Kyle Powys Whyte is an Indigenous philosopher and climate/

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

scholar. He is a Professor of Environment and Sustainability and George Willis Pack Professor at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

's School for Environment and Sustainability. Whyte formally served as the Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

's College of Arts & Letters.

Early life and education

Whyte is Potawatomi and an enrolled member of the

Citizen Potawatomi Nation Citizen Potawatomi Nation is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people located in Oklahoma. The Potawatomi are traditionally an Algonquian languages, Algonquian-speaking Eastern Woodlands tribes, Eastern Woodlands tribe. They have 29,155 e ...

. After graduating with his undergraduate degree in business administration from

Babson College Babson College is a Private university, private business school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States specializing in entrepreneurship education. Founded in 1919 by Roger Babson, the college was established as the Babson Institute in his We ...

, Whyte became more involved in the humanities and justice. He then earned his

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the

University of Memphis The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public university, public research university in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 20,000 students. The university maintains the Herff Col ...

and PhD from

Stony Brook University Stony Brook University (SBU), officially the State University of New York at Stony Brook, is a public university, public research university in Stony Brook, New York, United States, on Long Island. Along with the University at Buffalo, it is on ...

. While earning his PhD, Whyte was a recipient of one of the 2009 K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders Awards.

Career

Upon graduating with his PhD in 2009, Whyte accepted a faculty position at

(MSU) and began working with Chris Caldwell at the College of Menominee Nation's Sustainable Development Institute. As an

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

of Philosophy and Community Sustainability at MSU, he encouraged collaborative work between politicians, climate scientists, environmentalists, and Indigenous peoples to address global warming. As part of his efforts, Whyte also helped author the fourth National Climate Assessment, worked with the US Global Change Research Program, and served on various environmental boards including the National Indian Youth Council, the Pesticide Action Network, and the U.S. Federal Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science. In recognition of his "collaborative work with individuals and organizations across Michigan as they work to address the impacts of global warming on the continued existence of cultures, societies, and ways of life," Whyte received the 2015 Bunyan Bryant Award. In January 2015, Whyte was appointed the inaugural Timnick Chair in the Humanities in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University. While serving in this role, he collaborated with researchers from MSU’s College of Natural Science and Wisconsin's College of Menominee Nation Sustainable Development Institute to "foster better relations between tribes and scientific organizations when dealing with climate change." He later received an award from the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

’s NSF INCLUDES program for his project "Integrating Indigenous and Western Knowledge to Transform Learning and Discovery in the Geosciences." During the 2019–20 academic year, his final year at MSU, Whyte was promoted to the rank of

Full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a 'person who professes'. Professors ...

. Later, Whyte and Caldwell were co-recipients of MSU's Community Engagement Scholarship Award for their work together. He also earned the Distinguished Partnership Award for Community-Engaged Research. Whyte left MSU in 2020 to accept the George Willis Pack Professorship at the

's School for Environment & Sustainability. Whyte is also an affiliate of the Science, Technology, and Public Policy (STPP) program through the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whyte, Kyle Powys Living people Michigan State University faculty University of Michigan faculty Stony Brook University alumni University of Memphis alumni Babson College alumni First Nations academics Year of birth missing (living people) Citizen Potawatomi Nation people American environmentalists Native American environmentalists Environmental justice scholars