Chair of Studies on Violence Against Women
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6424
E-mail: claire.renzetti@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Sociology of gender
    Criminology
    Sociology of law and social movements
    International, faith-based, social justice movement against human trafficking

Ellen Riggle, Professor, Department of Political Science and Gender and Women's Studies
E-mail: Pol164@email.uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-7036
Specialization:

  1. The effects of minority stress on the well-being of GLBT individuals and same-sex couples
    Legal status issues for same-sex couples.
    Political psychology
    LGBT studies

Susan Roberts, Professor and Chair, Department of Geography and Support Faculty, Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-2399
E-mail: sueroberts@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Global political economy
    Geography of financial capital
    Development
    Feminist theories
    The Caribbean

Shaunna Scott, Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Sociology
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-6882
E-mail: shaunna.scott@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social inequality
    Gender
    The politics of identity and commemoration
    Participatory action research and social movements in Appalachia and Northern Ireland
    Understanding and promoting democratic practices and social justice projects in conflictual, stratified, rural contexts

Melissa N. Stein, Assistant Professor, Gender and Women's Studies
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-9205
E-mail: melissa.stein@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. The body
    Racial thought
    Sexuality and queer history
    U.S. cultural and intellectual history
    African-American history
    Women's and gender history
    Critical race studies
    Gender studies
    Feminist science studies
    The history of science and medicine

Karen Tice, Gender and Women's Studies
E-mail: karen.tice@uky.edu
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257-7976
Specialization:

  1. Popular Culture and Gender
    Beauty Queens
    Feminist Activism
    Class and gender

Michael Trask, Associate Professor, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 1313
E-mail: matras2@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Social Theory
    History of Sexuality

Nazera Wright, Assistant Professor, Department of English
Contact Phone(s): (859) 257- 6975
E-mail: nazera.wright@uky.edu
Specialization:

  1. Nineteenth and Twentieth Century African American Literature
    African American Studies
    Childhood Studies
    Girlhood Studies
    Women and Gender Studies
    Archival Studies
Updated November 15, 2011 by Web Administrator