Where: The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996

*Registration opens two weeks in advance of each program and is first come, first served--check back on this event page for registration and details.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium. This work is also supported in whole or in part by federal award number 21.027 awarded to Knox County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Arts & Culture Alliance.

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Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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About the speaker: Peter van Dommelen is a Mediterranean archaeologist, whose research and teaching revolve around the rural and Indigenous Mediterranean past and present. The regional focus of his work lies in the western Mediterranean, where he carries out long-term fieldwork on the island of Sardinia. He concentrates on later Mediterranean prehistory and the Indigenous and colonial worlds of the earlier part of Classical Antiquity - roughly the first millennium BCE - but comparative studies of ethnographic and recent historical contexts in the Mediterranean and elsewhere play a crucial role in his research and teaching.

He studied Archaeology and Classics at the University of Leiden (the Netherlands), specializing in Theoretical and Classical Archaeology (MA, 1990; PhD, 1998); he also studied Anthropology and Material Culture at UCL (1990-91). He taught Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Glasgow (Scotland) between 1997 and 2012, before coming to Brown University. He has served as director of the Joukowsky Institute between 2015 and 2023. He has held visiting appointments at the Universities of Valencia (Spain, 2005-06), Cagliari (Sardinia, 2011), the Balearics (Mallorca, 2012), the German Archaeological Institute (DAI-Berlin, 2021) and the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona, 2023-24). He was founding co-editor of Archaeological Dialogues (1994-2005), member of the World Archaeology editorial team (2007-2019) and continues to serve as co-editor of the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology (since 2006).

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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Learn a little about mindfulness and then enjoy a guided meditation, so you can explore the practice as a way to improve concentration and manage the stress of your daily routine. All levels are welcome. Chairs will be provided, but guests may bring cushions, mats, or blankets. This program is presented by Kenton Yeager and UT's Mindfulness and Meditation Club.

About Meditation and Mindfulness: Mindfulness and Meditation is a UT student organization that promotes living a mindful lifestyle through awareness and meditation practices. Our goal is to give others the tools to create their own meditation practice.

About Kenton Yeager: Kenton Yeager is a certified advanced practice meditation teacher for the American Meditation Society, where he has also served as the President and Head of the Teacher Training program. He is a tenured professor at UT, where he heads the Graduate Theatrical Lighting Design Program. He also teaches courses in Meditation for Academic Success, Techniques for Unlocking the Creative Mind through Meditation and Visualization, and Understanding Anger and Fear. He also chaired the University’s Mindfulness Community of Scholars and is the faculty advisor for the Mindfulness and Meditation Club. Kenton has taught workshops on Mindfulness, Meditation, and opening the creative mind around the country at major conferences and events. He has been involved in meditation, visualization, and mindfulness techniques, as well as martial arts and eastern philosophy for the past 45 years.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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Stories can be shared in many formats, spend some time creating something with us at the museum! We will explore storytelling through bookmaking, oral history, and craft activities. Come meet Eli Langley (Coushatta tribe of Louisiana) as he takes us on a narrative journey through time and traditions, and work with Tatiana Potts, printmaker, who will guide us through a bookmaking workshop.

Date: Saturday, March 21Time: 12–2:30 p.m.Tickets: The event is free to attend, but tickets are limited. Secure your spot by registering!

Where to Park:

Limited free parking will be available in lot S9 next to the Art & Architecture building on Volunteer Boulevard across Circle Park and on S30 behind the museum. Check out the map on this page and the UTK parking website for more details.

Additional spots are available on Circle Park in approved public parking spaces for $2 per hour paid through the Park Mobile App. For more information about campus parking, please visit: https://parking.utk.edu/parking/visitors/.

Support for Homelands: Connecting to Mounds Through Native Art is provided by The Henry Luce Foundation and The Terra Foundation for American Art.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium. Additional support for this program has been provided by UT's School of Art.

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This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art, now on view at the McClung Museum. Langley's storytelling is featured as a part of the exhibition.

