Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the best-selling nonfiction book “Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants,” will deliver the inaugural address for the Furman Humanities Center Distinguished Lecture Series on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at 6:45 p.m. in McAlister Auditorium on the Furman University campus. The event is free and open to the public and is part of Furman’s Cultural Life Program.

Named among Time Magazine’s Most Influential People of 2025, Kimmerer, a 2022 MacArthur Fellow, is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation and is the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She is the Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Her talk, “Just Environments, Native Futures, and Braiding Sweetgrass,” draws from her 2013 book, “Braiding Sweetgrass,” which won the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award, and her latest work, “The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World.”

Her presentation invites people to reflect on how they might use their human gifts and responsibilities in support of mutual thriving in a time of ecological crisis, said Michele Speitz, director of the Furman Humanities Center and professor of English literature.

Karen Allen, associate professor of sustainability science and anthropology, and Jason Levitt ’26, public health major and president of Furman’s Native American and Indigenous Peoples Association, will introduce Kimmerer.

Allen believes Kimmerer’s work offers hope in trying times. “Kimmerer asks us to do what we do best in the Furman community and a liberal arts world: to think from another perspective, to imagine the question we haven’t yet learned how to ask,” she said.

“As someone who’s living out my own journey reconnecting with my Indigenous roots and understanding health and wellness, I find Dr. Kimmerer’s teachings inspiring,” said Levitt, a 2025 Udall Scholar. “Her work reminds us that healing, whether it’s people or the planet, begins with relationship, respect and reciprocity.”

Kimmerer’s books have won wide critical acclaim. In addition to “The Serviceberry” and “Braiding Sweetgrass,” she is author of children’s book “Bud Finds Her Gift,” and her first book, “Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses,” was awarded the John Burroughs Medal for outstanding natural history writing. Other works have appeared in Orion and Whole Terrain as well as in numerous scientific journals.

In 2022, “Braiding Sweetgrass” was adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith. The new edition reinforces Kimmerer’s belief that greater ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth’s oldest teachers: the plants around us.

Sponsors for Kimmerer’s visit include The Shi Institute for Sustainable Communities and the departments of Earth, Environmental, and Sustainability Sciences; English; and Religion; and the Environmental Studies Interdisciplinary Minor. The Furman Humanities Center acknowledges generous support from the Head, Reid and Sisk Endowed Lecture Funds.

Following Kimmerer’s address and brief Q&A session, Furman will join M. Judson Booksellers for a book signing session.