To Ryan Emanuel, water is personal.
Emanuel is an environmental scientist who teaches courses in hydrology, environmental justice and Indigenous land and water issues at Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. A member of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, he believes water and life are inextricably linked.
As he says about his research: “We can’t live without water, it flows through living and non-living parts of the environment, and significant life experiences involve water and watery places.”
Emanuel grew up in Charlotte, about two hours from Robeson County, N.C., where the Lumbee Tribe is based. He was the first in his family to attend integrated schools.
His work is headquartered in the Duke River Center, where his lab and three other groups examine different aspects of water ecosystems. And his findings don’t reside in dusty academic journals; he is an outspoken public intellectual who works with tribal governments and indigenous groups to address issues around environmental justice and amplify marginalized voices that bear disproportionate weight of environmental burdens.
In 2019, he was honored by the NC Environmental Justice Network for work he did that ultimately helped defeat the controversial proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline project.
He often gives presentations about his work, and journalists seek him out to make complicated environmental concepts clearer. He has authored more than 50 academic articles. His new book, “On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice,” explores native American life in the swamps and streams of eastern North Carolina.
He was a member of the 2020-2022 class of the William C. Friday Fellowship for Human Relations, a program that prepares North Carolinians to address the state’s most pressing issues through dialogue.
Prior to joining Duke in 2021, Emanuel taught at Appalachian State University and N.C. State and received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.
