Skip to main
University-wide Navigation

May 15, 2017

The University of Kentucky Office of the Vice President for Research, with approval by the Board of Trustees, selected Melynda Price, Robert E. Harding, Jr. Associate Professor of Law at the University of Kentucky College of Law, as the college’s University Research Professor for the 2017-18 academic year.

A UK Law committee comprised of Professors Rutheford B Campbell, James M. Donovan, and Louise E. Graham, chose Prof. Price as the college’s nominee. She submitted a thorough application for consideration that was sent to the University's selection committee on behalf of the college.

“I am honored to be named a University Research Professor. It is a recognition from other respected scholars at the University of Kentucky, which makes it very special,” said Prof. Price. “My research is the result of a lot of consistent hard work and it is nice to be rewarded for that work by my peers.”

The UK Board of Trustees established the University Research Professorships in 1976 to recognize outstanding research achievements. The University Research Professors Program was revised last year to meet the overall objective of UK's 2015-2020 Strategic Plan. The program now distinguishes excellence across the full spectrum of research, scholarship, and creative endeavors within each college that nominates a faculty member.

The professorship is a recognition of Prof. Price’s work of over 10 years of research at UK Law. Her research focuses on race and citizenship, the politics of punishment and the role of law in the politics of race and ethnicity in the United States and at its borders. She is the author of “At the Cross: Race, Religion and Citizenship in the Politics of the Death Penalty” (2015). She has also published in the Iowa Law Review, the Michigan Journal of Race and Law and other legal journals, as well as The New York Times, Tidal Basin Review and Pluck! Journal of Affrilachian Arts and Culture. Furthermore, she serves as the director of the African American and Africana Studies program in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences. Prof. Price has a doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law and studied physics as an undergraduate at Prairie View A&M University.

Sixteen University Research Professors were recognized for their accomplishments at a spring reception hosted by President Eli Capilouto. Prof. Price was unable to attend due to spending the 2016-17 academic year at Princeton University. She was one of six legal scholars selected last year for a fellowship from Woodrow Wilson School’s Program in Law and Public Affairs (LAPA).

“I am delighted that Melynda has been recognized for her many achievements at UK, including her influential research on the experiences of African-American women,” said Richard C. Ausness, Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Everett H. Metcalf, Jr. Professor of Law at UK Law. “She is a wonderful colleague and a valued member of the College of Law faculty.”

Congratulations Prof. Price!