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
Kaitlin Stack Whitney. 2024. Thinking with Termites about Fractious Futures for Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in the United States. Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience 10 (2): 1- 25. https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v10i1.41952
Kaitlin Stack Whitney and Kristoffer Whitney. 2024. Squished bugs: teaching and learning reflexivity in ecology. Environmental Humanities 16 (1): 211–229. https://doi.org/10.1215/22011919-10943169
Kaitlin Stack Whitney. 2023. Ladybugs: The (Natural) Enemy of My Enemy Is My Friend? Enlisting Ladybugs into the War on Insect Pests. Catalyst: feminism, theory, technoscience 9 (1): 1-11. https://doi.org/10.28968/cftt.v9i1.38252
Please see https://www.rit.edu/sweetlab/publications for more information.
Currently Teaching
In the News
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May 8, 2024
More than monarchs: Red admirals appear in Rochester with spring
The Democrat and Chronicle talks to Kaitlin Stack Whitney, assistant professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society, about the early arrival and habits of the red admiral butterfly in Monroe County, highlighting its migration patterns, habitat range, and behavior.
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March 18, 2024
Does the warm winter mean we will see mosquitoes earlier in NY?
The Democrat and Chronicle talks to Kaitlin Stack Whitney, assistant professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society.
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June 12, 2023
Exploring the complexities of using ladybugs as pest control
In an attempt to limit the use of chemical pesticides and promote native species on their land, some gardeners have begun purchasing ladybugs as a form of “natural” pest control. However, Assistant Professor Kaitlin Stack Whitney says that buying ladybugs online, as opposed to attracting them naturally, can cause more harm than good.
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December 18, 2024
Stack Whitney publishes poem in ‘Consilience’
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October 30, 2024
Stack Whitney publishes article in Catalyst
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May 6, 2024
Stack Whitney awarded faculty grant
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April 2, 2024
Faculty members publish in environmental journal