In Appalachia, the history, use, and ownership of land is central to achieving a just transition from an extraction-based economy to one that ensures that Appalachian communities can thrive. Working closely with faculty with long-standing ties to the community, and beginning our land justice work in Tennessee’s Clearfork Valley, we are working with communities to explore foundational questions.
We ask:
How might former coal mine sites be reclaimed in a way that supports both the environment and the economic needs of communities in the region?
How might university resources be leveraged to support communities as they envision novel ecological restoration, reforestation, and soil remediation on formerly mined lands as well as alternative regulatory frameworks for post-mine land governance?
What legal structures might enable communities to ensure that the revenue from current and future investment is devoted to enhancing the economic wellbeing of communities in Appalachia and the Mountain South?
How can university resources be leveraged to ensure that local governments have sufficient property record management infrastructure to ensure that land can be used to benefit community and resident needs?
Current Land Justice Projects
Addressing Heirs’ Property in Rural Tennessee and Beyond
With the support of a UT Grand Challenge grant, an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students spanning law, sociology, geography, and landscape architecture are working alongside Woodland Community Land Trust and Southern Connected Communities Project in the Clearfork Valley of Tennessee to focus on the complex legal and social landscape surrounding heirs’ property—land passed down through generations without clear titles, often leaving owners vulnerable to land loss and economic stagnation. The team is documenting the specific heirs’ property issues in the region – via oral histories interviews that illuminate the personal, historical, and cultural significance of these properties – and generating resources, such as a legal resource guide, that will enable rural communities in our region to resolve heirs’ property issues in their communities.
Community Partners
Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment (SOCM) is a 50-year-old, member-driven organization dedicated to empowering Tennesseans in their efforts to have a greater voice in determining their own future. SOCM accomplishes this by training local leaders and by developing and sustaining long-term, democratically run, and locally rooted membership organizations in communities throughout Tennessee. Together, SOCM members work towards a Tennessee where all people are treated with dignity, where the environment is preserved and protected, and where corporations and public officials are held accountable to the needs of the people.
Woodland Community Land Trust operates in an impoverished Appalachian community in northeastern Tennessee, where access to land and political and economic power has been tightly controlled by a few major extractive companies. For almost forty years, Woodland and its sister organizations, Woodland Community Development Corporation and Clearfork Community Institute, have acquired 450 acres of land and become involved in housing construction, permaculture, small business development, and education, attempting to accumulate sufficient land and skills to build a sustainable community.
Southern Connected Communities Project aims to build community controlled broadband infrastructure to deliver coverage initially to communities throughout East Tennessee and Central Appalachia with the ultimate aim of creating a replicable model for community-controlled broadband projects. SCCP aims to play a major role in helping communities they are in deep relationship with design, develop, establish, and maintain their projects and then link them into a cooperative and thriving network that delivers affordable, accessible, and principled broadband throughout Appalachia, the South, and beyond.
Affiliated Faculty
Shaneda Destine
Assistant Professor, Sociology and Africana Studies
College of Arts and Sciences
Christina Ergas
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology
College of Arts & Sciences
Scottie McDaniel
Assistant Professor, School of Landscape Architecture
College of Architecture and Design
Gabe Schwartzman
Assistant Professor, Department of Geography & Sustainability
College of Arts and Sciences
Lindsay Shade
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology
College of Arts & Sciences