UK was Judd's first home and reason she keeps coming back

Even Ashley Judd went to class in her pajamas.

Of course, when Judd was on campus, about 16 years ago, UK was a little bit smaller, and the buildings she had class in were close to where she lived at the Kappa Kappa Gamma house.

"I could practically go to class in my nightgown," said Judd, an actress and activist. "I probably did more than once, truth be told."

Judd often returns to UK. She is almost expected to show up at basketball games during the season, and in April 2005 she made a surprise visit to the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house to talk about preventing the spread of AIDS and commend the fraternity for contributing proceeds from a basketball tournament to YouthAIDS.

Now Judd is returning to UK as the 2006 speaker in the Paul G. Blazer Lecture Series in the Humanities, hosted by the College of Arts and Sciences, with a lecture entitled "At the Root of My Longing: Social Justice, Feminism and Spirituality."

The lecture title is a play on the title of the book "At the Root of This Longing: Reconciling a Spiritual Hunger and a Feminist Thirst" by Carol Lee Flinders, Judd said.

"It's a book of terrific scholarship and soul that means a lot to me," Judd said.

Judd said she rearranged the title to reference her roots in Eastern Kentucky; to highlight her passion for social justice, which began at UK; and to incorporate the reasons why she does human rights work, specifically faith and feminism.

Judd said she will be showing many pictures from her involvement with YouthAIDS and Population Service International and talking about how the organizations' programs benefit the people she has met in her travels. Judd has visited Cambodia, Thailand, Kenya and Central America, putting on programs in urban slums, brothels and hospices.

Judd said writing the lecture was difficult at times, even though she has lived through the experiences she will talk about.

"There was a part of me (that said), 'Oh, I can't do it, and it won't be good enough' and 'Am I going to be able to access all the references?' " Judd said, adding that as soon as she actually sat down to write, the lecture came pouring out.

"I think I scrubbed a few toilets before I actually started," she said. "Like, that was a desirable alternative to sitting down and actually writing. That's that classic student procrastination and dread syndrome."

But her procrastination and dread didn't stop her from embracing a college education.

The UK alum described herself in her college days as "zealous - zealous bordering on obnoxious."

She said she was eager to learn in an environment where trying hard to earn an education was acceptable.

"It was very exciting for me because I had always felt like a bit of a fraud in school," Judd said. "To actually really learn and have incredible professors who supported my particular brain while I learned, so that it was okay to try hard, was a big deal to me. Because I, for some reason, always thought that because I had been told I was smart that I was never supposed to have to try hard at anything, and that was such a destructive lie I grew up with. So at UK of all a sudden, I was trying hard and I found out it was OK, and that was a relief."

As a student at UK from 1986 to 1990, Judd majored in French, minored in cultural anthropology, art history, theater and women's studies, and completed the honors program.

It was also at UK that Judd developed a passion for activism in social justice.

"I was always the one traipsing around campus, promoting peace, love, social justice, trying to raise student consciousness about global issues, trotting down to Triangle Park for candlelight vigils in support of Amnesty International, bothering the governor's office, calling them about various things, harassing them," she said. "I loved it. I had a great time."

Judd's life has changed since those days, but she said the education she obtained at UK is practical in her everyday life and that she's the same person.

"I don't think I've changed all that much," Judd said. "I'm still intense. I'm opinionated. And for me, it's all motivated by a sense that we're all equal, all life is sacred, and everyone has inalienable rights - that it is our job in the richer, developing countries, to help implement and respect."

Judd is still active in her work promoting social justice, as she serves as a global ambassador with YouthAIDS and is on the board of Population Service International.

"YouthAIDS and PSI are one and the same," Judd said. "YouthAIDS is simply our HIV/AIDS prevention brand at PSI. It's the same organization; we just use different names for the different aspects of our grassroots program."

The work Judd does with YouthAIDS and PSI will be part of the focus of her lecture on campus this Thursday.

Judd said UK will always be home, and that is the reason she keeps coming back.

"UK was my first home that was a place where I, as an individual, could explore, discover and nurture my own identity," she said. "It was the first home I had as a person, separate and distinct from my family of origin. And as such, it remains my home."

Kentucky Kernel Online 10/2006

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