The University of Michigan Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) has awarded $450,000 in grants across eight research teams to explore persistent racial disparities embedded in systems ranging from health, education and wealth to criminal justice and infrastructure. Kyle Whyte, the George Willis Pack Professor at the School for Environment and Sustainability, is a team lead for one of the selected projects, which focuses on Indigenous peoples and climate injustice.

These grants are jointly administered and advanced in partnership with the National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Anti-Racism Collaborative.

This is the second cycle of antiracism grants awarded to U-M researchers since OVPR launched its Research Catalyst and Innovation Program last year.

The grants will support a wide range of research projects, ranging from the examination of political representation among Puerto Ricans, Indigenous people’s experiences of climate injustice, and the link between discrimination and mental health in Asian youth.

Below is a summary of Whyte's anti-racism research project:

Does Critical Reflection about Institutionalized Racism and Climate Change Promote Critical Action among Indigenous Peoples in the U.S.?

Team leads: Stephanie Fryberg (Department of Psychology, LSA; Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center; Tulalip Tribes), Laura Brady (Department of Psychology, LSA; Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center), Adam Farero (Department of Psychology, LSA; Research for Indigenous Social Action and Equity Center; Bay Mills Indian Community) and Kyle Whyte (School for Environment and Sustainability; Citizen Potawatomi Nation)

Goal: The team will explore Indigenous people’s experiences of and responses to climate injustice. Extending past literature on critical race consciousness, they will examine Indigenous people’s engagement in critical climate action, as well as the psychological and cultural factors that motivate this action.

Read more about the anti-racism projects in the University Record