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Morgan Ruelle is an Assistant Professor in the Environmental Science and Policy program in the Department of International Development, Community and Environment. He is interested in how biological and cultural diversity enable communities to anticipate and adapt to change. His work focuses on how the diversity within food systems provides options for communities to respond to climate change. He integrates Indigenous and other place-based ecological knowledge with a broad array of scientific tools. He strives to include communities in every stage of the research cycle to co-generate knowledge that is locally relevant and broadly meaningful.
Since 2007, Dr. Ruelle has worked with Elders in the Standing Rock Nation of the Northern Great Plains to increase availability and access to plants used in their traditional foodways. His current work in Standing Rock focuses on ecological calendars, knowledge systems that measure and makes sense of time based on close observation of the ecosystem. His work combines Indigenous knowledge with phenological data to identify reliable seasonal indicators that could help communities synchronize their food systems with an increasingly variable climate.
In Ethiopia, Dr. Ruelle conducts research and training for the Legume Diversity Project, a collaboration with five Ethiopian universities aimed at understanding the status and significance of Ethiopia’s food legumes. Dr. Ruelle teaches Ethiopian graduate students to conduct surveys of legume species and varieties, using digital data collection tools to document farmers’ knowledge across multiple agroecological and sociocultural contexts. In his own field work, he investigates how rapid expansion of road networks and access to regional markets shape farmers’ use of legumes, and how agricultural development policies could sustain Ethiopia’s agrobiodiversity as a source of adaptive capacity for climate change.
Dr. Ruelle’s research has been supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship in Food Systems and Poverty Reduction, the Toward Sustainability Foundation, the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future, and the McKnight Foundation’s Collaborative Crop Research Program.
Degrees
- Ph.D. in Natural Resources, Cornell University, 2015
- M.S. in Natural Resources, Cornell University, 2011
- B.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Yale University, 2001
Affiliated Department(s)
- Sustainability and Social Justice
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Scholarly and Creative Works
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Science, Engineering, and Sustainable Development: Cases in Planning, Health, Agriculture, and the Environment
Chapter: Integrative collaborative design of research-based, climate-change resilience engineering education: Insights from Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala hydrological regionPublished by De Gruyter
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2024
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Published by De Gruyter
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2024
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Published in Journal of Responsible Innovation
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2024
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Vol. 11
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Issue #1
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The potential of Ethiopian medicinal plants to treat emergent viral diseases
Published in Phytotherapy Research
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2024
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Vol. 38
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Issue #2
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Data Sovereignty and Publishing in Ethnobiology
Joint Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology and Society for Ethnobotany
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Atlanta, GA
May and June
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2023
Sponsored by Allying for a Diverse and Inclusive Ethnobiology (ADIE)
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Art and Ethnobotany
Joint Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology and Society for Ethnobotany
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Atlanta, GA
June
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2023
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What is the Future of Ethnobiology?
Joint Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology and Society for Ethnobotany
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Atlanta, GA
June
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2023
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Ethnobotany in R
Joint Meeting of the Society of Ethnobiology and Society for Ethnobotany
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Atlanta, GA
June
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2023
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April
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2023
Wiley
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Rhythms of the Earth: Editorial Introduction
Published in GeoHealth
2023/04/13/19:00:27
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2023
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Vol. 7
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Issue #4
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Ecological calendars for food sovereignty: The contributions of plant knowledge to climate adaptation
Joint Meeting of the Society for Economic Botany and International Society of Ethnobiology
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The University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
May
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2022
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Ecological calendars, food sovereignty, and climate adaptation in Standing Rock
Published in GeoHealth
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2022
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Vol. 6
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Issue #12
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Land-cover change and urban growth in the Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala Hydrological Region, 1993--2018
Published in Applied Geography
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2022
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Vol. 147
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Chapter: Health as a Social-technical Enterprise Anchored in Social-ecological Justice and Stakeholder Collaboration: Insights from Mexico-Lerma-Cutzamala Hydrological RegionPublished by Springer International Publishing Cham
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2022
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Cereal species mixtures: an ancient practice with potential for climate resilience. A review
Published in Agronomy for Sustainable Development
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2022
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Vol. 42
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Issue #5
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Published by Routledge
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2022
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Published in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
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2022
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Vol. 46
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Issue #5
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Field pea diversity and its contributions to farmers’ livelihoods in northern Ethiopia
Published in Legume Science
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2022
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Is push-pull climate- and gender-smart for Ethiopia? A review
Published in Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems
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2022
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Vol. 46
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Issue #1
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Power in Engaged Scholarship (Special Issue)
Fall
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2021
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Vol. 14
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Issue #2
UTS ePress
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Sydney
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Ecological Calendars of the Standing Rock Nation
Rhythms of the Land: Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Thriving Together in a Changing Climate
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Ithaca, NY
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2021
Sponsored by Cornell University
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The Edible Gardens of Ethiopia: An Ethnographic Journey into Beauty and Hunger
Economic Botany
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2021
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Vol. 75
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Issue #2
Springer
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Guest Editorial: Power in Engaged Scholarship: Dimensions and Dynamics of Knowledge Co-Creation
Published in Gateways: International Journal of Community Research and Engagement
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2021
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Vol. 14
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Issue #2
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Engaging Transformation: Using Seasonal Rounds to Anticipate Climate Change
Published in Human Ecology
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2021
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Vol. 49
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Issue #5
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Published in Human Ecology
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2021
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Vol. 49
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Issue #6
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Rhythms of the Land: Indigenous Knowledge, Science, and Thriving Together in a Changing Climate
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2020
Cornell University
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Ithaca, NY
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Use and management of tamarind (Tamarindus indica L., Fabaceae) local morphotypes by communities in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia
Published in Forests, Trees and Livelihoods
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2020
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Diversity, use and production of farmers' varieties of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L., Fabaceae) in southwestern and northeastern Ethiopia
Published in Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution
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2020
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Vol. 67
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Issue #2
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Biocultural diversity and food sovereignty: A case study of human-plant relations in northwestern Ethiopia
Published in Food Security
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2019
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Vol. 11
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Issue #1
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Charting the course, compiling the tools: Ethnobotanical study of value in the Anthropocene
Society of Economic Botany Annual Meeting
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Cincinnati, OH
June 5
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2019
Sponsored by Society of Economic Botany
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Ways of being: The friction of multiple knowledges and ‘green’ development
Global Environmental Justice Conference
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New Haven, CT
November 15
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2019
Sponsored by Yale University
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Inter- and intraspecific diversity of food legumes among households and communities in Ethiopia
Published in PLOS ONE
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2019
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Vol. 14
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Issue #12
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Anticipating climatic variability: the potential of ecological calendars
Published in Human Ecology
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2018
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Vol. 46
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Human ecology of sacred space: Church forests in the highlands of northwestern Ethiopia
Published in Environmental Conservation
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2018
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Awards & Grants
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Investigating Underutilized Traditional Crop Mixtures for Nutritional Yield, Climate Resilience, and Soil Regeneration
Rockefeller Foundation - Periodic Table of Food Initiative
Jan. 1, 2023 - Dec. 31, 2025
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National Science Foundation
Apr. 1, 2023
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Seed Mixtures for Climate Resilience in Ethiopia
Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (Cornell University)
Sep. 1, 2019
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Between Hurricanes and Earthquakes: Reconstruction, Resilience, and Sustainability in Post-Disaster Puerto Rico
Clark University (Faculty Development Fund)
May. 1, 2020
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Seeding Food Resilience though Anchor Institutions
National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA - NIFA)
Jan. 1, 2021
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Mid-Career Excellence Award
Society for Ethnobotany
2024
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