Staff profile

Research

My research is concerned with urban risk and resilience governance strategies and frameworks in cities of the global South. I investigate which portfolio of risks different scales of government are concerned with and which they govern for. Exploring how residents manage their interpretation of risk and how residents interact with local authorities is also a key area of my research. Understanding how the international aid community, different scales of government, and urban residents interact to make regional cities resilient and liveable is an additional element of my research. 

I have spent most of my career living and working in countries that are rapidly changing and urbanising. My international development work, primarily with United Nations agencies (International Labour Organisation and United Nations Development Programme), has focused on livelihoods and local economic development in several countries. One of my professional strengths is my ability to build relationships with a wide range of stakeholders in different fields and to collaborate for a common purpose. I am particularly keen to ensure my research is of relevance to practitioners, policy makers and governments. 

• The Governing Life through Technology, Connectivity and Humanitarianism (GLiTCH) Project explores how financial and digital technologies are transforming the governance of refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants in Greece, Jordan, Lebanon and the UK.
• Livability of Regional Cities in Bangladesh

• Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience

Chapter in book

• Rahman, M. Feisal & Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2021). The Pandemic and Food Insecurity in Small Cities of the Global South: A Case Study of Noapara in Bangladesh. In Global Reflections on COVID-19 and Urban Inequalities, Volume 1: Community and Society. Doucet, Brian, van Melik, Rianne & Filion, Pierre Bristol: Policy Press. Volume 1: 83-91.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Nugraha, Erwin, de Villiers, Isolde & Price, Martin (2020). Introduction. In Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South. Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Nugraha, Erwin & de Villiers, Isolde Routledge. 1-18.
• Nugraha, Erwin, de Villiers, Isolde, Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Costa, João Pedro, de Mesquita Lima, Joana, Filippi, María Evangelina, Jin, Yi, Johnson, Cassidy, Price, Martin, Rosen, Christian, Wesely, Julia & Zhao, Jimin (2020). Conclusion. In Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South. Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Nugraha, Erwin & de Villiers, Isolde Routledge. 158-165.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2020). The changing logic of urban planning in Nepal: From informal to incremental. In Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South. Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Nugraha, Erwin & de Villers, Isolde Routledge. 39-54.
• Oven, Katie, Ruszczyk, Hanna A. & Rigg, Jonathan (2020). Spaces of Disaster. In Research Ethics for Human Geography. Wilson, Helen F. & Darling, Jonathan Sage. 280-288.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2020). Gendered Invisible Urban Resilience. In The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience. Burayidi, Michael A., Allen, Adriana, Twigg, John & Wamsler, Christine Routledge. 260-271.
• Dixit, Amod Mani, Dhungel, Ranjan, Gouli, Manish Raj, Guragain, Ramesh, Shrestha, Surya Narayan, Pradhan, Suman, Sangachhe, Surya Bhakta, Adhikari, Sujan Raj, Shrestha, Nisha, Bhattarai, Kapil, Khatiwada, Pramod, Hadkhale, Bishnu, Baskota, Ayush, Thakuri, Rita & Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2020). The Helping Hand in Increasing Nepal’s Urban Seismic Resilience. In The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience. Burayidi, Michael A., Allen, Adriana, Twigg, John & Wamsler, Christine Routledge.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2018). Reflecting on the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, tread carefully. In The Routledge Handbook of Green Social Work. Dominelli, Lena Abingdon, Oxon New York, NY: Routledge. 500-510.
• Dixit, Amod Mani, Shrestha, Surya Narayan, Guragain, Ramesh, Jimee, Ganesh, Dhungel, Ranjan, Pradhan, Suman, Shrestha, Nisha, Acharya, Surya Prasad, Adhikari, Sujan Raj, Bhattarai, Kapil & Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2018). Earthquake Risk Reduction Efforts in Nepal: NSET’s Experience. In Evolving Narratives of Hazard and Risk. Bracken, L.J., Ruszczyk, H.A. & Robinson, T. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 15-43.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2018). The Earthquake and Ideas Lying Around. In Evolving Narratives of Hazard and Risk, The Gorkha Earthquake, Nepal, 2015. Bracken, Louise A., Ruszczyk, Hanna & Robinson, Tom Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 125-139.
• Robinson, T., Ruszczyk, H.A. & Bracken, L.J. (2018). Looking and Moving Forward. In Evolving narratives of hazard and risk: The Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015. Bracken, L.J., Ruszczyk, H.A. & Robinson, T. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 183-192.
• Ruszczyk, H.A. & Robinson, T. (2018). Introduction to the Gorkha Earthquake. In Evolving narratives of hazard and risk: The Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015. Bracken, L.J., Ruszczyk, H.A. & Robinson, T. Palgrave Macmillan. 3 - 13.

