On the swamp: Indigenous environmental justice across North Carolina’s coastal plain

As part of the Water Institute's WaterTalks lecture series, Dr. Ryan Emmanuel, Associate Professor of Hydrology, Duke University, North Carolina, US, will present: On the swamp: Indigenous environmental justice across North Carolina’s coastal plain.

This event is in person in DC 1302 with a networking lunch reception to follow in DC 1301 (The Fishbowl).

More information

Despite centuries of settler colonialism, Lumbee people and their Indigenous neighbors still occupy parts of their ancestral homelands among forested swamps, sandy plains, and blackwater streams of present-day North Carolina. Amid these backwaters, Indigenous communities have adapted to a radically transformed world while preserving cultures and connections to place.  In recent decades, pollution, unsustainable development, and climate change have quickened the transformation of their homelands and threatened the future of their communities. In this talk, I share stories from about Indigenous survival, adaptation, and resurgence across North Carolina’s Coastal Plain in a time of rapid environmental change. These stories convey broader lessons about environmental justice and Indigenous rights, including lessons for environmental scientists whose work may benefit from deeper consideration of these concepts.

Speaker Bio

Ryan Emanuel is an associate professor of hydrology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and he is an enrolled member of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. At Duke, Emanuel leads a research group that studies the impacts of climate change, pollution, and unsustainable development on water, ecosystems, and society. His group also partners with Indigenous communities to understand environmental change through the lenses of environmental justice and Indigenous rights. Before joining Duke in 2022, Emanuel was a professor of hydrology at North Carolina State University. His book, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice was published in 2024 by the University of North Carolina Press.