Short presentation

I'm an 'undisciplined' social scientist working in the broad field of political ecology (inspired by e.g. Armiero, Barca and Velicu's 2019 Minifesto), with research experience in multiple sites, from the urban sustainability agendas of Copenhagen, Denmark to the European Union policy realm and practices aimed at preventing trade of illegal forest products, to struggles over control of community forests in Nepal. Most recently, I am researching Danish and European agriculture, specifically regarding, i) sustainability praxis across agricultural education paradigms through the 3-yr project FEAST (Farming Education and the Agricultural Sustainable Transition) , and ii) the nexus of animal production and the rise of infectious diseases through the 4-yr project PANDEMEAT (Pandemic Entanglements: The Political Ecology of Industrial Meat Production in the ‘Pandemic Era’) with partners from the University of Oslo. I'm inspired by research and education in relation to social, environmental, and ecological justice and feminist political ecology, and by the pluriversal degrowth global movement. Other activities include serving as a handling editor within the the Degrowth journal editorial collective, as an elected facuty representative at my institute, and as a member of our institute's diversity, equity, and inclusion committee.  

I am a Course Responsible for Motivation and Pro-Environmental Behaviour: Managing Change (MSc), Gender, Environment, and Sustainable Development (MSc), Natur og Landskabspolitik (Nature and Landscape Policy and Politics; BA) and I co-teach Environmental Justice (MSc). I recently co-organized the PhD courses Degrowth and socioecological justice across disciplines (2024 & 2025);  Degrowth: Foundations in Theory (2021), and Degrowth Praxis (2021). I frequently guest lecture on topics such as rethinking and rebuilding the economy (as 'care-full' economies), food sovereignty, utopianism and change-making, and I am moving into conversations on queer ecologies, and masculinities.

Selected publications

Illuminating the care/repair nexus in the ‘pandemic era’, and the potential for care beyond repair in Danish poultry production / Rutt, R.L. & Skriver Møller, A., 2024. Agriculture and Human Values. 

Killing with care? The potentials at the sustainability/masculinity nexus in an ‘alternative’ Danish slaughterhouse / Rutt, R.L. & Tjørring, L. 2024. Agriculture and Human Values. 

Animal geographies of industrial animal agriculture in the Pandemic Era: the tragedy and insecurity of multispecies ethnography / Mc Loughlin, E., Rutt, R.L., Nielsen, N.D. & Skriver Møller, A. 2024. Scottish Geographical Journal.

Growing up sustainable? Politics of race and youth in Urbanplan, Copenhagen / Ritts, M. & Rutt, R.L. 2023. Urban Geography.

The "brother layer" problem: Routine killing, biotechnology and the pursuit of ‘ethical sustainability’ in industrial poultry / Rutt, R.L. & Jakobsen, J. 2023. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space 6(3): 1785-1803.

Cultivating urban conviviality: urban farming in the shadows of Copenhagen's neoliberalism. / Rutt RL. 2020. Journal of Political Ecology 27(1): 612-634.

Whose Park? The forty-year fight for Folkets Park under Copenhagen’s evolving urban managerialism. / Rutt, R.L. & Loveless, S. 2018. People, Place and Policy 12(2): 99-117.

FLEGT : another "forestry fad"? / Rutt, R.L., Myers, R., Ramcilovic-Suominen, S; McDermott, C. 2018. Environmental Science & Policy (89): 266-272.

Quests for justice and mechanisms of suppression in Flint, Michigan. / Rutt, R.L. & Bluwstein, J. 2017. Environmental Justice 10(2): 27-35.

Recent contributions to public debate

Vi må gøre op med vækstmanien / Lund, Jens Friis, Røpke, I., Gaarsmand Jacobsen, S., Buch-Hansen, H. & Rutt, Rebecca Leigh, 6 Jun 2020, In: Dagbladet Politiken. p.5 

Collaborative Feminist Degrowth: Pandemic as an Opening for a Care-Full Radical Transformation / Feminist and Degrowth Alliance (FaDa), 20 Apr 2020, Konzeptwerk Neue Ökonomie.

CV

Education

Ph.D., Development Studies, (2014), Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark 

MS.c., International Development, (2007), International School for Humanities and Social Sciences, Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Netherlands

B.A., International Relations, (2004), Rollins College, Florida, U.S.A.

Employment

University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Denmark (2018-present)

University of East Anglia, School of International Development, U.K. (2017-2018)

University of Michigan, School for Environment and Sustainability, USA (2016)

University of Copenhagen, Department of Food and Resource Economics, Denmark (2010-2016)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Forestry Department, Italy (2007-2010)