Kaitlin Stack Whitney Headshot

Kaitlin Stack Whitney

Assistant Professor

Department of Science, Technology, and Society
College of Liberal Arts
Extended Faculty Member
kxwsbi@rit.edu
585-475-6604
Office Hours
Fall 2023 - 11:30am-1:30pm Thursdays and by appointment
Office Location
EAS-1354

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.

kxwsbi@rit.edu
585-475-6604
Personal Links
Personal Website
ORCID
Google Scholar
Areas of Expertise
insects
ecology
novel ecosystems
environmental policy
critical open studies
animal studies
pollinators

Currently Teaching

BIOL-495
Advanced Biology Research
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
Environmental Science Independent Study
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
Environmental Science Thesis
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
Continuation of Thesis
0 Credits
Continuation of Thesis
ENVS-795
Environmental Science Graduate Research
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
Advanced Environmental Science Independent Study
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.
ITDL-151H
Explorations of Place and Space
3 Credits
This honors seminar is a foundational course that examines how our social worlds are linked to our natural and built worlds. The corresponding emphasis on inquiry, analysis, and interpretation facilitates student-engaged learning. In exploring pertinent place and space related issues/topics through an experiential, active, and site-specific curricular focused learning, various aspects of the human condition are discovered. The theme or topic of this honors seminar, as chosen by the instructor, is announced in the subtitle as well as course notes and is developed in the syllabus. The honors seminar integrates the required Year One curriculum.
STSO-120
Introduction to Environmental Studies
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
Environment and Society
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-422
Great Lakes
3 Credits
This course utilizes the Great Lakes Basin as an integrating context for understanding global environmental issues. Examining the basin through an interdisciplinary environmental lens the class applies social science approaches to environmental problem solving. Students assess the local, regional, national and international scope of Great Lakes environmental issues through lecture, role-play, and field experiences and consider the importance of government action, public policy, ethics, economics, sociology, history, and engineering while applying social science analysis skills such as surveys, interviews, and content analysis to better understand the depth of local environmental problems and their potential solutions. Environmental science majors prepare a proposal for an environmental consulting project.
STSO-510
Interdisciplinary Capstone Seminar
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)
STSO-521
Biodiversity and Society
3 Credits
This course explores the problems, issues, and values stemming from the current massive loss of biodiversity. Various justifications for preserving or conserving biodiversity will be examined. Although principals of conservation biology are presented, the social/cultural dimensions of the issue will be emphasized.
STSO-621
Graduate Biodiversity and Society
3 Credits
This course explores the problems, issues, and values stemming from the current massive loss of biodiversity. Various justifications for preserving or conserving biodiversity will be examined. Although principals of conservation biology are presented, the social/cultural dimensions of the issue will be emphasized.

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