Dr Katharina Ruckstuhl is Associate Dean Māori and Senior Research Fellow in the 
School of Business at the University of Otago. She joined the University of Otago in 2008 after five years with Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu as education/senior manager and project consultant. Prior to that she had been in the teaching profession.
Dr Ruckstuhl leads the Vision Mātauranga research team for Science for Technological Innovation and is a member of the Challenge Management team. She is an AI on both a primary production project through Our Land and Water National Science Challenge and on a Ngā Pae o Te Maramatanga project led out of the Management Department. Her research focuses on innovation and Māori business, resource extraction (mining and oil and gas), Māori language, and theories of corporate social responsibility (social licence). All of her research is related to understanding Māori values and knowledge and how these are shaping NZ policy, Māori business and society. This involves considering theories of social change given Māori are minorities within a liberal democracy.
Dr Ruckstuhl has many governance, research and leadership roles for Ngāi Tahu at the tribal and local levels, and has been consulted on or involved in a number of regional economic, social and environmental development projects.
Dr Ruckstuhl completed her Honours degree and Ph.D. through the English Department at Otago. As well, she has post-graduate qualifications in Education through Massey University.
Selected papers of interest
- Ruckstuhl, K. (2017). “A Shift in the Playing Field”. Indigenous Sovereignty and the Philosophy of Jacques Ranciѐre. Alternative. 13(1) 35–42.
- Ruckstuhl, K., Thompson-Fawcett, M., Rae, H. (2014). Māori and Mining: Indigenous perspectives on reconceptualising engagement through the Social Licence to Operate. Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, 32(4), 304-314
- Ruckstuhl, K., Gale, K., Carter, L., Ellison, E, Flack, S., Russell, K. (2017). Ka Runaka Expectations for Oil and Gas Companies in East Otago. KTKO Ltd: Dunedin.
- Ruckstuhl K., Buckley HR, Tayles N, Bradley R. (Nov 2015). ‘The Ancestors Speak: The place of koiwi tangata in Māori tikanga and science’. In Oxenham, MF and Buckley, HR.(ed).The Routledge Handbook of Bioarchaeology in Southeast Asia and the Pacific
- Ruckstuhl, K. (ed). (2013) Māori and Mining. University of Otago.
