Keohane Visiting Professor to Explore Environmental Justice in Indigenous Communities

Kyle Whyte has been appointed the 2026-27 Nannerl Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor at Duke and UNC-Chapel Hill. A noted scholar and a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, he’ll engage with students and faculty at both campuses and present a series of public lectures open to the community.

Whyte’s environmental justice research focuses on the moral and political issues that Indigenous peoples are addressing with regard to climate change, conservation and cooperative relationships with science institutions. 

At the University of Michigan, he is the George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment & Sustainability and the University Diversity & Social Transformation Professor. 

In October, RISE-US (Research for Indigenous Studies & Engagement in the United States) at Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics and the UNC American Indian Center will host his first visit in coordination with Crandall Family Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology Courtney Lewis. 

The second visit will take place at UNC in February. In March, Whyte will return for a visit hosted by Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment in coordination with Professor of Hydrology Ryan Emanuel. 

Public Lecture on Oct. 7

Whyte will present his first public lecture, “How Indigenous Peoples’ Actions to Address Climate Change Scale Up,” on Wednesday, October 7, at 5:30 p.m. at Duke’s Nasher Museum of Art in Durham. A reception will follow at 6:30, and there is free parking. Learn more and register for the event.

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More About Kyle Whyte

At Michigan, Whyte is founding faculty director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment as well as principal investigator of the Environmental Justice + Humanities Hub.

He has served as a U.S. Science Envoy and as a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, the Department of the Interior’s Advisory Committee on Climate Change and Natural Resource Science, and two environmental justice work groups convened by Michigan governors. 

Whyte’s publications appear in journals such as Climatic Change, Weather, Climate & Society, Science, Daedalus, WIREs Climate Change, Environment & Planning E: Nature and Space, and Sustainability Science. 

Among his many honors, he has received the Superior Teaching Award from his school’s Student Governing Board, the Community Engagement Scholarship Award and Distinguished Partnership Award for Community Engaged Research from Michigan State, the Bunyan Bryant Award for Academic Excellence from Detroiters Working for Environmental Justice, the Breaking Barriers Award from the Michigan Democratic Party, and the Forty Under 40 Alumni Award and Don Ihde Distinguished Alumni Award from Stony Brook.

About the Keohane Professorship

The Nannerl Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professorship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University was created in 2004 by James Moeser, who served as UNC’s chancellor at the time. It recognizes Keohane’s contributions during her term as Duke’s president and seeks to strengthen the collaboration she and Moeser built between the two institutions.

The professorship was funded by the late Josie and Julian Robertson (parents of Spencer Robertson, Duke ’98, and Alex Robertson, UNC ’01) and the William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. 

Last year’s recipient was Kelly Lytle Hernández, who explored U.S. immigration history.