Tatianna Griffin is a PhD student majoring in Anthropology with a concentration in cultural anthropology. Prior to attending UT, she received her Bachelor of Science degree Anthropology with minors in History and Biology from Longwood University. Her primary research focuses on a deliberate and explicit collaborative effort with the Morningside neighborhood in East Knoxville to restore Citizens Cemetery, Knoxville’s oldest African American cemetery. Her work draws on theories and methods from across the anthropological subdisciplines to gain a better understanding of how volunteers may be transformed by engaging in restoration work at Citizens. Through her research, she attempts to create a space for minority voices and to rekindle the relationship between academia and the communities it has caused ceaseless harm.  Her research interests include African American studies, voluntarism, religion, identity, and power and pedagogy.

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Chair: Dr. Raja Swamy