Kaitlin Stack Whitney Headshot

Kaitlin Stack Whitney

Assistant Professor

Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts
Extended Faculty Member

585-475-6604
Office Hours
Spring 2024 office hours TBD
Office Location

Kaitlin Stack Whitney

Assistant Professor

Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts
Extended Faculty Member

Education

BS, Cornell University; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Bio

Dr. Stack Whitney (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Science & Technology Studies department in the College of Liberal Arts. She leads the SWEET Collaborative (the Stack / Whitney Col(lab)orative of Entomology, Environment, and Technology), working with RIT undergraduate and graduate student collaborators, RIT faculty, as well as faculty and students at other universities and non-academics across North America. She is committed to participatory, intersectional, and feminist approaches to pressing environmental questions. https://www.rit.edu/sweetlab/

Her research is at the intersection of policy, animal studies, and ecosystem services - often, but not always, with insects as focal organisms. She uses a range of tools, ranging from museum specimens to observational fieldwork to coding big data. These approaches include methods from science (ecology and ecoinformatics) and science studies (feminist biology and modern environmental history).

Before coming to RIT, Dr. Stack Whitney worked for the nonprofit CNFA on the US Department of Agriculture's Farmer to Farmer Program in Eastern Europe and Washington DC, as well as the US Environmental Protection Agency Office of International & Tribal Affairs and Office of Pesticide Programs.

Dr. Stack Whitney has a professional and personal commitment to inclusive and accessible pedagogy, research, and outreach for learners of all ages. She works on issues of "open" scholarship - including researching and writing on ethical and institutional barriers to openness. She lives in a bilingual ASL/English household and continues to take ASL courses through NTID.

585-475-6604

Areas of Expertise

Select Scholarship

https://www.rit.edu/sweetlab/

Currently Teaching

BIOL-495
1 - 4 Credits
This course is a faculty-directed student project or research involving laboratory or field work, computer modeling, or theoretical calculations that could be considered of an original nature. The level of study is appropriate for students in their final two years of study.
ENVS-298
1 - 4 Credits
This course is a faculty-directed tutorial of appropriate topics that are not part of the formal curriculum. The level of study is appropriate for student in their first three years of study.
ENVS-790
1 - 4 Credits
The thesis option will be available to environmental science graduate students only with prior written approval of program faculty. Students will submit a proposal to a faculty member who agrees to serve as the student's thesis committee chair. The proposal will describe the basic research question to be investigated and the experimental protocols to be employed. Proposals will be reviewed by the program faculty who will give permission to register for thesis credit. This course may be taken several times over the course of a student's graduate program, for variable credits. A written thesis and oral defense are required at the completion of the thesis research.
ENVS-791
0 Credits
Continuation of Thesis
ENVS-795
1 - 4 Credits
This course is a graduate level, faculty-directed, student project or research involving laboratory or field work, computer modeling, or theoretical calculations that could be considered of an original nature. The level of study is appropriate for students in Environmental Science graduate program.
ENVS-798
1 - 4 Credits
This course is a faculty-directed tutorial of appropriate topics that are not part of the formal curriculum. The level of study is appropriate for student in the Environmental Science graduate program.
STSO-120
3 Credits
This course explores the human condition within an environmental context by emphasizing critical environmental problems facing humans on both a global and regional scale. The approach will be interdisciplinary. The issues, their causes, and their potential solutions will be analyzed with respect to ethical, social, historical, political, scientific, and technological factors.
STSO-220
3 Credits
This course introduces the interdisciplinary foundations of environmental science via an analysis of sustainability within a socio-cultural context. This is a required course for the environmental science degree program.
STSO-510
3 Credits
This course is an upper-level undergraduate seminar that explores how science, technology, society, environment and policy are understood in contemporary and historical contexts. The course brings together a variety of views and readings to offer an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the complex ways in which citizens make and understand the world. (Enrollment in Department of STS/Public Policy)

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