Dialogue

UT Support Helps Microbiology Alumnus Build Business for a Better Environment

Recent UT alumnus Jordan Cannon (’24) turned his PhD research into a commercial enterprise that could help reduce bioplastic waste in landfills and beyond. His start-up company Circular Biosciences earned a research option from the UT Research Foundation (UTRF) for their bioplastic degradation technology. The welcome boost helps further groundbreaking research that began during his…
Environmental Studies Majors Analyze Water at Dairy

Students from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, are putting their environmental studies to work monitoring groundwater quality at the UT dairy research unit in Blount County. Ethan Parker, director of the East Tennessee AgResearch and Education Center – Little River Unit approached Lecturer Amy Robinson about the project in June 2024. While the Walland, Tennessee,…
New Book Examines the Legacy of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin

UT Professor Amy J. Elias brought together a community of writers to create the first major book about the historic creative and personal relationship of Knoxville-born painter Beauford Delaney and writer James Baldwin. Elias, director of UT’s Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts, edited Speculative Light: The Arts of Beauford Delaney and James Baldwin,…
African American History Lecture Marks First Decade

Fleming-Morrow Lecture in African American History and Symposium March 6, 2025Student Union, Room 169Registration, limited to 100, is free and open to the public Register Now For a decade the annual Fleming-Morrow Distinguished Lecture has been honoring pioneering professors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, while bringing nationally recognized scholars of African American history to…
Naturalist Club Presents Photo Gallery

Undergraduate Vols of the UT Naturalist Club assembled a gallery of photos from club events as to present as part of the Scopes Trial Centennial. The gallery is on display now through February in the Mary Greer Room of the Hodges Library, adjacent to the library’s Starbucks location. A reception for the gallery exhibition will…
Native American Art Tells Ongoing Story at Museum

Starting in January 2025, visitors to the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture will see new representations of Native Nations that use contemporary art to tell the stories of people who are still alive now and not relics of the past. Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art involved co-curators from four Native Nations…
Mikucki Digs Deep for Space-Bound Microbiology

The smallest Earth-bound organisms can inspire technology that will someday reach far across the solar system in the search for extraterrestrial life. UT Microbiology Professor Jill Mikucki studies how microbial life forms interact with their environments—and helps fellow scientists and engineers test the tools to detect the microbial impact throughout entire ecosystems. Mikucki’s field work…
UT Team Studies Legal Aid in Knox County Evictions

The Russell Sage Foundation (RSF) has awarded UT’s Appalachian Justice Research Center (AJRC) a $74,800 grant to support its study of a legal aid program for tenants facing evictions in Knox County. Amid rising rents and evictions, Knox County increased the availability of counsel at various stages of the eviction process in late 2023, through…
Justice Studies Program Adds Insight to Any Major

UT’s interdisciplinary justice studies program launched in 2024 to offer students an enhanced understanding of social and economic justice issues across a variety of fields and career paths. “It’s an interdisciplinary approach to the study of justice and injustice,” said Tyler Wall, associate professor in sociology and chair of the program. “It’s justice broadly construed—we’re…