STS Speaker. Indigenous Climate Change Studies and Justice: Indigenizing Futures, Decolonizing the Anthropocene

Indigenous peoples are creating an STS-related field to support their own capacities to address anthropogenic (human-caused) climate change. Indigenous studies often reflect the memories and realms of knowledge that arise from Indigenous peoples’ living heritages as societies with stories, lessons, and long histories of having to be well-organized to adapt to seasonal and inter-annual environmental changes. At the same time, our societies have been heavily disrupted by colonialism, capitalism, and industrialization. Through discussing the themes unique to Indigenous climate change studies, I will claim that Indigenous studies offer critical decolonizing approaches by which to address climate change and achieve climate justice. These approaches arise from how our ways of imagining the future guide our present actions. The presentation will cover and integrate a range of topics, from the Dakota Access Pipeline to the Indigenous science movement to Indigenous science fiction imagination.

Kyle Whyte (Potawatomi) holds the Timnick Chair in the Humanities at Michigan State University. He is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Community Sustainability, a faculty member of the Environmental Philosophy & Ethics graduate concentration, and a faculty affiliate of the American Indian Studies and Environmental Science & Policy programs. His primary research addresses moral and political issues concerning climate policy and Indigenous peoples and the ethics of cooperative relationships between Indigenous peoples and climate science organizations.