At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Mark Whitaker is a professor in the Department of Anthropology. For the past thirty years, Whitaker has been studying Tamil speaking people who live in the east coast of Sri Lanka. In addition to his research in Sri Lanka, Whitaker also works with diasporic communities of Tamil speaking people in Toronto, Canada.

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Ann Kingsolver is the director of the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program at UK and is also a professor in the Department of Anthropology. Kingsolver does comparative research in the U.S, Mexico, and Sri Lanka that addresses the effects of globalization and transnational policy on people's livelihoods and identities and how people make sense of these changes.

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Carmen Martinez Novo is an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and the director of Latin American Studies. Martinez's research focuses on indigenous peoples in the Andes and the Amazon. Specifically, she studies the idea of multiculturalism within the "new left" in Latin America (a term she uses in reference to the emergence of leaders like Chavez and Morales), and the relationship of the "new left" with liberation theology in the Catholic Church.

At the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester, we met with all of the new faculty hires in the College of Arts and Sciences. This series of podcasts introduces them and their research interests. Heather Worne is an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology. Worne's specialty is bioarchaeology and, in particular, she researches issues of community health, warfare, and agricultural sedentism in prehistoric times. Previously, Worne has focused on the late prehistoric period in the Middle Cumberland region of Tennessee, and she hopes to collaborate with other archaeologists at UK to expand her research into areas of Kentucky.

Monica Udvardy, a professor in the Department of Anthropology and the director of the International Studies Program, discusses where interdepartmental collaborative efforts could take the College of Arts & Sciences in the years to come.

Scott Hutson, a professor in the Department of Anthropology, recently received a Maya Area Cultural Heritage Initiative Grant and a National Science Foundation Grant for his ongoing work in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Hutson discusses the projects for which he received these grants, how his archaeological research engages with contemporary communities, and how the College of Arts and Sciences has played a supportive role in his research career.

Erin Koch, a professor in the Department of Anthropology, is one of the six University of Kentucky professors receiving a 2011 Great Teacher Award, which are given out each year by the UK Alumni Association for excellence in the classroom.