Eastern Kentucky University will celebrate the scholarship of discovery, integration application, teaching and learning, and creative endeavors across all academic disciplines with its fifth annual Scholars Week April 9-13.
This year’s festivities include a new feature: a set of four awards to be presented to six faculty members at an event on Monday, April 9. The awards, to be presented from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Grand Reading Room of the John Grant Crabbe Main Library, will honor excellence in high-impact practice (2), faculty innovation in teaching (2), scholarship of teaching and learning, and faculty leadership. Each recipient will receive $1,000.
The week also includes the University Presentation (UP) Showcase, University Fellows Showcase, juried student art exhibition, Honors thesis presentations, alumni spotlight event, diversity scholars panel, dance theatre spring concert, grant writing workshop, launch of the 2018 Aurora Literary and Arts Journal, Noel Studio Program Appreciation Night, induction ceremonies for Phi Kappa Phi and Delta Alpha Pi, Assurance of Learning Poster Showcase, the annual University Scholars Assembly, and more. Most events will be held in Crabbe Library. To see a complete schedule for the week, visit ekuscholars.eku.edu.
“This year, with the faculty awards, we are showcasing and honoring many forms of academic excellence at EKU,” said Dr. Russell Carpenter, executive director of the University’s Noel Studio for Academic Creativity. “We are not losing sight of academic excellence as the primary goal of Eastern, or the importance of learning from each other.”
This year’s Alumni Spotlight falls upon Gwenda Bond, a journalism graduate in 1999, who has gone on to author numerous works of fiction, and Dr. Stephanie Stockburger, a general music graduate and Honors Scholar in 2004, who serves as a physician in the University of Kentucky Adolescent Medicine Clinic. Bond, now a Lexington resident, has authored a Lois Lane trilogy, which puts the iconic comic book character front and center in her own young adult novels, and the Cirque American trilogy, in which daredevil heroines discover magic and mystery lurking under the big top. Stockburger’s practice focuses on the often turbulent stage of adolescence, and she works to support children and their families through the teenage years. Additionally, she teaches medical students and residents who rotate through the clinic. Their presentations on Tuesday, April 10, will begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Dick Mayo Allen Auditorium (Room 108) in Crabbe Library.
“We are proud to both of these alumni,” Carpenter said. “Our hope is that, as current students hear these graduates’ stories, it will help guide their own educational journeys, at EKU and beyond.”
A Diversity Scholars Symposium, on Wednesday, April 11, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Dick Mayo Allen Auditorium, will feature students and faculty identifying important diversity omissions within their fields of scholarship and offering solutions based on their own cultural background and expertise. Faculty members Drs. Bernardo Scarambone, Chengyi Zhang and Hung-Tao Chen, who each received a mini-grant, will present their research; students scheduled to present are Dylan Hanshaw, Dakota Himes, Liubitza Mendoza Aguazel, Jeniffer Paxtle and Aggie Williams.
The University Fellows Showcase, on Thursday, April 12, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (Crabbe Library 318), will feature the scholarly work of a representative sample of the 25 Fellows. That evening, the Archives After Dark Student Session, 5-6 p.m. in the Noel Studio Discovery Classroom (Crabbe 310D) will honor student work originating from resources in EKU Archives.
The University Scholars Assembly, on Friday, April 13, from 9:30 to 11 a.m. in the Grand Reading Room of Crabbe Library, will honor the academic achievements of EKU’s best and brightest students.
The afternoon of April 13 will be devoted to the UP and Assurance of Learning Showcases. They will be held concurrently, from 1 to 4 p.m. on the first floor of Crabbe Library.
All Scholars Week events are open to the entire University community and public, and, except for the EKU Dance Theatre performances each evening April 11-14. In addition to the website, you can follow on Twitter (@EKUScholarsWeek).
The Encompass digital archive at encompass.eku.edu makes the scholarship, creativity and history of EKU globally accessible.