Professor Rosaleen Duffy

School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations

Chair of International Politics

r.v.duffy@sheffield.ac.uk

Elmfield Building

Full contact details

Professor Rosaleen Duffy
School of Sociological Studies, Politics and International Relations
Elmfield Building
Northumberland Road
Sheffield
S10 2TU

Profile

Rosaleen Duffy joined the department in September 2016, having previously held posts at SOAS University of London, University of Manchester and University of Lancaster.

Rosaleen uses a political ecology lens in order to understand global environmental change. She is particularly interested in the global politics of biodiversity conservation, and focuses on global environmental governance, wildlife trafficking, poaching, transfrontier conservation and tourism. Recently, her work has sought to understand the growing links between global security and biodiversity conservation. In 2016 she was awarded a European Research Council Advanced Investigator Grant for BIOSEC - Biodiversity and Security: Understanding environmental crime, illegal wildlife trade and threat finance. She is currently leading the ESRC funded Beastly Business project, which examines green crime, political ecology and illegal wildlife trade in European species.

She is a fellow of the inter-disciplinary Institute for Global Sustainable Development (GSD) and a member of the Sheffield Animals Research Colloquium (ShARC) and the international Political Ecology Network (POLLEN).

Research interests

My main research interests are political ecology, global environmental governance, biodiversity conservation, transfrontier conservation, tourism/ecotourism, wildlife trafficking, poaching and security.

In 2016-2020 I led the EUR 1.8 million ERC funded BIOSEC project, which focused in understanding the implications of the integration of conservation with security concerns, especially in tackling illegal wildlife trade.

In 2021-2023, I am PI on the Beastly Business Project, funded by an ESRC grant of £859,000 to examine green crime, political ecology and illegal wildlife trade in European species.

Beastly Business Project Twitter

Prizes/awards

2018 Elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
2011 Distinguished Achievement Award, President’s Medal for Researcher of the Year, University of Manchester.
2011 Elected Fellow of the Society of Biology, in recognition of research excellence and outstanding contribution to public understanding of science.

Publications

Journal articles

Krauss JE, Fiasco V, Marchini S, McInturff A, Sandroni LT, Alagona PS, Brockington D, Büscher B, Duffy R, Ferraz KMPMDB , Fletcher R et al (2025) Coexistence beyond disciplinary silos: Five dimensions of analysis for more convivial human-predator interactions. Biological Conservation, 308, 111145-111145.
Duffy R (2024) Book review: Revenant ecologies: Defying the violence of extinction and conservation. Environment and Security. View this article in WRRO
Lappe-Osthege T & Duffy R (2024) International relations and the non-human: exploring animal culture for global environmental governance. Review of International Studies. View this article in WRRO
Gutierrez L & Duffy R (2024) Harms and the illegal wildlife trade: political ecology, green criminology and the European eel. Critical Criminology, 32(1), 61-76. View this article in WRRO
Iordăchescu G, Lappe-Osthege T, Dickinson H, Duffy R & Burns C (2023) Political ecologies of green-collar crime: understanding illegal trades in European wildlife. Environmental Politics, 32(5), 923-930. View this article in WRRO
O’Lear S, Masse F, Dickinson H & Duffy R (2022) Disaster making in the Capitalocene. Global Environmental Politics, 22(3), 2-11.
Duffy R & Sands P () ReAnimate: Political ecologies of animals in European wildlife conservation. Society and Animals. View this article in WRRO

Chapters

Duffy R & Massé F (2023) The integration of conservation and security: Political ecologies of violence and the illegal wildlife trade In Sowers J & VanDeveer SD (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics (pp. 814-830). Oxford University Press View this article in WRRO

Reports

Duffy R (2025) Illegal Wildlife Trade and Poverty Information Note
Duffy R (2025) Poverty Reduction Strategies Phase 1 Report
Duffy R (2025) Poverty Reduction Strategies Phase 2 Report

Research group: Environmental politics

Grants

Principal Investigator, UKRI, ESRC grant of £900,000, for Beastly Business: Examining the illegal trade in Bears, Eels and Songbirds (April 2021- July 2023) Co-I Prof Charlotte Burns (University of Sheffield). The project has 3 post doctoral fellows and a project manager. https://BeastlyBusiness.org @BeastlyProject.

Co-I GCRF UKRI/ Newton Agile Response Fund Grant of £300,000, for COVID-19 and the trade in wildlife: Investigating the implications of the pandemic for wildlife supply chains and wildlife trade livelihoods (August 2020-August 2022). Led by Dr. Brock Bersaglio (University of Birmingham), Dr. Charis Enns (University of Manchester) and Dr Francis Massé (University of Northumbria). https://wildlifetradefutures.com @Wildlife_Trade.

Co-I with Professor Dan Brockington, Global Challenges Research Fund UKRI Post Doctoral Fellowship July 2019-July 2021. Awarded to Dr Elaine Hsiao to research environmental peacebuilding in Central Africa. Value £100,000.

Principal Investigator, ERC Advanced Investigator Grant of EURO 1.8 million, BIOSEC: Biodiversity and Security: understanding environmental crime, illegal wildlife trade and threat finance (01.09.16-31.08.20). The project had two PhD students, 5 Post doctoral fellows and a project manager. https://biosec.group.shef.ac.uk @biosec_erc.

Co-I TS2 NORFACE - Belmont Forum grant of EUR 1.2 million for CON-VIVA: Towards Convivial Conservation: Governing Human-Wildlife Interactions in the Anthropocene (2018-2022) led by Prof Bram Büscher and Dr Rob Fletcher (University of Wageningen) https://conviva-research.com/ @convivconserv .

Co-I with Professor Dan Brockington, Max Bateley Post Doctoral Fellowship in Sustainable Peace, 01.02.17- 31.01.19. Awarded to Dr Esther Marijnen to research environments change and rebel movements in Central Africa. Value: £100,000.

Principal Investigator, Leverhulme Visiting Professorship for Giorgos Kallis 01.04.15-31.03.16 value £84,036.

Principal Investigator, ESRC grant of £94,000 (ESRC reference RES-000-22-2599) Neoliberalising Nature? A Comparative Analysis of Asian and African Elephant Based Ecotourism (Dec 2007-October 2008).

Member, Leverhulme Trust International Collaborative Network grant of £95,000. Transnational Climate Change Governance (Principal Grant Holder, Professor Harriet Bulkeley, Geography Department, Durham University).

Principal Investigator, ESRC grant of £42,000 (ESRC reference RES-000-22-0342) Global Environmental Governance and Local Resistances. Oct. 2003-July 2004.

Principal Investigator, ESRC grant of £39,919 (ESRC reference R000223013) ‘The Geopolitics of Bioregions: Conservation and Erosion of National Boundaries’. (Oct. 1999 to Oct. 2000).

Teaching activities

My teaching practice is very interactive - classes are built around a range of different activities which include group tasks, practical exercises, close reading/critiques of key writings, as well as mini-lectures. The aim is to develop opportunities for thorough reflection on the ways we understand and approach global environmental change - this means we critically analyse commonly accepted terms and practices such as Anthropocene, carbon trading, payments for ecosystem services, resource conflicts, population growth and natural capital; using a political ecology lens, we try to uncover the uneven distribution of the negative consequences of global environmental change.

Course

POLI6602 The Political Economy of Global Environmental Change

Supervision Expertise

political ecology
biodiversity conservation
illegal wildlife trade
animal politics
environmental politics