News

Racism has long defined health and well-being in our state and the country. Recent events have exacerbated a complex ecosystem framing health inequities nationally. UK College of Public Health organized a yearlong program of events with the goal of promoting an anti-racist environment in our academic community.

Wu’s talk, “Yellow Peril to Model Minority: How Systemic Racism & White Supremacy has Kept Asians Quiet & Controlled in America,” will take place Wednesday April 14th in Room 121 in the Jacobs Science Building and via Zoom.

Dr. Nicole Martin and Dr. Rachael Deel are valued members of the University of Kentucky, working hard to educate our community on topics surrounding unconscious bias and equity.

“Asian Hate and COVID-19: A Year of Two Pandemics,” will take place from noon-1 p.m. Tuesday, April 6, on Zoom. This event will feature a panel of UK faculty, staff and students who will discuss how to support the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities in the midst of the current crisis.

Noted Princeton University scholar and creative nonfiction author Imani Perry will lead the online conversation. She is the author of “May We Forever Stand: A History of the Black National Anthem,” winner of the 2019 American Studies Association John Hope Franklin Book Award, the Hurston Wright Award for Nonfiction, and finalist for an NAACP Image Award in Nonfiction.

“Our goal this year was to truly encompass a collaborative effort for planning Black History Month and to bring in diverse perspectives to highlight the many facets of Blackness and the Black Diaspora,” said Ja’Mahl McDaniel, director of the MLK Center. “I am extremely proud of the work and commitment our Black History Month planning team has demonstrated."

Chenghui Zhang is studying the factors that go into how people interpret hate crime. She received a $50,000 grant from the National Institute of Justice for her study, “Social Construction of Hate Crime in the U.S.: A Factorial Survey Experiment.”

In August, Stevens-Watkins was appointed UK’s Assistant Vice President for Research in Diversity and Inclusion after President Eli Capilouto announced a five-year, $10 million commitment to sponsor UK research focused on racial disparities and inequity.

“We have, essentially, invented a new way of doing research. By using publicly available podcasts, anyone can go back and listen to participants’ conversations in full and make their own conclusions about what was discussed,” Vasquez Heilig said.

Founded in 1896 in a time where Black women were not permitted in other prominent feminist organizations, the NACWC Inc. is the first organization created specifically for Black women. The WISE chapter at UK will be the first chapter of the association in Kentucky.