Doctoral Thesis

• Ruszczyk, H.A. (2017). The everyday and events: Understanding risk perceptions and resilience in urban Nepal. PhD.

Edited book

• Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Nugraha, Erwin & de Villiers, Isolde (2020). Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South. Routledge Studies in Urbanism and the City. Routledge.
• Bracken, L.J., Ruszczyk, H.A. & Robinson, T. (2018). Evolving narratives of hazard and risk: The Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Journal Article

• Rahman, M. Feisal, Lewis, David, Kuhl, Laura, Baldwin, Andrew, Ruszczyk, Hanna, Nadiruzzaman, Md. & Mahid, Yousuf (2023). Managed Urban Retreat: The Trouble with Crisis Narratives. Urban Geography
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Halligey, Alexandra, Rahman, Mohammad Feisal & Ahmed, Istiakh (2023). Liveability and vitality: an exploration of small cities in Bangladesh. Cities 133: 104150.
• Nugraha, Erwin, Wesely, Julia, Ruszczyk, Hanna A., de Villiers, Isolde & Zhao, Yimin (2023). Overlooked cities: Shifting the gaze in research and practice in global urban studies. Cities 133: 104044.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna, Kallio, Kirsi Pauliina & Riding, James (2022). 'It’s the right thing to do': specificities of the Polish response to the Ukrainian crisis. Fennia - International Journal of Geography 200(1).
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A., Castán Broto, Vanesa & McFarlane, Colin (2022). Urban health challenges: Lessons from COVID-19 responses. Geoforum 131: 105-115.
• Truelove, Yaffa & Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2022). Bodies as urban infrastructure: Gender, intimate infrastructures and slow infrastructural violence. Political Geography 92: 102492.
• Khan, M., Ruszczyk, H.A., Rahman, F. & Huq, S. (2022). Epistemological Freedom: Activating co-learning and co-production to decolonise knowledge production. Disaster Prevention and Management 31(3): 182-192.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2021). Newly urban Nepal. Urban Geography 42(2): 218-225.
• Ruszczyk, H.A., Rahman, M.F., Bracken, L.J. & Sudha, S. (2021). Contextualizing the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on food security in two small cities in Bangladesh. Environment and Urbanization 33(1): 239-254.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna (2020). DE-densifying knowledge of cityness. Urban Geography 41(10): 1267-1273.
• Halligey, A., Ahmed, I., Rahman, M.F., Ruszczyk, H.A. & Sudha, S. (2020). Ethics as Negotiated and Emergent in a Study of Liveability in Small Cities. Sentio Journal (2: Theory and Practice in Research Ethics): 91-93.
• Ruszczyk, H.A., Upadhyay, B.K., Kwong, Y.M., Khanal, O., Bracken, L.J., Pandit, S. & Bastola, R. (2020). Empowering Women through Participatory Action Research in Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction Efforts. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 51: 101763.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. & Price, Martin (2020). Aspirations in grey space: Neighbourhood governance in Nepal and Jordan. Area 52(1): 156-163.
• Ruszczyk, H.A. (2019). Ambivalence towards discourse of disaster resilience. Disasters 43(4): 818-839.
• Ruszczyk, Hanna A. (2018). A continuum of perceived urban risk – from the Gorkha earthquake to economic insecurity. Environment and Urbanization 30(1): 317-332.

Masters Thesis

• Ruszczyk, H.A. (2014). Local understandings of community resilience in earthquake prone Nepal. Masters.

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

• Neves Alves, S. & Ruszczyk, H.A. (2021). Theorising from the Overlooked City: Generating a research agenda / network on small / secondary cities. Digital Magazine.
• Ruszczyk H.A. & Banerjee R. (2020). Transitioning From Hope to Optimism and Back Again.