LEXINGTON, Ky. — Patrick Lee Lucas, a professor in the School of Interiors at the University of Kentucky's College of Design, has been named a 2026-27 University Research Professor, a distinction that recognizes excellence in research addressing scientific, social, cultural and economic challenges.

The University of Kentucky Board of Trustees approved Lucas and 16 other faculty members for the honor in April. Since joining UK in 2013, Lucas has distinguished himself as a design historian exploring how buildings, interiors and everyday objects reflect culture, identity and history. His work focuses particularly on regions where diverse cultures intersect, including the 19th-century Midwest and 20th-century American South.

Lucas's current collaborative project, "Language and Home in the Commonwealth," combines linguistic research with the study of homes and material culture to challenge common stereotypes about Kentucky and other regions. The interdisciplinary effort partners Lucas with linguistics professor Allison Burkette and includes undergraduate researchers from the colleges of Design and Arts and Sciences.

With funding from the University Research Professors program—a one-year award of $10,000—Lucas and Burkette plan to advance their work through a podcast series exploring language and home. "By exploring the tensions and resonances of interior design and linguistics, we hope to invigorate and engender thinking and conversation about how we live," Lucas said.

The research aims to shift perceptions of Kentucky by examining how residents across the social and economic spectrum filled their homes with meaningful possessions. Lucas noted that rural households, often overlooked in scholarly attention, contained prized decorative objects known by distinctive regional names, such as "firedogs," a local term for brass andirons used to hold logs in fireplaces.

Lucas was also recognized in 2026 with a Great Teacher Award from the UK Alumni Association and received the Tau Sigma Delta Honors Society Silver Medal Award. His publications include "Athens on the Frontier: Grecian-Style Architecture in the Great Valley of the West, 1820-1860" and "Modernism at Home: Edward Loewenstein's Architectural Innovation in Piedmont, NC."