Engaged Communities
Amplifying diverse voices to shape a sustainable future
Clean air and water, fresh food, energy-efficient housing, cost-effective transportation, and outdoor recreation are not equally accessible. Nor does every community have a seat at the table to help plan for a sustainable future.
We envision a world in which everyone has opportunities to help shape that future—and experience its benefits. UT researchers engage individuals and communities as partners, ensuring that our work together is guided by the knowledge, priorities, and needs of all.
UT’s Approach
Our approach to innovation at the intersection of energy and environment relies on a deep commitment to community and accessibility and the assurance that our approaches are just and sustainable. In this area, for example, we are working with communities across the state to create a space for Tennesseans to tell their stories, and together with UT’s energy and environmental humanities initiative, we are working together to secure a sustainable future for our natural resources. This approach has guided the Tennessee RiverLine initiative, strengthening connectivity throughout river communities across the state.
As an illustration of that commitment, UT faculty are collaborating across colleges and disciplines to represent latent transportation demand in underserved communities and to remove barriers to clean, accessible, reliable transportation. Additional teams have filled a significant gap in public transit research by developing a method to evaluate the transit equity of affordable housing units.
Multiple UT research centers enable community-engaged research. The Appalachian Justice Research Center, which is co-sponsored by the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Law, connects faculty members and East Tennessee community partners to co-create sustainable, equitable solutions to regional infrastructure and environment challenges. Researchers with the National Science Foundation–funded Southeast Center for Just, Resilient, and Sustainable Ecosystems engage community members to understand how they perceive and respond to extreme weather events, urban heat island effects, and climate-related health impacts. This research informs strategies for underserved Southeastern communities to navigate climate-exacerbated challenges.
Researchers with the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment and the Center for Ultra-Wide-Area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks examine socioeconomic, geographical, technical, and policy factors that influence energy burden and energy access. One team, for example, developed a method to embed energy equity into planning distributed generators. Other researchers are improving microgrids that facilitate increased renewables and grid resilience in rural areas.
“The Denbo Center for Humanities & the Arts incubates research in energy humanities, hosting distinguished speakers, year-long faculty research seminars, symposia, and special events that examine the historical, ethical, and cultural impacts of energy use.”
—- Amy J. Elias, Director
Highlights
Facilities & Initiatives
Our equity and engagement work occurs in labs, through dialogue, and out in communities. Research emerges from and informs new investigations by recognizing the interplay between diverse disciplines across UT.
- Appalachian Justice Research Center
- Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs
- Center for Energy, Transportation, and Environmental Policy
- Center for Regional and Rural Connected Communities
- Center for Ultra-Wide-Area Resilient Electric Energy Transmission Networks
- Community-University Research Collaboration Initiative
- Denbo Center for Humanities and the Arts: Energy Humanities
- Institute for Climate and Community Resilience
- Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment
- Tennessee RiverLine
Our Researchers
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Associate Professor, Social Work
Emerging transportation technologies, electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, transportation equity, modeling latent travel demand, smart mobility
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Chancellor’s Professor, Distinguished Professor, & Director, UT Humanities Center
Dialogue and commons theory, public humanities and public art, narrative theory, literature/the novel, cross-disciplinary arts aesthetics, energy humanities, environmental humanities, time studies and historiography, electronic media arts, science fiction/speculative arts
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Assistant Professor, Geography & Sustainability
Just transition, energy and environmental justice, labor, gender, race, class, electricity, urban political ecology
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TVA Distinguished Professor of Energy and Environmental Public Policy
Energy markets, the effects of energy policies, energy technology adoption, climate change adaptation, utility decision-making and incentives, critical minerals markets, resource-based economic development, air and water pollution control, sustainable ecosystems for energy and climate solutions