Writing for The Conversation Adds to Scholarship ROI
Faculty from UT’s College of Arts and Sciences reach millions of people with their research by writing articles distributed through news organizations around the world.
Faculty from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are sharing their expertise with a wide audience through The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organization with a vast global reach.
During the 2025 calendar year, 30 articles written by members of the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) were published on The Conversation’s website, including a few versions translated into other languages for international audiences. The articles were each republished by dozens of media outlets, including Fast Company, Phys.org, Medical Xpress, NewsBreak, Science Direct, Religion News Service, National Catholic Reporter, MSN, YahooNews (US and international), and hundreds of online and print newspapers across the United States.
“It is exciting to see our faculty communicate their findings and expertise in ways that help people around the world understand the value and significance of the groundbreaking research and creative work we do in the College of Arts and Sciences,” said CAS Interim Executive Dean Robert Hinde.
Across the university’s colleges last year, 48 scholars authored 54 articles for The Conversation, placing UT first in the SEC for the third consecutive year, a testament to the outstanding scholarship.
University scholars work with professional editors from The Conversation to draft articles about their research or timely topics, using language that is accessible to a general audience.
“Our focus at UT is translational research and scholarship that makes lives better and impacts communities in our state and around the world,” said Amanda Womac, director of communications for the College of Arts and Sciences. “When faculty publish in The Conversation, their research moves out of the ivory tower to the streets of those communities–connecting scholarship to public service and impact.”
Among the articles published in 2025, a microbiology professor explained new research on autoimmune diseases, an ecology professor studying pollinators offered advice on garden planning, and an anthropology professor who studies biomechanics answered a child’s question about wiggling toes.
“When I came to UT, I already knew about The Conversation as a great way to communicate to a wider audience,” said anthropology Professor Alex Bentley, whose 2015 article on the history of sugar has reached more than 300,000 readers. “But I wasn’t prepared for how much more competitive the US version was.”
“The response is always amazing,” said Bentley.
Almost all of Bentley’s pieces have been based on published peer-reviewed papers. “The Conversation piece absolutely explodes the Altimetric score of each peer-reviewed study I’ve done it for,” he said. “Months or years later, you see the effect on the citation rate too.”
“Mitochondria can sense bacteria and trigger your immune system to trap them – revealing new ways to treat infections and autoimmunity” by Andrew Monteith. Photo by CHDENK/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA.
Building Bigger Networks
“I’m always struck by how much an article can get traction on social media,” said Chancellor’s Professor Derek Alderman, who has written more than a dozen articles for The Conversation alone, with colleagues from other universities, and with graduate students in UT’s Department of Geography and Sustainability.
When doctoral candidate Seth Kannarr, under Alderman’s mentorship, wrote about teaching an Environmental Issues in National Parks course, that led to further connections with national park officials and more opportunities to write articles.
“You don’t just get more media attention,” said Alderman, whose 16 articles for The Conversation have more than half a million views. “You’ve got folks reading your work that wouldn’t normally pick up something written by a geographer, but all of a sudden now they see it, and they make connections. It can be people working on policy. It can be educators.”
Assistant Professor Jack Swab’s article with Alderman on world maps and Africa resulted in an interview with a radio station in Johannesburg, South Africa. Swab also was interviewed for Junior Scholastic, and the article was republished in a Taiwanese children’s magazine.
Bentley’s article on COVID modeling and ancient social distancing resulted in an interview for The Conversation’s weekly podcast, a speaking engagement at Newspeak House in London, and a conference presentation at Florida International University.
Professor Brandon Prins’ Curious Kids article on the first pirate led to an interview on rising piracy today in Latin America for InSight Crime. McGraw Hill also asked to use The Conversation piece by Prins, who heads the Department of Political Science, for its work in education for elementary school students.
Teaching Professor Sally Corran Harris wrote for The Conversation’s Uncommon Courses series about Whodunit?: Detective Stories. “I was amazed at the wide readership and international responses directly to me,” Harris said. She was interviewed by a morning talk radio show based in Vancouver, British Columbia, as well as The Academic Minute.
A professor from another university also reached out to Harris, and they met over Zoom to discuss approaches for using detective fiction in law classes.
Megan Bryson, a Lindsay Young Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies, has written several articles in response to editors from The Conversation seeking experts related to a particular topic. For example, she wrote about Buddha’s foster mother in a piece timed for Mother’s Day.
Bryson said her articles may receive a few thousand to 100,000 views on The Conversation site, but that’s not all. PBS News republished her article on the Lunar New Year, Religion News Service has republished seven pieces Bryson wrote over the past few years, and she also was interviewed for The Academic Minute. Her articles for The Conversation show up when people search for her name online, and the Department of Religious Studies has seen a rise in website visitors after her articles appear.
The Conversation articles also are archived on UT’s news page, with some shared through Tennessee Today and the university’s social media, as well as the College of Arts and Sciences social media.
“Naming and categorizing objects is part of how young kids develop executive function skills – new research” by Aaron Buss and Alexis McCraw. Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee.
UT’s Partnership with The Conversation
UT is among dozens of university partners of The Conversation, but that does not guarantee any articles faculty want to write will be published. The university’s Office of Communications and Marketing (OCM) works with faculty members to prepare a pitch or respond to The Conversation’s request for experts to write about a topic.
OCM holds regular office hours for faculty to discuss the process, will present to groups upon request, and offers a wealth of information online. (CAS faculty members interested in learning more about writing for The Conversation or other media training should contact Amanda Womac, the college’s director of communications.)
“What a gift that UT has given us by being a partner of The Conversation,” Bentley said. “This is such a great advantage—not only giving us better access to placing pieces in The Conversation, but also attracting scholars at other non-subscribing institutions to co-author Conversation pieces with us at UT. It helps us grow our network in multiple ways.”
by Amy Beth Miller