Tara Ruttenberg, Ph.D.

Writer, free surfer, research consultant and PhD in Development Studies (Wageningen University, 2022), with specialization in political ecology, sustainable tourism, and critical surf tourism studies. Tara holds a Masters in International Peace Studies (UN-Mandated University for Peace of Costa Rica, 2008) and a Bachelors of Science in Foreign Service (Georgetown University, 2007).

Tara is seminar leader and lecturer for Global Environmental Studies (KulturStudier/OsloMet), lead instructor for Conservation Ecology & Sustainable Development in Southern Costa Rica (Wildlands Studies), teaching assistant and program coordinator for Surfing & Sustainability: Political Ecology in Costa Rica (University of Georgia), and member, Community Economies Research Network. 

Tara’s passions include critical surf studies, decolonial approaches to sustainable surf tourism, exploring alternatives to development for post-capitalist realities, and supporting community economies research in regenerative tourism scenarios.

Tara's work has been featured in books like the Critical Surf Studies Reader, Lessons from the Eco-Laboratory: Environmental Governance and Economic Development in Costa Rica, and The Routledge Handbook of Latin American Development; in peer-reviewed academic journals including Tourism Planning & Development and Sport & Tourism; at conferences including Impact Zones & Liminal Spaces, Deep Ecology of Wellness, Envision Festival, Surf + Social Good, ECHO, and the Institute for Women Surfers; as well as online and in print with Sea Together, Sea Maven, Elephant Journal, The Huffington Post, The Inertia, Sunshine Surf Girls, Yoga Trade, 7 Mares, Desert Jewels, and more. Tara has also appeared on a number of surf-related podcasts, including the Surfing Historian, Swell Season Radio, Salted Spirit, Second Breakfast, the Oceanriders Podcast, and iSurfTribe.

Tara created Tarantula Surf as a platform for authentic sharing and engaging with alternative socioecological paradigms. As a brand ambassador for Dkoko Bikinis, a Costa Rican women-owned sustainable swimwear brand, Tara lives most of the time at the beach in Costa Rica.

Read Tara's stories, learn more about her educational surf travel opportunities, community-based surf tourism solutions, and creative writing programs, or join Tara on retreat in Costa Rica.  

Some of Tara’s recent academic publications are available open access at the links below:

Alternatives to Development in Surfing Tourism: A Diverse Economies Approach, published May 17, 2022 by Tourism Planning & Development.

Gender, Race and Researcher Positionality in Decolonial Surf Tourism Research: Lessons from the Field, published August 8, 2022 by Journal of Sport & Tourism.

You can read Tara’s doctoral thesis here: Decolonizing Surf Tourism: Alternatives to Development, Surfer Subjectivity, and Surfscape Commons Governance.