Applications now open: Mary C. Bingham Seminar to take place Spring 2026
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Oct. 10, 2025) – This spring, the Gaines Center for the Humanities will host the 2026 Mary C. Bingham Seminar — HMN 300: Sustainable Futures Design Lab — an extraordinary opportunity for students to combine academic inquiry with hands-on, real-world engagement. Students are invited to learn more about this experience at an upcoming information session on Oct. 14.
Led by Professor Rebekah Radtke, Ph.D., from the College of Design, this innovative course invites students to explore how design can shape more resilient and sustainable communities. Through immersive, site-based learning in both Eastern Kentucky and France, students will experience firsthand how post-mining communities are reimagining their futures.
“The Gaines Center is pleased to be able offer the Mary C. Bingham Seminar to undergraduates from all majors at UK," said Gaines Center Director Michelle Sizemore. "The topic is a timely one at home and abroad, and the cross-cultural linkages formed through Professor Radtke’s course continues the seminar's tradition of providing one-of-a-kind humanities experiences since its inception in 1989.”
The course begins with fieldwork in Eastern Kentucky during spring break, where students will spend several days learning from local community leaders and exploring the environmental and cultural context and while participating in art and design workshops. That work then extends across the Atlantic after the semester ends, with a 19-day trip to Grenoble, St. Étienne and Paris. There, students will create with artists and designers, visit eco-neighborhoods, and see how French communities are addressing sustainability in ways that resonate with the questions raised in Appalachia.
This distinctive model — linking two regions with shared histories of extraction — gives students a rare chance to view design and sustainability through a transnational lens.
“We want students to recognize that what happens in Kentucky is part of a much larger story, and that these connections open the door to creative, globally informed responses to the built environment,” Radtke said.
Students selected for the course will receive a $1,000 scholarship from the Gaines Center and may also be eligible for additional scholarship support through Education Abroad. Only 10 students will be admitted, chosen through a competitive application process. Applications are open now and will remain open until the course is full; early applications are encouraged given the limited number of spots available.
An in-person information session will be held at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, at the Bingham Davis House for students who want to learn more before applying.
Founded in 1984 through the generosity of John and Joan Gaines, the Gaines Center for the Humanities serves as a beacon of innovative education at UK. As a laboratory for creativity and interdisciplinary scholarship, the center continues to advance the university’s mission of developing thoughtful, engaged leaders poised to shape the future of Kentucky and beyond.
For more information, call the Gaines Center at 859-257-1537 or contact Program Coordinator Catherine Brereton at catherine.brereton@uky.edu.
As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.