About the Speaker: Eli Langley is a member of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana. He is one of the youngest speakers of Koasati, his tribal language. He is also a traditional Koasati storyteller who has contributed to various programs across the country. He graduated from Harvard College with an AB in Government and History. He attended the Pre-Law Summer Institute for American Indians and Alaska Natives in 2023, and is now in his final semester of law school at Georgetown University. He plans to continue working in Federal Indian Law in Washington, D.C. after graduation.

Support for Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art is provided by The Henry Luce Foundation and The Terra Foundation for American Art.

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Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Four hundred and eighty-six years ago, there were at least twenty-five different languages spoken in what is now the southern United States. By 1900, that number had dropped to twenty. In 2026, only seven languages in the south have first-language speakers. Despite that decline, many tribes in the south are working hard to revitalize and reclaim their languages, whether by using historical documents, forming community classes and immersion schools, or using phone apps, chatbots, and automatic speech recognition. This talk considers ways universities can play a supporting role in language revitalization, language documentation, and language reclamation.

About the speaker: Jack Martin is Chancellor Professor of Linguistics and English at William & Mary in Virginia. He specializes in the Muskogean languages of the southern United States, especially Muscogee, Mikasuki, Choctaw, and Koasati. His publications include print and electronic dictionaries, text collections, reference grammars, and learning materials—works designed to document languages as they are spoken and to assist communities in creating new speakers.

This program is presented in conjunction with the exhibition, Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art, now on view at the McClung Museum. Support for Homelands is provided by The Henry Luce Foundation and The Terra Foundation for American Art.

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About the Instructor: Megan Fields just celebrated her 20th anniversary at UT and currently serves as the Director of Public Speaking. She also lives on campus as a sorority house director and enjoys supporting students. In her free time, she teaches yoga and meditation and enjoys reading and hiking. Her life goal is to share mindfulness practices to stay grounded in this fast-paced, distracted culture.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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The metal-rich landscapes of the Iberian Peninsula are frequently cited as a reason for the early Roman conquest of this territory, and the metals—which supplied Roman mints and became indispensable to urban infrastructure—are often used in discussions of economic growth. Although the monumental scale of Roman mining is widely recognized, the people who made mining possible have often been overlooked in scholarship. This paper explores once such mining community at the early imperial silver and copper mine of Riotinto (southwest Iberia) through the rich archaeological and epigraphic record that they left behind. I show that the Romans counted on a diverse population of local workers and newcomers, brought together by choice and by force, to mine at unprecedented depths. The community relied on long-established traditions, newly imported technologies, and local innovation, stimulated by the changing social and economic conditions Roman rule. Ultimately, I show that understanding local histories of labor and technology in the mining industry provides a window into the dynamics of empire in Iberia and the wider Roman world.

About the speaker: Linda is a Mediterranean archaeologist and historian specializing in Iron Age and Roman archaeology and social, economic, and environmental history. Her research centers on local responses to Roman imperialism in rural and industrial landscapes of the western Mediterranean (primarily Spain, Portugal, and Sardinia). She also has a secondary interest in Egypt. Linda studies the impact of empire on technology, craft production, labor practices, and everyday life in provincial communities. Much of her current scholarship is about the mining industry in Iron Age and Roman Iberia. Her work engages with broad questions about human-environment interaction, community and identity, labor history, mobility, and culture contact.

Linda's current fieldwork is in Sardinia, where she co-directs the Sinis Archaeological Project (SAP) and serves as a collaborator with the Progetto S'Urachi (Brown University) and the Migration and the Making of the Ancient Greek World Project (University of Vienna). SAP explores the diverse social and environmental factors impacting resource extraction, settlement patterns, and colonial interactions from the 1st millennium BCE through the Late Roman period. Previously, Linda has conducted fieldwork—including excavation, pedestrian survey, and ceramic analysis—in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, and the US.

At Texas Tech, Linda is the co-director of the Archaeology Program in Classics. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the anthropology program in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work. Linda holds a PhD from the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor prior to joining Texas Tech. Linda is on research leave until January 2025 as a member of the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) and an ACLS fellow.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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Tuesday, April 7, 9:30-11:00 a.m.

Join UT’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology graduate student Caitlin Jones and museum educators in this special program on spiders. We will learn about the general anatomy of the spider and its many hunting strategies, including different prey-capture techniques. Register for this session as we explore the world of spiders through a fun a lab and take-home craft.

