Academy Fellow

My work and contributions are highly interdisciplinary, and multi-sectoral, across the many mental, behavioural and management dimensions of people’s relationships with environments. I promote the social sciences within fields in which they tend to be neglected, and provide frameworks and tools to support practice. Nearly ¾ of my citations are in 25 fields other than social sciences, especially environmental sciences, energy, economics, health, and the humanities.

My contributions have built from early studies in town camps and Aboriginal housing (in the Kimberley and central Australia), to urban systems (focused on Bangkok), social impact assessment, then Aboriginal land and marine management. On assuming professorial responsibility for rural community development, my research themes and contributions evolved further into co-management, collaboration and catchment management, and resilience. 

In resilience, I work to combine two schools of thought: the environmentally focused ‘social-ecological systems’ and the individual-focused ‘psycho-social’ resilience. Key contributions are the characteristics and processes that support community resilience; multi-level relationships in resilience; and redressing the paucity of attention to power relations and culture in all bodies of resilience theory. In resilience, I have collaborated with environmental, health and social scientists, and partnered with Indigenous and communities, government agencies, NGOs and business, with foci on southern Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef region, the beef industry, and a mine in Bolivia. 

‘Co-management’ is short for co-operative or collaborative management, especially between Indigenous peoples and government managers. Here I have worked closely with Indigenous communities to promote equal, enriching arrangements particularly in marine protected areas. ‘Collaboration’ usually refers to decision-making arrangements involving many more parties, such as in catchment and water management. In a succession of studies exploring how successful collaborations work, I have worked with varied social scientists, Indigenous communities and natural resource managers, particularly in the Murray-Darling Basin and South East Queensland. 

Meanwhile I have been one of the first to explore and call attention to social and cultural dimensions of One Health, an international field seeking solutions at the interface of human, animal and ecosystem health. This work has been with Australian and French teams. I was a pioneer in studies of people’s ‘mental models’ of how environments work, and apply that work in agriculture and conservation. I have also made significant contributions on people’s values towards environments. 

These interests interweave with methodological innovation, particularly in participatory methods. Here I seek to develop methods with communities and organisational partners, that resonate with their ways of exploring and communicating, and lead to knowledge and practical outcomes for their benefit. 

I am currently involved in major interdisciplinary team research to increase Indigenous opportunity in the bushfoods industry; and in social and business dimensions of adoption of bioplastics. 

My career has been honoured in a Liber Amicorum (festschrift): Rural Development for Sustainable Social-Ecological Systems: Putting Communities First, eds Baldwin and van Bommel, Palgrave MacMillan, 2023). Original contributions from 40 authors from seven countries address my contributions to rural community development and facilitating change; community-based natural resource management, conservation and co-management; and social aspects of resilience. 

Prof. Emeritus, The University of Queensland (2021 to present)

Adjunct Professor, University of Manitoba (2009—present)

Professor, Rural Community Development, School of Agriculture and Food Sustainability and predecessors, The University of Queensland (2000-2020)

Research Fellow, Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies (now Fenner School), Australian National University (1986-2000)

Commonwealth Public Service (1973-1986) 

Honorary Life Member (since 2022) and Fellow (since 2013), Environment Institute of Australia and New Zealand (EIANZ).

Simon Molesworth Award for National Contributions to Environmental Management, EIANZ 2013

Fulbright Senior Award Australian-American Fulbright Commission (1996)

Member, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.

Member, IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy (since 2015)

Member, Australian Psychological Society (1990 - 2024). Member of Personal Construct Psychology, and Psychology and Environment, Interest Groups

Member, International Association for Society and Natural Resource Management

Best paper, 2011, Impact Assessment & Project Appraisal

Best paper, 2013, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, EIANZ

Simon Molesworth Award for National Contributions to Environmental Management, 2013, EIANZ

Best paper, 2019, Society & Natural Resources

Berkes F & Ross H 2013, ‘Community resilience: Toward an integrated approach’, Society and Natural Resources, 26, pp. 5-20.

Berkes, F & Ross, H 2016, Panarchy and Community Resilience: Sustainability Science and Policy Implications, Environmental Science & Policy, 61, pp. 185-193.

Cavaye, J, and Ross, H, 2022, Community Resilience and Community Development: What mutual opportunities arise from interactions between the two concepts? In M. Brennan et al. eds. Community Development for Times of Crisis, Routledge.

Jones N, Shaw S, Ross H, Witt K and Pinner B, 2016, The study of human values in understanding and managing social-ecological systems, Ecology and Society, 21(1), Article 15.

Ross, H, Grant, C, Robinson, CJ, Izurieta, A, Smyth, D & Rist, P 2009, ‘Co- management and Indigenous Protected Areas in Australia: progress and ways forward’, Australasian Journal of Environmental Management, 16, pp. 242-252.