Conservation + Stewardship

The Conservation and Stewardship concentration promotes and produces knowledge and techniques in the documentation, restoration and regeneration of a wide array of cultural artifacts. Broadly based in the arts and the sciences, the Conservation and Stewardship Concentration focuses on collaborative research and coursework – in particular on the relationships between the design disciplines and their effect on both built and natural environments. This concentration explores the processes and systems that affect both local and global responses to contemporary issues of public policy and the growing global concern for sustainable and regenerative responses, equity and diversity. The Conservation and Stewardship concentration has three goals: to expand local knowledge through topical research, to document the physical environment and the human effect on these environments, and to disseminate that documented knowledge to educate future practitioners and scholars, and the public at-large.

The Conservation and Stewardship concentration offers opportunities for topical study such as, but not limited to:

  • Sustainable Urban and Rural Landscapes
  • The Tennessee Valley Authority
  • Cultural Resource Conservation and Development
  • Architectural Preservation
  • Social Justice and Design
  • Monuments and Memory
  • Appalachia
  • Galleries, Libraries and Art Museums
  • Regional Cultures and their Artifacts
  • Identity Politics
  • Engaged and Participatory Design

Potential Resources:

  • UTK Smart Communities Initiative
  • Knox Heritage (including internships)
  • Odd Fellows Cemetery Reclamation Initiative
  • Knoxville Re-Animation Coalition
  • Beck Center for the Arts
  • Highland Research and Education Center
  • Children’s Defense Fund
  • The Museum of Appalachia
  • Regional Planning Agencies in Knoxville
  • Regional Planning Agencies in Nashville
  • Regional Planning Agencies in Chattanooga
  • Nashville Civic Design Center
A black and white detail of the Tennessee River basin and its elevations

To be included in the concentration, all courses must be approved by the Architecture Graduate Studies Chair in consultation with the faculty and will be based on the content of the specific course the student completed. Documentation will be kept by the School of Architecture, but it is the student’s responsibility to solicit approval through the advising process.

Plus six elective credit hours from one of these courses or similar courses per advising process:

  • Of the six elective credit hours, up to three credit hours may be from:
  • Of the six elective credit hours, up to three credit hours may be from approved courses in other departments, such as: