Please note: This event has been canceled.
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A lecture by Kyle Whyte on the importance and opportunities for land-grant universities to collaborate with indigenous peoples and indigenous knowledge systems will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, April 6, in Foster Auditorium, 102 Paterno Library on Penn State’s University Park campus. Whyte’s talk, sponsored by the Interinstitutional Center for Indigenous Knowledge, will also be available for public viewing at live.libraries.psu.edu.
Whyte, who holds the Timnick Chair in the Humanities at Michigan State University, will present “Why Indigenous Knowledge Systems Matter for U.S. Land-Grant Universities: Responsibilities and Challenges.” An associate professor of philosophy and community sustainability, he is also a faculty member of the environmental philosophy and ethics graduate concentration and a faculty affiliate of the American Indian and indigenous studies and the environmental science and policy programs.
Collaboration with indigenous communities presents important opportunities for university-based researchers to contribute to solving some of the hardest problems in the world. In the context of the United States, Whyte will discuss the potential, the responsibilities and challenges for land-grant universities creating programs and seeking greater engagement with indigenous peoples and indigenous knowledge systems, especially in states where no federally recognized tribes currently exist.
During his talk, Whyte, an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawotami Nation, will also provide the history of interactions between indigenous knowledge systems and science and present case examples from his own areas of research. Whyte’s research, teaching, training and activism address moral and political issues concerning climate policy in regards to indigenous peoples and the ethics of cooperative relationships between indigenous peoples and climate science organizations.
For more information on this event, or for questions about accommodations or the physical access provided, contact Mark Mattson, global partnerships and outreach librarian, at 814-863-2480 or mam1196@psu.edu in advance of your visit.