Registration opens Friday, January 9

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About the speaker: Hannah Hoover is an archaeologist whose research lies at the intersection of anthropology, Native American and Indigenous studies, and museum studies. She uses material analyses and community-engaged methods to explore the daily decisions people make in settler colonial contexts in North America. Hoover’s primary research program is based in coastal South Carolina, with projects focused on the dynamics of daily life, kin and interaction networks, and land management strategies among the Yamasee Nation during the colonial period. As a Nashville native, Hoover enjoys rooting for the Volunteers, hiking, cooking, and spending time with her cats.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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Where: The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996

*Registration opens two weeks in advance of each program and is first come, first served--check back on this event page for registration and details.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium. This work is also supported in whole or in part by federal award number 21.027 awarded to Knox County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Arts & Culture Alliance.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Learn a little about mindfulness and then enjoy a guided meditation, so you can explore the practice as a way to improve concentration and manage the stress of your daily routine. All levels are welcome. Chairs will be provided, but guests may bring cushions, mats, or blankets. This program is presented by Kenton Yeager and UT's Mindfulness and Meditation Club.

About Meditation and Mindfulness: Mindfulness and Meditation is a UT student organization that promotes living a mindful lifestyle through awareness and meditation practices. Our goal is to give others the tools to create their own meditation practice.

About Kenton Yeager: Kenton Yeager is a certified advanced practice meditation teacher for the American Meditation Society, where he has also served as the President and Head of the Teacher Training program. He is a tenured professor at UT, where he heads the Graduate Theatrical Lighting Design Program. He also teaches courses in Meditation for Academic Success, Techniques for Unlocking the Creative Mind through Meditation and Visualization, and Understanding Anger and Fear. He also chaired the University’s Mindfulness Community of Scholars and is the faculty advisor for the Mindfulness and Meditation Club. Kenton has taught workshops on Mindfulness, Meditation, and opening the creative mind around the country at major conferences and events. He has been involved in meditation, visualization, and mindfulness techniques, as well as martial arts and eastern philosophy for the past 45 years.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

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Enjoy a light reception beginning at 5:00 p.m., followed by the discussion at 6:00 p.m.

This program accompanies the exhibition Homelands: Connecting to Mounds through Native Art, now on view at the McClung Museum. Support for Homelands is generously provided by the Henry Luce Foundation and the Terra Foundation for American Art. Educational programming for the museum has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

About the Speakers

RaeLynn A. Butler is a citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and serves as the Secretary of Culture and Humanities at the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She oversees the tribe’s efforts to promote, protect, and preserve Mvskoke and Euchee language, culture, history, arts, and cultural resources. She served as the manager of the Historic and Cultural Preservation Department for eight years and has extensive experience with repatriation and sacred lands protection. RaeLynn earned a Master of Science degree in Botany and Plant Pathology from Purdue University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Environmental Science from Haskell Indian Nations University.

Jonodev O. Chaudhuri serves as Ambassador of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, the fourth largest tribal nation in the United States, and among the first to enter into treaty relationships with the US. The creation of the Ambassador position in 2019 renewed a long tradition held by the Muscogee Nation, as well as tribal nations throughout the continent, of utilizing diplomats to engage with other sovereigns on a government-to-government basis. As Ambassador, Chaudhuri works with congress and federal agencies, as well as representatives of tribal nations, states, and other governments to advocate for and advance the interests of the Muscogee Nation. Chaudhuri is a lawyer by trade, with extensive experience representing tribal nations throughout the US. He has served as a judge for five different tribal nations, including serving as Chief Justice of the Muscogee Nation. Chaudhuri has also held policy positions within the federal government, including service as Chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission from 2013-2019, having been nominated by President Obama in 2013 and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. During his tenure as NIGC Chairman, Chaudhuri oversaw the $32.4B Indian gaming industry, comprised of approximately 500 gaming facilities, operated by 244 tribal nations across 29 states. Because of the unique structure of the Ambassador position, and in accordance with tribal law, Mr. Chaudhuri represents select tribal clients on matters that strengthen tribal sovereignty and economic opportunity throughout Indian country. His limited private practice helps him stay abreast of legal developments impacting tribal nations. His tenure as Ambassador of Muscogee (Creek) Nation has encompassed the Supreme Court's historic ruling in McGirt v. Oklahoma, wherein the Supreme Court ruled that the Muscogee (Creek) Nation's Reservation remains in existence. Since the issuance of this opinion on July 9, 2020, Ambassador Chaudhuri has been tasked with meeting with world leaders, U.S. Attorney Generals, Members of Congress, and other leaders of various sovereigns, tribal nations, and state governments as the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has worked to implement one of the most seminal Supreme Court rulings since the Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

