Visiting Fellow
Environmental politics and philosophy; waste management; sustainability; socio-political constructs of ecology; bioethics
Phone: +61 (0)2 6125 3534
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: Robin.Tennant-Wood@anu.edu.au

Coming from a professional background in education as a secondary teacher, and a long-time involvement in politics and environmentalism, Robin joined the ANU in 1999 - the year she also won a seat as a Councillor on the Snowy River Shire Council on a platform of issues relating to sustainable local development, including restoring environmental flows to the Snowy River. She was appointed Chair of the South East Waste Board at the end of 1999, a position she held until the end of 2001 and during that same period was a member of the NSW Waste Policy Body. Now resident in Canberra, Robin is currently a member of the ACT Chief Minister's Sustainability Expert Reference Group and, when not at the ANU, holds the position of Director of the Canberra and South East Region Environment Centre. She has been a Visiting Fellow in SRES since February 2003, during which time she also served a three month period as a Senior Policy Officer in the Department of Agriculture.

Professional Activities

My research work is largely influenced by my practical involvement in policy development at the local level, with a specific focus on waste management. This necessitates a strongly interdisciplinary approach., combining the social sciences with ecology in analysing specific aspects of eco-governance. My doctoral research examined the relationship between green politics and the environment movement, and the dynamics that drive paradigmatic change in eco-political thought using the case study of the campaign to save the Snowy River. Having held a seat in local government and chaired a statutory government authority, my working knowledge of environmental issues in the south-east region, and the socio-political and economic influences on the management of these issues, provides an added dimension to my academic work. As Director of an environmental NGO and having had a long involvement with Landcare, I am also a strong advocate of community-based natural resource management. I plan to foster links, formal and informal, between the ANU and the Environment Centre.

Selected Publications

Tennant-Wood, R. and J. Sullivan, 2006, Towards a best practice model of recycling in the tertiary sector, in Leal-Philo and Carpenter (eds), Sustainability in the Australasian University Context, Peter Lang, Frankfurt

Tennant-Wood, R. 2006. Silent Partners: the fluid relationship between women and dammed rivers. The case of the Snowy River, chapter in Lahiri-Dutt, K.(ed), Fluid bonds: Views on gender and water, Stree, Calcutta

Tennant-Wood, R. 2004. The role of the media in the public disclosure of electoral funding, Democratic Audit of Australia, http://democratic.audit.anu.edu.au

Tennant-Wood, R. 2004. From wasteland to wetland: creating a community ecological resource in regional NSW, Local Environment, Vol.9 No.6, pp.527-539

Tennant-Wood, R. 2003. Going for Zero: a comparative critical analysis of zero waste events in southern New South Wales, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management Vol.10 No.1

Tennant-Wood, R. 2002. Social sustainability through local environment policy, paper presented to Resource NSW Soils and Sustainability Forum, February 2002

Tennant-Wood, R. 2002. Local Green Governance: the value of community leadership and a sense of place Ecopolitics Journal, Vol.1, No.3

Beavis, S.G. & R. Tennant-Wood, 2001. Waste minimisation in schools: mapping successful pathways - paper presented to Waste Educate 2001 Conference, Brisbane, Nov.2001, Waste Educate 2001: Maintaining the Momentum pp 33-37

Beavis, S.G. & Tennant-Wood, R. 2001. Waste minimisation in schools: a report on Mumbulla School, Rutherglen Primary School, Penola College and Cobden Technical School: a report to the South East Waste Board. Research report, South East Waste Board, September 2001

Tennant-Wood, R. 2001, Taking out the garbage: waste as a social construct, paper presented to Wastebusters and Organics Conferences, Ashburton NZ, May 2001

Tennant-Wood, R. 2001. The sociology of waste, Keynote address to mêtis Symposium, Australian Academy of Science, Canberra, May 2001