The SEC (Southeastern Conference) Faculty Travel Program will support more than 100 SEC faculty members during the 2018-2019 academic year, the league office announced Monday. Nine University of Kentucky faculty members will participate. Established in 2012 by the SEC provosts, the program is designed to provide financial assistance from the SEC office that bolsters intra-SEC collaboration.

Identified participants will travel to other SEC universities to exchange ideas, develop grant proposals, conduct research and deliver lectures or performances. Areas of interest for this year’s class include music, engineering, anthropology, law, medicine and African-American studies, among others.

“The SEC Faculty Travel Program has been a tremendous resource for faculty at universities across the SEC,” said Ellen Reames, associate professor at Auburn University and former program participant. “It gives us the opportunity to work with colleagues in our field of study throughout the region. It is a very powerful tool for SEC universities.”

Past program participants have been invited to present their research at conferences, been awarded competitive grants and others have secured publications in leading journals. 

“As a researcher, it’s great to know that the SEC is behind us and supports what we want to do,” said Susan Loveall-Hague, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders at the University of Mississippi and former program participant.

The SEC Faculty Travel Program is one of several academic endeavors designed to support the teaching, research, service and economic development focus of the SEC’s 14 member universities. 

The UK faculty members participating are:

• Lisa Amick, clinical assistant professor, Department of STEM Education, visiting University of Tennessee;
• Samuel Awuah, assistant professor, Department of Chemistry, visiting University of Florida;
• Jennifer Bird-Pollan, Robert G. Lawson Professor of Law, College of Law, visiting multiple SEC universities;
• Molly Blasing, assistant professor of Russian studies, Department of Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures, visiting University of Missouri;
• Julia Bursten, assistant professor, Department of Philosophy, visiting University of South Carolina;
• Arthur Hunt, professor, Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, visiting University of Tennessee;
• Alexandre Martin, associate professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, visiting University of Tennessee;
• Kristen Perry, associate professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, visiting multiple SEC universities; and
• Jill Rappoport, associate professor, Department of English, visiting Vanderbilt University.

Click here for a full list of 2018-19 SEC Faculty Travel Program participants.