This year, Martin Luther King Day will also mark the re-inauguration of President Barack Obama. His first inauguration brought more than 2 million people to the National Mall four years ago; this year, the event is expected to attract hundreds of thousands. Tracy Campbell, a History professor and Co-Director of the …

Fall of 2012 was the perfect time to conduct a class about American electoral politics - so it was taken up as the topic for Currents, a class offered to incoming Freshmen. The course explores the 2012 election from a variety of academic perspectives - including, but not limited to, philosophy, economics, history, and, of course, political science. In this podcast, five Currents students shared their experiences with the class. 

The students interviewed are: Trevor McNary, a double major in…

Rachel Hensley didn’t always know she wanted to study political science, but she found that the University of Kentucky’s College of Arts and Sciences had much to offer her both as a student finding her way, and as a Spanish language major. The broad variety of classes offered at UK and through the A&S college allowed Hensley the breathing room to work her way toward where she wanted to be.

What can we tell about future elections by observing the past? Political scientist Stephen Voss gives us a few examples from past elections - and analyzes some recent developments - in order to articulate the ways that electoral votes can slide from one place to another and disrupt the electoral trends of the past. From population shifts to industrial boom and bust, the United States is in a state of change, and so are its Presidential elections. 

This podcast was produced by …

The UK Political Science department chose someone with experience and a solid educational background to present a topical seminar on local government: former Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry. This semester, he's showing students how local governments work by bringing in guest speakers each week from various local governments around the region. Students facilitate the discussions, and experts impart their knowledge and experience to the course. In this podcast, Newberry shares his experiences as a professor and some of the aspects of local government…

By the time this year's Presidential election rolls around, many voters will be as turned off as they are excited. Why? The constant presence of political ads that saturate almost every nook and cranny of the media market. But what makes these ads possible? The answer is the incredible influx of money into modern politics that is used to bludgeon as often as it is to persuade and inform voters.

This past July, a group of eight female student athletes traveled to Ethiopia as part of a week long service trip. It was the second consecutive year that the UK Athletics Department has led such a group. Nominated by their respective coaches, the delegation of student athletes spent ten days traveling across the country, serving those they encountered along the way stopping at places like a leprosy…

The Department of Political Science is excited to welcome professor Tiffany Barnes to its faculty!

Professor Barnes joins us this fall to continue studying Latin American politics, political institutions, and women in politics. Her most recent research investigates the legislation practices of male and female representatives in the Argentinian government. For clues to how men and women legislators may represent their female constituents differently, Barnes examined…

The Department of Political Science is excited to welcome professor Abby Córdova to its faculty!

Professor Córdova joins us this fall to continue her research on comparitive politics. She studies the effects of crime, poverty, and economic inequality on the democratic process in Latin America. Her field research has taken her to Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, and Guyana.

This podcast is part of a series highlighting the new faculty members who joined the…

Arts & Sciences Dean Mark Kornbluh and history professor Kathi Kern are teaching a class 'inside out' - by taking an issue (in this case, the 2012 presidential election) and building a course around it. The class, "Currents: America Through the Lens of the 2012 Election," is an interdisciplinary look into how American…