Jesse Rodenbiker is a human-environment geographer and interdisciplinary social scientist focusing on environmental governance, urbanization, and social inequality in China and globally. Rodenbiker is the author of the book Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China (2023, Cornell University Press), which was recognized as a Ludwik Fleck Prize Finalist by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S). The book draws on long-term fieldwork to examine how ecology has become instrumental to state power, urbanization, and involuntary resettlement in China. He has written for Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Land Use Policy, and other venues.
Rodenbiker currently serves as an Assistant Professor of Geography at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. He has served as an Associate Research Scholar at Princeton University with the Center on Contemporary China, a Cornell University Atkinson Postdoctoral Research Associate in Sustainability with the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, and as Visiting Scholar at Sichuan University in the School of Public Administration and Department of Land Resource Management. He holds a doctorate in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. His work has been supported by fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation, Fulbright, Social Science Research Council, and the Wilson Center, among others.
Selected Recent Works:
Rodenbiker, J. (2025) Shark Fin City: Transitional Marine Wildlife Economies in Global Hong Kong. Urban Geography. 46(1) 155-179.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2024). Global China in the American Heartland: Chinese Investment, Populist Coalitions, and the New Red Scare. Political Geography. (111). 103110.
Jesse Rodenbiker, Nina O. Therkildsen, Erica Ruan, Kelly Su (2024). Advancing One Health in Urban Seafood Markets: A Genetic and Social Analysis of Dried Sea Cucumber in Three New York City Chinatowns. Sustainability. 16(9). 3589.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY.
Jesse Rodenbiker, Nina O. Therkildsen, Cheong Chun Li, (2023). Global Shark Fins in Local Contexts: Multi-scalar Dynamics Between Hong Kong Markets and Mid-Atlantic Fisheries. Ecology and Society. 28(3): 5.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Urban Oceans: Social Differentiation in the City and the Sea. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. 6(1) 412-432.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Green Silk Roads, Partner State Development, and Environmental Governance: Belt and Road Infrastructures on the Sino-East African Frontier. Critical Asian Studies. 55 (2) 169-192.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Ecological Civilization Goes Global: China's Green Soft Power and South-South Environmental Initiatives. Understanding China Amid Change and Cooperation: 2022-2023 Wilson China Fellowship Report.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). China's Ecological Migration from the Ground Up. New Security Beat. 6 (15).
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Ecological Militarization: Engineering Territory in the South China Sea. Political Geography. 102932.
Jesse Rodenbiker (2022). Social Justice in China's Cities: Urban-Rural Restructuring and Justice-Oriented Planning. Transactions in Planning and Urban Research. 1 (1-2): 184-198.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2022). Geoengineering the Sublime: China and the Aesthetic State. Made in China Journal. 7(2): 138-143.
Jesse Rodenbiker (2022). High Stakes: China's Leadership in Global Biodiversity Governance. New Security Beat. 11 (3).
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2021). Making Ecology Developmental: China's Environmental Sciences and Green Modernization in Global Context. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 111 (7), 1931-1948
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2020). Urban Ecological Enclosures: Conservation Planning, Peri-urban Displacement, and Local State Formations in China. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 44(4), 691-710
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2019). Uneven Incorporation: Volumetric Transitions in Peri-urban China's Conservation Zones. Geoforum. 104, 234-243
Rodenbiker, J. (2025) Shark Fin City: Transitional Marine Wildlife Economies in Global Hong Kong. Urban Geography. 46(1) 155-179.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2024). Global China in the American Heartland: Chinese Investment, Populist Coalitions, and the New Red Scare. Political Geography. (111). 103110.
Jesse Rodenbiker, Nina O. Therkildsen, Erica Ruan, Kelly Su (2024). Advancing One Health in Urban Seafood Markets: A Genetic and Social Analysis of Dried Sea Cucumber in Three New York City Chinatowns. Sustainability. 16(9). 3589.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Ecological States: Politics of Science and Nature in Urbanizing China. Cornell University Press, Ithaca NY.
Jesse Rodenbiker, Nina O. Therkildsen, Cheong Chun Li, (2023). Global Shark Fins in Local Contexts: Multi-scalar Dynamics Between Hong Kong Markets and Mid-Atlantic Fisheries. Ecology and Society. 28(3): 5.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Urban Oceans: Social Differentiation in the City and the Sea. Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. 6(1) 412-432.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Green Silk Roads, Partner State Development, and Environmental Governance: Belt and Road Infrastructures on the Sino-East African Frontier. Critical Asian Studies. 55 (2) 169-192.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Ecological Civilization Goes Global: China's Green Soft Power and South-South Environmental Initiatives. Understanding China Amid Change and Cooperation: 2022-2023 Wilson China Fellowship Report.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). China's Ecological Migration from the Ground Up. New Security Beat. 6 (15).
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2023). Ecological Militarization: Engineering Territory in the South China Sea. Political Geography. 102932.
Jesse Rodenbiker (2022). Social Justice in China's Cities: Urban-Rural Restructuring and Justice-Oriented Planning. Transactions in Planning and Urban Research. 1 (1-2): 184-198.
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2022). Geoengineering the Sublime: China and the Aesthetic State. Made in China Journal. 7(2): 138-143.
Jesse Rodenbiker (2022). High Stakes: China's Leadership in Global Biodiversity Governance. New Security Beat. 11 (3).
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2021). Making Ecology Developmental: China's Environmental Sciences and Green Modernization in Global Context. Annals of the American Association of Geographers. 111 (7), 1931-1948
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2020). Urban Ecological Enclosures: Conservation Planning, Peri-urban Displacement, and Local State Formations in China. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. 44(4), 691-710
Jesse Rodenbiker. (2019). Uneven Incorporation: Volumetric Transitions in Peri-urban China's Conservation Zones. Geoforum. 104, 234-243