Scholar Spotlight: Vivian Swayne
“I study policing, culture, housing insecurity, race, gender, and sexuality.”
Vivian Swayne
Teaching Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
I am particularly interested in how various forms of communication, from the visual arts to social media, reinforce and challenge the dominant social order. Damaging misinformation and myths about marginalized groups circulate as factual, and my work interrogates the ideological foundations and functions that drive polarizing discourses.
Part of what makes my research exciting is the ability to name hidden power dynamics and patterns. New insights from overlooked areas can shift how people think about harm and socialization in ways that emphasize accountability, agency, and meeting peoples’ basic needs.
I currently co-direct Abolition Now: Images for Study and Struggle, a participatory archive that documents the unprecedented flow of contemporary social movement art. The database features interviews with artists, curators, and organizers about the contexts of their work, hundreds of images, educational commentary, and study guides. In partnership with UT’s Appalachian Justice Research Center, I facilitated an applied research lab in spring 2025 during which students generated content, coded metadata, interviewed artists independently, and produced a final video to be featured on the site.
Why I Do What I Do
When I first found sociology, its attention to intricate social forces beyond the individual shifted my paradigm. My work now follows that of restorative and transformative justice practitioners who commit to violence prevention and interruption across the scales of self, community, and system.
Currently Working On
Published “Art in Them Mountains: Critical Discussions on Appalachia, Identity, and Abolition” in the spring 2025 issue of Appalachian Journal.
I center collaboration in my research, and I am fortunate to be working on several group publications in addition to my individual pursuits.
By Amy Beth Miller