Conservation expert becomes assistant professor at ASU
After completing a Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowship, Rebecca Kariuki was drawn to the university because of its interdisciplinary approach to sustainability
Rebecca Kariuki, assistant professor in ASU’s School of Sustainability. Courtesy photo
Earlier this year, Rebecca Kariuki brought her expertise in conservation biology to Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, an academic unit of the Rob Walton College of Global Futures.
Kariuki, now an assistant professor, first joined ASU as a presidential postdoctoral fellow in the School of Sustainability in 2023, after completing other postdoctoral fellowships at the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Kigali, Rwanda, and the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany.
She says she was drawn to ASU and the School of Sustainability because of the interdisciplinary approach to sustainability.
“I realized that the organization of ASU’s colleges and schools and ASU’s design aspirations are meant to facilitate partnership across disciplines and creativity that is necessary for tackling social-ecological challenges, including those that I am working on,” said Kariuki.
Kariuki is excited about the opportunities the School of Sustainability provides to expand and deepen her research through cross-sector collaborations.
“The School of Sustainability’s focus on addressing sustainability through environmental, social and economic lenses and the breadth of applications of sustainability concepts across its research and teaching also drew me to ASU,” Kariuki says. “I recognized that using a holistic perspective on sustainability would be necessary for finding lasting solutions for the conservation-related social-ecological challenges I work on.”
This spring, Kariuki will be teaching SOS 110: Building a Sustainable World. She spoke with ASU News about her research and goals as an ASU professor.
Question: What is your focus area of research? What drew you to that field?
Answer: My educational background in conservation biology and environmental geography and the nature of social-ecological challenges in the areas where my research is focused have shaped my research interests. Broadly, my research is interested in understanding the causes and consequences of vegetation and land-use change in dry conservation landscapes adjacent to protected areas in Africa. These landscapes support high biodiversity and multiple land-based livelihoods but are fragmenting largely due to land-use change, climate change and land degradation. My research integrates landscape ecology approaches with knowledge coproduction and futures thinking to assess changing interactions between climate, vegetation, land use and people in these landscapes and explores sustainable and desirable futures for them.
Q: What are you looking forward to most about being a faculty member in the School of Sustainability?
A: The School of Sustainability’s commitment to sustainability, transdisciplinary research, knowledge coproduction and system modeling to address pressing sustainability challenges resonates with my approaches of studying landscape sustainability and conservation. Working at (the school) will provide me with a great opportunity to continue with my sustainability research. Also, (the School of Sustainability) has faculty and students interested in environmental sustainability and related topics, and I’m looking forward to partnering with them, particularly in aspects related to solutions for social-ecological challenges and the methodologies used in sustainability science. I also look forward to using insights from my research to inform my teaching and students mentorship activities. I think it is a privilege to have such an opportunity, and I am grateful for that.
Q: What do you hope to accomplish at the university?
A: ASU is big in interdisciplinary research and innovation, and I see great opportunities for partnering with colleagues at the Rob Walton College of Global Futures and other schools like (the School of Life Sciences and the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning) in interdisciplinary research aimed at finding innovative and practical solutions for our declining planetary health.
Given my background in conservation and sustainability, I also hope to partner with colleagues at the newly established Rob Walton School of Conservation Futures in topics related to the use of conservation technologies in addressing biodiversity loss and scaling up conservation solutions. My research has also focused on Africa, and I hope to strengthen existing and new research networks between ASU scholars and our African partners.