Gaines Center's Lafayette Seminar to Feature Best-Selling Authors Sena Jeter Naslund, David King
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Feb. 27, 2020) — The 2020 Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues presented by the University of Kentucky Gaines Center for the Humanities will feature a conversation between two best-selling authors, Sena Jeter Naslund and David King. “Literary Migrations: Kentucky Authors Writing Beyond Place” will begin 6 p.m. Thursday, March 5, in the Hardymon Theater, in the Davis Marksbury Building located at 329 Rose St.
A winner of the Harper Lee Award and the Southeastern Library Association Fiction award, Sena Jeter Naslund is the author of eight previous works of fiction, including "Ahab's Wife," a finalist for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (formally the Orange Prize). She is a co-founder and program director of the Spalding University (Louisville) brief-residency MFA in Writing, where she edits The Louisville Review and Fleur-de-Lis Press. Naslund, a 2020 Kentucky Writer's Hall of Fame inductee and keynote speaker, recently retired from her position as Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Louisville.
David King, a Gaines alumnus and 2008 German studies graduate, is the best-selling author of four books of history and narrative nonfiction, including "Death in the City of Light" and "The Trial of Adolf Hitler," which was longlisted for the Jewish Quarterly Wingate Prize and the Cundhill History Prize, and optioned for a TV miniseries. A Fulbright Scholar with a master's degree from Cambridge University, King taught European history at UK for six years. He has been honored as a fellow of the American-Scandinavian Foundation and a fellow of the International Napoleonic Society.
The 2020 Lafayette Seminar featuring Naslund and King is free and open to the public. Space is limited for this event, guests are required to pre-register for the talk on the center's Eventbrite page.
Presented annually, the Lafayette Seminar in Public Issues provides an opportunity for Lexington community members, elected officials, and faculty and students to discuss issues facing the community. Previous topics have explored the local economy, town and gown relations, community gardening, university cities, public art and the creation of successful downtown spaces.
Founded in 1984 by a generous gift from John and Joan Gaines, the Gaines Center for the Humanities functions as a laboratory for imaginative and innovative education on UK's campus. Part of the Division of Student and Academic Life, the center is devoted to cultivating an appreciation of the humanities in its students and faculty. The center embraces varied paths of knowledge and particularly strives to integrate creative work with traditional academic learning.
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.
In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.