Mary Kathryn Nagle is an enrolled citizen of the Cherokee Nation. She is an attorney whose work focuses on the restoration of tribal sovereignty and the inherent right of Indian Nations to protect their women and children from domestic violence and sexual assault. From 2015 to 2019, she served as the first Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts Program. Nagle is an alum of the 2013 Public Theater Emerging Writers Program. She has received commissions from Arena Stage, the Rose Theater (Omaha, Nebraska), Portland Center Stage, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Yale Repertory Theatre, Round House Theater, Oregon Shakespeare Theater, and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre. She also works in film and television. Most recently she served as an Associate Producer on the film PREY and a writer on the Netflix series ABANDONS. She is most well known for her work on ending violence against Native women. Her play Sliver of a Full Moon has been performed in law schools from Stanford to Harvard, NYU and Yale. She has worked extensively on Violence Against Women Act re-authorization, and she has filed numerous briefs in the United States Supreme Court, as a part of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center’s VAWA Sovereignty Initiative, including most recently, Denezpi v. United States, United States v. Cooley, Oklahoma v. Murphy, Oklahoma v. McGirt, Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta, Brackeen v. Haaland, and United States v. Rahimi. She represents numerous families of Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, including Kaysera Stops Pretty Places’ family who have brought a public campaign demanding an investigation into her murder. More can be read here: www.justiceforkaysera.org. In 2025, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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About the Instructor: Megan Fields just celebrated her 20th anniversary at UT and currently serves as the Director of Public Speaking. She also lives on campus as a sorority house director and enjoys supporting students. In her free time, she teaches yoga and meditation and enjoys reading and hiking. Her life goal is to share mindfulness practices to stay grounded in this fast-paced, distracted culture.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Where: The McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture 1327 Circle Park Drive, Knoxville, TN 37996

*Registration opens two weeks in advance of each program and is first come, first served.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium. This work is also supported in whole or in part by federal award number 21.027 awarded to Knox County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Arts & Culture Alliance.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Learn a little about mindfulness and then enjoy a guided meditation, so you can explore the practice as a way to improve concentration and manage the stress of your daily routine. All levels are welcome. Chairs will be provided, but guests may bring cushions, mats, or blankets. This program is presented by Kenton Yeager and UT's Mindfulness and Meditation Club.

About Meditation and Mindfulness: Mindfulness and Meditation is a UT student organization that promotes living a mindful lifestyle through awareness and meditation practices. Our goal is to give others the tools to create their own meditation practice.

About Kenton Yeager: Kenton Yeager is a certified advanced practice meditation teacher for the American Meditation Society, where he has also served as the President and Head of the Teacher Training program. He is a tenured professor at UT, where he heads the Graduate Theatrical Lighting Design Program. He also teaches courses in Meditation for Academic Success, Techniques for Unlocking the Creative Mind through Meditation and Visualization, and Understanding Anger and Fear. He also chaired the University’s Mindfulness Community of Scholars and is the faculty advisor for the Mindfulness and Meditation Club. Kenton has taught workshops on Mindfulness, Meditation, and opening the creative mind around the country at major conferences and events. He has been involved in meditation, visualization, and mindfulness techniques, as well as martial arts and eastern philosophy for the past 45 years.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event

Drop in with any fiber art or craft-related project and join us for an hour of creativity on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month! Bring your work in progress, or learn to crochet, knit, or embroider with materials that we have on hand. All skill levels welcome.

The craft circle takes place every 2nd and 4th Tuesday of the month.

Funding for the McClung Museum’s educational programming has been provided by the Knox County Tourism Consortium.

View on site | Email this event