Martha Kirpes, PhD, is the curriculum and outreach coordinator at The Program on Intergroup Relations. As a member of the teaching team for courses originally invented to help student in their first year to make the most of Michigan and to prepare upper-level undergraduates to facilitate. Martha recruits students and faciliators, updates curriculum based on course feedback, and mentors facilitators. She also provides academic advising for those pursuing the Minor in intergroup relations education.
Martha comes to social justice education by way of her research in environmental justice and global climate change. She earned her PhD at the U-M School of Natual Resources & Environment, with her dissertation entitled "Bringing environmental justice to natural hazards: An earthquake vulnerability and reconstruction case comparison from India, 1990-1998." She shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize as a contributing author. (2001. Climate Change 2001: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Chapter 11 Asia. Third Assessment Report, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.)
Recent presentations and publications
- Kirpes, Martha P., and Cesar Vargas. Apr. 22, 2025. "Your Place in Nature" at UM Earth Day in the Arb.