PEMBROKE – Hydrologist and community-engaged scholar Dr. Ryan E. Emanuel will speak at UNC Pembroke on Thursday, September 5, as part of the Native American Speakers Series.
A river clean up and water quality testing will be held on Friday, September 6. Admission is free and open to the public. Dr. Emanuel will discuss and sign copies of his new book, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice, at 6:30 p.m. in the Museum of the Southeast American Indian in Old Main.
An associate professor of hydrology at Duke University, Dr. Emanuel, an enrolled citizen of the Lumbee Tribe, studies ecohydrology, biogeosciences, environmental justice and Indigenous rights. He leads a group of researchers and scholars who study water and watery places in North Carolina and beyond. The group partners with Native American tribes and other communities to understand environmental change through the lenses of ecological justice and Indigenous rights. Their work involves research, education and relationship-building. Emanuel aims to amplify the voices of Indigenous and other marginalized communities who shoulder disproportionate environmental burdens.
In On the Swamp, Emanuel shares stories from North Carolina about Indigenous survival and resilience in the face of radical environmental changes. Addressing issues from the loss of wetlands to the arrival of gas pipelines, these stories connect the dots between historic patterns of Indigenous oppression and present-day efforts to promote environmental justice and Indigenous rights on the swamp. His scientific insight and deeply personal connections to his home blend into a book that is both a heartfelt and an analytical call to acknowledge and protect sacred places.
In conjunction with Emanuel’s visit and collaboration with the Winyah Rivers Alliance, UNCP’s Office of Leadership, Learning and Community will host the River Cleanup and Water Quality Testing Day of Service on September 6. The event will be held from 10 a.m. until noon, with participants departing from 901 Dogwood Lane at 10 a.m. To learn more and sign up to volunteer, visit https://serve.uncp.edu/rivercleanup.
Learn more about On the Swamp by visiting uncpress.org/book/9781469678320/on-the-swamp
The Native American Speakers Series is sponsored by the Department of American Indian Studies and Southeast American Indian Studies. For more information about the Native American Speakers Series, please visit uncp.edu/departments/ais/native-speakers-series or call 910.521.6266.
