Letterfromthe GAINES DIRECTOR GAINES DIRECTOR

In the life cycle of the academic year, May is always a period of transition. At the end of final exams, students move almost instantaneously to their new status. Student lay down their pencils, close their laptops or hit submit on their research papers, and freshmen become sophomores, sophomore cross the halfway mark to junior year, and juniors are transformed to seniors. This moment of transition is even more sharp for graduating students. You will find in this newsletter our annual report on the plans of the senior fellows. We ask them each where are they going and what they will do. The examples of the alumni of the Gaines Fellows program tell us they will be leaders wherever they land, but first they must make a move.

The recognition that students are just moving through on their way to the careers and lives that will mark most of their lives is even more in mind this year. The theme for the 2022-2023 academic year was MOVEMENT. We used this year to focus broadly on movement as both a physical and political concept. The students in the junior seminar learned from scholars about the history of sport, how archaeologist use artifacts to study people across time and performed some traditional Indian dance. The Gaines Center sponsored a workshop with the UK Circus Club and Professor Meg Wallace who teaches a course on philosophy and the circus. Students and folks from the community met in Buell Armory and performed circus skills while learning of its relevance to how philosophers have understood what it means to be good. One of the highlights for many, and me personally, was hearing and learning from renowned dancer and choreographer Bill T. Jones. Bill T. Jones offered an expansive understanding of movement both in his life and his comments to all those gathered. Famous for his fearless and unique approach to dance, Jones is equally bold in the subject matter he undertakes through movement and the human body. I continue to think about his interaction with an audience member on the possibilities of the body and dance in the face of disability and aging.

I had my own lesson in the need to move with your students and learn why the things and people that are important to them should matter to us all. As with each year, we had several very good applications for the Breathitt Lecture for Undergraduate Research. I admit that I was initially biased when I saw a very rigorous and coherent description of the links between Romantic poetry, Wadsworth, and Taylor Swift. I quickly realized. It’s me. I was the problem. The best part of this job is the opportunity to engage with smart young people who push you to think critically about what is happening now and its connection to the past. I, along with the audience, were able to listen to a Hayden Osbourne, a senior English Education major, explore the links between Wadsworth, the Lake District in the England, and the lyrics of Taylor Swift. Hayden’s deep engagement with the Romantics and Swift’s lyrics won over the skeptical and informed those who knew and loved the artist.