Patricia Ehrkamp, professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky, has been named the 2021-22 College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Professor and will deliver the annual Distinguished Professor Lecture.

Throughout her time at UK, Ehrkamp has established herself as a renowned educator, mentor and researcher.

As an accomplished feminist and political geographer, her research considers the politics of immigration with a focus on refugee geopolitics and trauma, as well as belonging, citizenship and exclusion in the spaces of everyday life in the United States and Europe.

Ehrkamp’s work has received national and international recognition — appearing in leading journals, including the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Urban Geography, Progress in Human Geography, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Space and Polity, Environment and Planning A, and Social & Cultural Geography. 

Currently, Ehrkamp is working on a project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which analyzes the important role of post-traumatic stress disorder in admitting and resettling Iraqi refugees in the U.S. She also recently worked on another NSF-funded project, which examined the complex and changing geographies of immigration and belonging for communities of faith in the context of recent immigration and anti-immigrant legislation.

Ehrkamp, who is also dedicated to serving students, teaches undergraduate courses on Immigrant America and qualitative research methods. At the graduate level, she convenes seminars in social theory, social geography and political geography, among others.

“Professor Ehrkamp is an exceptional teacher and academic advisor. She teaches across the curriculum, holds NSF grants with her graduate students, created a UK core course on Immigrant America and has developed an online graduate certificate and master’s degree program in applied environmental and sustainability studies,” said Christian Brady, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Her service to the university has helped cultivate a more inclusive and supportive work environment to create spaces of belonging in which faculty and students can thrive.”

The Distinguished Professor Lecture will take place Spring 2022, and more details will be released at a later date.