Research & Creative Activity

Faculty Authors Celebrated at Book Party

Annual Book Party gathering honors faculty members’ published works for the year. The College of Arts and Sciences community gathered for the third annual fall Book Party this month, celebrating 29 book-length works published in the last year by 27 faculty members in the Division of Arts and Humanities and the Division of Social Sciences.…
UT Art Alum Printing to Preserve Cherokee Language

Printmaking faculty drew Tatiana Potts (MFA ’16) to UT, and now she’s working with college students in North Carolina to print books in the Cherokee language. When Tatiana Potts (MFA ’16) was growing up in Slovakia, she first learned how to draw and paint mostly through books in her local library. Now her bookmaking skills…
Homelands Curators Receive SECAC Award

Associate Professor Lisa King’s work on an exhibition of Native Art at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture has been recognized with an award for curatorial excellence. The curators of the Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art exhibition at the McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture have national recognition. Associate Professor…
Building Justice Through Community Connections

The Appalachian Justice Research Center connects with regional communities to help resolve complex legal questions and transform lives. UT’s Appalachian Justice Research Center (AJRC) brings together skills and resources from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Winston College of Law to help solve urgent and historically under-addressed issues affecting people across East Tennessee…
Community Effort, Legacy Impact

Alumna’s posthumously published work earns 2025 book award. Regina (Gina) White Benedict, a 2009 Department of Sociology PhD alumna, passed away suddenly in the spring of 2021 but left behind a legacy that lifts voices from an often-unheralded segment of society. Her spirit, scholarship, and community dedication live on in her posthumously published book, Incarceration…
Call for Proposals: Tennessee Human–AI Readiness & Innovation: Ventures in Excellence (THRIVE) 2025

Introduction “Shaping Tomorrow’s Tennessee with Human–AI Solutions Today.” The College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) is launching THRIVE: Tennessee Human–AI Readiness & Innovation: Ventures in Excellence, an initiative that connects the best of our scholarship with real-world impact across the state. At its core, THRIVE advances AI research and its implications across disciplines, from the…
Animal Behavior Conference Fetches High Marks

Inaugural CoLAB research gathering shines a light on UT expertise in animal behavior. The college’s Collaborative for Animal Behavior (CoLAB) hosted the Southeastern Conference for Animal Behavior (SeCAB) on September 26–27. Researchers gathered to explore the dynamic interactions between animal behavior and environmental change, and to mobilize and expand the network of behavioral biologists in…
Student-Faculty Collaboration Refreshes McClung Exhibit

Anthropology student and professor collaborate to update long-standing McClung exhibit on human origins. The university celebrated the Scopes Trial Centennial throughout 2025 with numerous public activities that addressed a variety of topics related to the historic Tennessee trial and the science of evolution. As official events rolled along, one honors anthropology student and her faculty…
Fern Scientist Uncovers How Limits Fuel Evolution

Combining curiosity about ferns with the high-tech imaging available at UT, Professor Jacob S. Suissa is adding new insight into evolution. Research by Assistant Professor Jacob S. Suissa at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is revealing complexity in how ferns have evolved. Instead of the vascular structure inside fern stems changing as a direct adaptation…
Rats! Science Redefines Social Media Sensation

The rodent that caused a sidewalk impression known as the “Chicago Rat Hole” likely was a squirrel, according to a UT animal researcher and his colleagues. An imprint of a rodent in concrete is more than a meme to an animal researcher from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and his collaborators. By investigating photos of…