2026 Indigenous Peoples' & Environmental Justice Lecture

Hope College will host a lecture titled “A Case for Why Indigenous Peoples are Leaders in Biodiversity Conservation Globally” on Tues., Nov. 10 at 3:30 p.m. in the concert hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts. The public is invited and admission is free.

Delivering the lecture will be Dr. Kyle Whyte, faculty member at the University of Michigan as the George Willis Pack Professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability and University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. Dr. Whyte is preparing a compelling presentation as part of Hope’s annual Indigenous Peoples’ & Environmental Justice Lecture event. He’ll focus on Indigenous peoples' actions to address the conservation of biodiversity and continue to achieve meaningful effects, impacting the United Nations, multinational industries, regional governance, and national laws, policies, and investments.  Doors will open at 3:15 p.m., and a Q&A panel discussion will follow the presentation.

About Dr. Kyle Whyte 
On campus, Dr. Whyte teaches and coordinates the school’s environmental justice graduate specialization. He is founding faculty director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment; principal investigator of the Environmental Justice + Humanities Hub; co-principal investigator of the Global Center for Climate Change and Transboundary Waters; faculty associate of Native American Studies; principal investigator of the Secretariat for the Pathways Alliance for Change and Transformation; STRIDE Committee member; affiliate professor of philosophy, and senior fellow in the Michigan Society of Fellows. 

His research on environmental justice centers on moral and political issues indigenous peoples address in the areas of climate change, conservation and cooperative relationships with science institutions. He is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. His publications appear in journals such as Climatic Change, Weather, Climate & Society, Science, Daedalus, WIREs Climate Change, Environment & Planning E: Nature & Space and Sustainability Science.