Jenny García Ruales

Education:

Since October 2023: Specialization in peritaje antropólogico (anthropological expertise in court/legal cases), Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Law Faculty, Quito, Ecuador (One-year online program)

Since 08/2020: PhD Researcher in Anthropology (Philipps University of Marburg/Max Planck Social Anthropology)

Research and professional experience:

Writing Fellowship MPI. Max Planck, Halle, Germany, Department of Law and Anthropology, October 2022-Jan 2023

Visiting scholar. Universidad Politécnica Salesiana, Quito, Ecuador, Faculty of Anthropology, January 2022-June 2022

Research Coordinator. Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature, March 2021-March 2022

Human rights observer. Carea e.V., since November 2015

Research Associate. GIGA German Institute of Global Area and Studies, Berlin Project IMISEM "Every Immigrant is an Emigrant", May 2018-June 2019

Grants, Fellowships and scholarships:

Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (August 2023-December 2023)
DAAD short-term scholarship (December 2020-March 2021)
Heinrich Böll Foundation doctoral scholarship/Cluster Transformation (August 2020-August 2023)
DAAD STIBET (winter semester 2017)
DAAD Promos (February - March 2017)
DAAD Erasmus at the Universitat de Valencia (summer semester 2012)

Award:
Doctoral scholarship from the Heinrich Böll Foundation (3 years)

Memberships:

LASA – Latin American Studies Association

EASA – European Anthropology  Association

SALSA – Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

GAA – German Anthropological Association

RAI – Royal Anthropological Institute

LSA- Law and Society Association

MPI- Law and Climate Change, Forum Latin America

More about Jenny Garcia Ruales workshops, conferences, talks and events can be found here.

PhD Researcher in Anthropology (Philipps University of Marburg/Max Planck Social Anthropology)

Thesis title: Kawsak Sacha as a Law. A forest sings and enchants in Amazonian jurisprudence

First supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ernst Halbmayer (Philipps University of Marburg)

Second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dirk Hanschel (University of Halle-Wittenberg)

• Legal environmental anthropology
• Environmental humanities
• Decolonisation of knowledge
• Indigenous Ecologies in the Amazon
• Indigenous Jurisprudence
• Rights of Nature/Multi-Species Justice
• Collaborative & co-creative research

Current research projects:

• Amazon of Rights; Erfurt University, La Trobe University and RIFS Postdam. Project leaders: Michael Riegner, Luis Eslava and Cecilia Oliveira. Funded by Volkswagen Foundation
• Environmental Rights in a Cultural Context; Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology. Project leader: Prof. Dr. Dirk Hanschel
• The Roots of Rights; with Dr. Stefan Knauß and Prof. Klaus Bosselmann. Funded by the DAAD
• EDGES; Phillips University of Marburg. Project leader: Prof. Dr. Ernst Halbmayer. Funded by the European Union.
• Beyondbios; Project leaders: Dr. Sophie Chao, Dr. Christine Winter, Prof. David Schlosberg. Funded by the Australian Research Council (Grant DE220100025) and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney 
• Nature’s Rights in Europe: frictions, collisions and transformative potentials; Project collaborators: Dr. Martha Dietrich, Dr. Laura Affolter and Andreas Gutmann. Funded by Amsterdam Centre for European Studies (ACES) - Seed Grant

“Der lebendige Wald”. University of Kassel. 2-hour Seminar, Summer Term 2023.

"An Amazonian forest as a source of law". Philipps University Marburg, 30 SWS, winter semester 2022/2023.

"The Sacha runakuna (forest beings) as living political actors: An anthropological reading on collective law-making in the Ecuadorian Amazon", CAS St Andrews, Seminar Series 2021-2022, Environments on the Threshold: Politics, Ecology and Exploitation in Latin America, 2-hour seminar.

"Kawsak Sacha, ser vivo y consciente, sujeto de derechos. Una perspectiva del ser amazónico". Interdisciplinary Latin America Centre of the University of Bonn, 2-hour lecture (lecture series), winter semester 2021-2022.

Edited Volumes:

Lara, Rommel, Jenny García Ruales, and Alex Valle. Derechos de la Naturaleza y Territorio en Ecuador. Diálogos desde los saberes y quehaceres jurídicos y antropológicos. Quito: Abya Yala, 2024.

García Ruales, Jenny, Katarina Hovden, Helen Kopnina, Colin Robertson, and Hendrik Shoukens. Rights of Nature in Europe: Encounters and Visions. London: Routledge, 2024.

Book chapters:

García Ruales, Jenny. “Corazonando in the Amazon”. In Beyond Bios, edited by Sophie Chao, David Schlosberg and Christine Winter. (Forthcoming Duke Press).

García Ruales, Jenny. “Kawsari: Kawsay Sachamanda Rimanakuy”. In Derechos de la Naturaleza y Territorio en Ecuador. Diálogos desde los saberes y quehaceres jurídicos y antropológicos, edited by Lara, Rommel, Jenny García Ruales, and Alex Valle.  Quito: Abya Yala, 2024, 59-82.

García Ruales, Jenny, and Yaku Viteri Gualinga. “A Well-braided (Knowledge) Braid: Lessons learned from the Kawsak Sacha and the Forest Beings to Europe”. In Rights of Nature in Europe: Encounters and Visions, edited by Jenny García Ruales, Katarina Hovden, Helen Kopnina, Colin Robertson, and Hendrik Shoukens. London: Routledge, 2024: 27-44.

García Ruales, Jenny, and Andreas Gutmann. “Rechte der Natur in Lateinamerika.” In Rechte für Flüsse, Berge und Wälder, edited by Matthias Kramm, München: Oekom Verlag, 2023, 28-48.

García Ruales, Jenny. “Encuentros con el Mundo Humano y Vegetal en el Jatun Kawsak Sisa Ñampi.” In Dialogando con la Horizontalidad, edited by Olaf Kaltmeier and Sarah Corona Berkin, Guadalajara: Calas, 2022, 127-141.

Peer-Review: 

Martha Dietrich, Laura Affolter, Jenny García Ruales, and Andreas Gutmann. Stories of Systemic Failure? Landscaping the Rights of Nature in Europe. Legal Anthropology Journal (Forthcoming).

García Ruales, Jenny. “Forest moralities, Sacha Runakuna and kindred knowledge: Kawsak Sacha as a law.” The International Journal of Human Rights (2024): 1-25.

García Ruales, Jenny, Benedict Mette-Starke, Joaquín Molina, and Naomi Rattunde. “Sharing Messages, Not Meals: Engaging with Non-Humans in Fieldwork during the Pandemic.” Journal for Social and Cultural Anthropology (JSCA) 174 (2022): 75-98.   

Scientific Blog:

Andreas Gutmann and Jenny García Ruales (2024). “Von Flüssen und Dieselabgasen. Rechte der Natur am LG Erfurt.”Verfassungsblog, 2024.

García Ruales, Jenny. “Hearing, Seeing, Smelling, Touching, Tasting. Anthropological Reflections on a Digital Encounter with a Forest during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.” Boas Blog: Fieldwork meets crisis, 2021.

Conference Anthology:

García Ruales, Jenny. “Aprendiendo (con) el Kawsak Sacha: Diálogo de Saberes en Ecuador.” In Resistencias Indígenas, Contribuciones del X Encuentro Multidisciplinar de Pueblos Indígenas, edited by Marco Aparicio and Anais Varo, 6-16. Girona: Documenta Universitaria, 2020.

Other:

García Ruales, Jenny.  “Indigene Perspektiven: Das Beispiel des Lebendigen Waldes“, in Online Dossier Rechte der Natur, Global Assembly, 2023.