Episode 2.8: Environmental Justice and the Anthropocene

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In this episode we talk about Indigenous environmental justice with Dr. Kyle Whyte, George Willis Pack Professor of Environment and Sustainability at University of Michigan, and a citizen of the Potawatomi Nation. The conversation begins by outlining the difference between being Indigenous as a political identity and being from a specific Indigenous nation, and continues by expanding our notions of kinship networks and the ways these play a role in struggles for environmental justice. We end the conversation by getting Kyle's thoughts on how students can become better allies to the Indigenous environmental justice movement.


Host

Peter Andrée
Professor, Department of Political Science, Carleton University

Host

Ryan M. Katz-Rosene
Assistant Professor, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa

Guest

Kyle Whyte
George Willis Pack Professor of Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan

Guest Bio

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Guest Bio

Kyle Whyte

Kyle Whyte is George Willis Pack Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan, serving as a faculty member of the environmental justice specialization. Previously, Kyle was Professor and Timnick Chair in the Department of Philosophy and Department of Community Sustainability at Michigan State University. Kyle’s research addresses moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples, the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and science organizations, and problems of Indigenous justice in public and academic discussions of food sovereignty, environmental justice, and the anthropocene. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. Kyle has partnered with numerous Tribes, First Nations and inter-Indigenous organizations in the Great Lakes region and beyond on climate change planning, education and policy. He is involved in a number of projects and organizations that advance Indigenous research methodologies, including the Climate and Traditional Knowledges Workgroup, Sustainable Development Institute of the College of Menominee Nation, Tribal Climate Camp, and Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga. He has served as an author on reports by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and is a former member of the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science and the Michigan Environmental Justice Work Group. Kyle's work has received the Bunyan Bryant Award for Academic Excellence from Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice and MSU's Distinguished Partnership and Engaged Scholarship awards, and grants from the National Science Foundation.