Beth Carruthers

Beth is a researcher, practitioner, activist, educator, and mentor in the transdisciplinary field of culture and sustainability. Primarily working in a "home" discipline cluster of ecologically focused Philosophy, Anthropology, and the Social Sciences, since 1990 her work has focused on understanding the role of the arts, and of our sensory aesthetic engagement with place, world, and other beings in informing, forming, and transforming socio-cultural systems - beliefs, values, practices and policies.

In the mid 1990s she began using arts research methods with qualitative methods of participant observation and interviews to determine impacts and efficacy of various approaches in arts-led and artist-initiated projects and interventions over time. (For example, see the 5-year SongBird project. Knowledge gained through these studies, along with analysis of a range of exemplary projects and practices has led to her development of more effective arts-led initiatives (such as A Green Vision for Dubai in 2009).

Internationally known for her work, she lectures and works internationally, and her academic publications are widely studied and cited.

She is a member of SCALE/LeSAUT (Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency/Leadership Sectoriel des Arts pour l’Urgence de la Transition écologique) an emergent (launched 2021) national hub to develop strategy, align activities, and activate the leadership of Canada’s arts and culture sector in the climate emergency.

Also, a Founding Member of the International Environmental Communications Association (IECA), and a member of the steering committee for the Canadian Society for Environmental Philosophy (since 2018).