WKU News

KET’s Kentucky Life episode this week will feature the work of two WKU graduates, along with an interview with WKU History professor Anthony Harkins, filmed at the Kentucky Museum. The segment on “Hillbilly Days” is part of episode 3 of the new Kentucky Life season which will air on KET at 7 p.m. CT Saturday (February 4).

Elon Justice, a 2017 WKU School of Media graduate, produced the segment on the annual Hillbilly Days festival which takes place in her hometown of Pikeville. The event started in the late 1970s and attracts more than 100,000 visitors to Pikeville each year. Corwin Spaulding, a 2013 WKU School of Media graduate, served as the videographer and audio operator for the segment. 

Dr. Harkins is the author of the award-winning book Hillbilly: A Cultural History of an American Icon published by Oxford University Press. He is also the co-editor of the award-winning Appalachian Reckoning: A Region Responds to Hillbilly Elegy, published by West Virginia University Press. Dr. Harkins is a professor in the WKU Department of History and serves as interim Chair for the WKU Department of Communication. 

WKU graduate Chip Polston is the host of Kentucky Life.

Contact: Anthony Harkins, (270) 745-3957