About Us

Josiah Hanna is an assistant professor in the Computer Sciences Department at the University of Wisconsin--Madison. He received his Ph.D. in the Computer Science Department at the University of Texas at Austin and his B.S. in computer science and mathematics at the University of Kentucky. Before joining UW--Madison, he was a post-doc at the University of Edinburgh and also spent time at FiveAI working on autonomous driving. His research interests lie in artificial intelligence, robotics, and machine learning, seeking to develop algorithms that allow autonomous agents to learn effective behaviors from their experience. In particular, he studies reinforcement learning and methods to increase the applicability of reinforcement learning to real-world use-cases.

Dr. Michelle Sizemore is Associate Professor of English in the College of Arts & Sciences and the Director of the Gaines Center for the Humanities. Her research focuses on the irrational features of democracy in late-eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century U.S. literature and culture. She is the author of American Enchantment: Rituals of the People in the Post-Revolutionary World (Oxford University Press, 2018) and is currently completing her second book, Irritability, which examines unpleasant political feelings in nineteenth-century American literature. She teaches courses on a range of topics, time periods, and national traditions, most recently a class on censorship called “Reading Dangerously“ and a class on the Dark Academia literary genre.

Amica Snow is a native of Lexington, Kentucky and a graduate of Tates Creek High School where she graduated with an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma. Amica is deeply connected to her community and frequently volunteers at the Urban Impact after-school program and the Men’s Hope Center. During her time at the University of Kentucky she has continued her volunteer work, is an executive officer for Minority Education Association and Elementary Education Student Association in the College of Education, a Chellgren fellow (through the Chellgren Center of Undergraduate Excellence), a Gaines Fellow (through the Gaines Center for the Humanities), and a College of Education ambassador. She is passionate about improving her community; thus, she is currently working on two research projects involving black girls who live in public housing and how to make education equitable through after-school programming. 

Jason Unrine is an environmental toxicologist who joined the UK faculty in 2008.  He is professor and University Research Professor in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment and director of the Kentucky Water Research Institute. For over 25 years, he has conducted research on the environmental chemistry and toxicology of emerging and legacy contaminants including engineered nanomaterials, trace elements, and disinfection byproducts.  He also teaches courses on chemical analysis, ecotoxicology, and global change.