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. 

• overlooked cities, urban and community resilience, social infrastructure, humanitarianism

Chapter in book

• Ruszczyk, H., & Robinson, T. Introduction to the Gorkha Earthquake. In L. Bracken, H. Ruszczyk, & T. Robinson (Eds.), Evolving narratives of hazard and risk: The Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015 (3 - 13). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65211-5_1
• Rahman, M. F., & Ruszczyk, H. A. (2021). The Pandemic and Food Insecurity in Small Cities of the Global South: A Case Study of Noapara in Bangladesh. In B. Doucet, R. van Melik, & P. Filion (Eds.), Global Reflections on COVID-19 and Urban Inequalities, Volume 1: Community and Society (83-91). Policy Press
• Ruszczyk, H. A., Nugraha, E., de Villiers, I., & Price, M. (2020). Introduction. In H. A. Ruszczyk, E. Nugraha, & I. de Villiers (Eds.), Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South (1-18). Routledge
• Ruszczyk, H. A. (2020). Gendered Invisible Urban Resilience. In M. A. Burayidi, A. Allen, J. Twigg, & C. Wamsler (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience (260-271). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429506666
• Nugraha, E., de Villiers, I., Ruszczyk, H. A., Costa, J. P., de Mesquita Lima, J., Filippi, M. E., Jin, Y., Johnson, C., Price, M., Rosen, C., Wesely, J., & Zhao, J. (2020). Conclusion. In H. A. Ruszczyk, E. Nugraha, & I. de Villiers (Eds.), Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South (158-165). Routledge
• Ruszczyk, H. A. (2020). The changing logic of urban planning in Nepal: From informal to incremental. In H. A. Ruszczyk, E. Nugraha, & I. de Villers (Eds.), Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South (39-54). Routledge
• Oven, K., Ruszczyk, H. A., & Rigg, J. (2020). Spaces of Disaster. In H. F. Wilson, & J. Darling (Eds.), Research Ethics for Human Geography (280-288). SAGE Publications
• Dixit, A. M., Dhungel, R., Gouli, M. R., Guragain, R., Shrestha, S. N., Pradhan, S., Sangachhe, S. B., Adhikari, S. R., Shrestha, N., Bhattarai, K., Khatiwada, P., Hadkhale, B., Baskota, A., Thakuri, R., & Ruszczyk, H. A. (2020). The Helping Hand in Increasing Nepal’s Urban Seismic Resilience. In M. A. Burayidi, A. Allen, J. Twigg, & C. Wamsler (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Urban Resilience. Routledge
• Ruszczyk, H. A. (2018). Reflecting on the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, tread carefully. In L. Dominelli (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of green social work (500-510). Routledge
• Ruszczyk, H. A. (2018). The Earthquake and Ideas Lying Around. In L. A. Bracken, H. Ruszczyk, & T. Robinson (Eds.), Evolving narratives of hazard and risk : the Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015 (125-139). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65211-5_8
• Dixit, A. M., Shrestha, S. N., Guragain, R., Jimee, G., Dhungel, R., Pradhan, S., Shrestha, N., Acharya, S. P., Adhikari, S. R., Bhattarai, K., & Ruszczyk, H. A. (2018). Earthquake Risk Reduction Efforts in Nepal: NSET’s Experience. In L. Bracken, H. Ruszczyk, & T. Robinson (Eds.), Evolving Narratives of Hazard and Risk (15-43). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65211-5_2
• Robinson, T., Ruszczyk, H., & Bracken, L. (2018). Looking and Moving Forward. In L. Bracken, H. Ruszczyk, & T. Robinson (Eds.), Evolving narratives of hazard and risk: The Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015 (183-192). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65211-5_11

Doctoral Thesis

• Ruszczyk, H. The everyday and events: Understanding risk perceptions and resilience in urban Nepal. (Thesis). Durham University. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1618461

Edited book

• Ruszczyk, H. A., Nugraha, E., & de Villiers, I. (Eds.). (2020). Overlooked Cities: Power, Politics and Knowledge Beyond the Urban South. Routledge
• Bracken, L., Ruszczyk, H., & Robinson, T. (Eds.). (2018). Evolving narratives of hazard and risk: The Gorkha earthquake, Nepal, 2015. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65211-5

Journal Article

• Halligey, A., Ahmed, I., Rahman, M., Ruszczyk, H., & Sudha, S. (online). Ethics as Negotiated and Emergent in a Study of Liveability in Small Cities. Sentio (Colchester), 91-93
• Curtis, S., Leach, M., Ardern, K., Beckerman, C., Hunter, P. R., Ruszczyk, H., & Pelling, M. (2024). Health and wellbeing in the face of crises associated with climate or conflict: how can knowledge from the humanities and social sciences help us respond to disasters?. Journal of the British Academy, 12(1&2), Article a13. https://doi.org/10.5871/jba/012.a13
• Ruszczyk, H. A., Halligey, A., Rahman, M. F., & Ahmed, I. (2023). Liveability and vitality: an exploration of small cities in Bangladesh. Cities, 133, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.104150
• Nugraha, E., Wesely, J., Ruszczyk, H. A., de Villiers, I., & Zhao, Y. (2023). Overlooked cities: Shifting the gaze in research and practice in global urban studies. Cities, 133, Article 104044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2022.104044
• Rahman, M. F., Lewis, D., Kuhl, L., Baldwin, A., Ruszczyk, H., Nadiruzzaman, M., & Mahid, Y. (2023). Managed Urban Retreat: The Trouble with Crisis Narratives. Urban Geography, 45(1), 23-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2023.2228094
• Khan, M., Ruszczyk, H., 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. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm-03-2021-0070
• Ruszczyk, H. A., Castán Broto, V., & McFarlane, C. (2022). Urban health challenges: Lessons from COVID-19 responses. Geoforum, 131, 105-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2022.03.003
• Ruszczyk, H., Kallio, K. P., & Riding, J. (2022). 'It’s the right thing to do': specificities of the Polish response to the Ukrainian crisis. Fennia, 200(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11143/fennia.125368
• Truelove, Y., & Ruszczyk, H. A. (2022). Bodies as urban infrastructure: Gender, intimate infrastructures and slow infrastructural violence. Political Geography, 92, Article 102492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polgeo.2021.102492
• Ruszczyk, H., Rahman, M., Bracken, L., & 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. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247820965156
• Ruszczyk, H. A. (2021). Newly urban Nepal. Urban Geography, 42(2), 218-225. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1756683
• Ruszczyk, H., Upadhyay, B., Kwong, Y., Khanal, O., Bracken, L., 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, Article 101763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2020.101763
• Ruszczyk, H. A., & Price, M. (2020). Aspirations in grey space: Neighbourhood governance in Nepal and Jordan. Area, 52(1), 156-163. https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12562
• Ruszczyk, H. (2020). DE-densifying knowledge of cityness. Urban Geography, 41(10), 1267-1273. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2020.1837528
• Ruszczyk, H. (2019). Ambivalence towards discourse of disaster resilience. Disasters, 43(4), 818-839. https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12385
• Ruszczyk, H. A. (2018). A continuum of perceived urban risk – from the Gorkha earthquake to economic insecurity. Environment and Urbanization, 30(1), 317-332. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247817744927

Masters Thesis

• Ruszczyk, H. Local understandings of community resilience in earthquake prone Nepal. (Dissertation). [Awarding Organisation: Unknown]. https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1680785

Monograph

• Ruszczyk, H. (2023). Gender and Resilience in the CIty: Infrastructues, aspirations, and slow violence in Nepal. Practical Action Publishing

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

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