University of Tennessee Appalachian Justice Research Center

The University of Tennessee Appalachian Justice Research Center (AJRC) is a transdisciplinary research and training collaborative co-sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences and the College of Law. The Center is dedicated to advancing community visions for a more just and equitable Appalachia and the Mountain South.

We leverage university resources to address urgent, protracted, and historically under-addressed issues in the expansive region. Combining policy development and advocacy, the AJRC works towards producing tangible solutions to seemingly intractable problems in rural and urban Appalachian communities. Our work includes the creation of community archives, oral histories, curricula, and media platforms – as well as standard research outputs such as research white papers, articles, and books. 

We use a community-driven, non-extractive research model: aka, we’re focused on research with and for communities, not research about communities. AJRC projects are centered around community priorities and legacies of resilience, specifically those communities most impacted by histories of poverty and violence.