Kaitlin Stack Whitney
Assistant Professor
Kaitlin Stack Whitney
Assistant Professor
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.
Select Scholarship
https://www.rit.edu/sweetlab/
Currently Teaching
In the News
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March 17, 2022
RIT scientists part of massive study on clover showing urbanization drives adaptive evolution
RIT contributed to a massive study on a tiny roadside weed that shows urbanization is leading to adaptive evolution at a global scale. As part of the Global Urban Evolution Project (GLUE) project, scientists from 160 cities across six continents collected more than 110,000 samples of white clover plants in urban, suburban, and rural areas to study urbanization’s effects on the plants.
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October 4, 2021
RIT researchers part of $15 million NSF grant aimed at reducing food waste
A $15 million grant from the National Science Foundation will be used to establish the first national academic research network on wasted food in the United States. Under the grant, researchers from American University will lead 13 other institutions, including RIT, in a five-year project.
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June 25, 2019
An unstoppable partnership: Seneca Park Zoo and RIT
ZooNooz, a publication by the Seneca Park Zoo, highlights projects with RIT.