Professor Ruth Kinna

DPhil (Nuffield College, Oxford)

Pronouns: She/her
  • Professor of Political Theory

Ruth is a political theorist and historian of ideas specialising in historical and contemporary anarchism, nineteenth and early twentieth-century socialist thought, utopianism, and political militancy. She is co-editor of the journal  and editor of the Bloomsbury series, .

Ruth graduated from Queen Mary, University of London with a 1st class degree in History and Politics. She completed her doctoral research at Nuffield College, Oxford, funded by the Social Science Research Council.

Principal Awards

  • 2023-24
  • 2016  
  • 2015 ISRF ‘
  • 2005 British Academy, ‘Early Writings on Terrorism’
  • 1993 British Academy ‘Mutual Aid in Historical Context’

Ruth’s first book, was published in 2000 with University of Wales Press. She has since published (University of Edinburgh, 2016), and two introductions to anarchism:  (Oneworld, 2005/2009) and  (Pelican, 2019, shortlisted in 2020 for the )

Ruth is also the author of  (Dog Section Press, 2020), a collection of short, accessible essays on leading nineteenth and twentieth century activists, illustrated by Clifford Harper and co-author of , a guide to anarchist constitutionalising.

She is editor of Continuum/Bloomsbury Companion to Anarchism (2012/14) and co-editor of Anarchism and Utopianism (Manchester University Press, 2009), Libertarian Socialism: Politics in Black and Red (Palgrave & PM Press, 2012), Anarchism 1914-18: Internationalism, Anti-militarism and War (Manchester University Press, 2017), Handbook of Radical Politics (Routledge, 2019) and Cultures of Violence (Routledge, 2020).

Ruth has written for , , ,  and .

She has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s , most recently to discuss the , and , BBC Radio 3’s  and the How the Light Gets in 

Festival,  and .  Online interviews include  and .

She is currently compiling the  and co-authoring a book on anarchist constitutionalising with  (Exeter).

Ruth has been involved in programme design and curriculum development throughout her career. She currently teaches on the Department’s undergraduate programmes and uses inclusive curriculum and course design methods with final year students.

Management of Teaching and Learning and Student Engagement

  • 2011-14 Associate Dean for Teaching, School of Social, Political and Geographical Science.
  • 2010-11 Associate Dean for Teaching, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
  • 2015 Academic partner in the Consent initiative, with 天堂视频 Students Union Women’s Network
  • 2011-17 Member, Validation Committee British University in Egypt
  • 2007-09 Co-ordinator, Department Teaching and Learning Committee
  • 2007-08 Politics Subject Specialist, British University
  • in Egypt
  • 2005 University teaching prize
  • 2003-07 Department Undergraduate Programme Director
  • 2000-12 Member, University Access to Learning Committee
  • 2002-03 Member, University Widening Participation Group
  • 2000-09 University Teaching Assessor
  • 1997-2001 Final Year Tutor/Director of Studies
  • 1995-97 Co-chair, Department Teaching and Learning Committee  
  • 1995 Flexible Learning Initiative Representative

Public Engagement

  • 2024 How to be an anarchist, a short course for the . 
  • 2021
  • 2020 The anarchy night school –  hosted by Five Leaves Bookshop, Nottingham
  • 2019 Massolit lectures on anarchism for A level politics
  • 2015/2019 Co-author with Uri Gordon of the Political Studies Association Teachers’ Topic Guide on Anarchism and Ideology.

Current Doctoral Researchers

  • Isobel van Hagen, “Practical Anarchist Approaches to Gendered Violence in the ‘Alegal’ Space”
  • William Godfrey: “Towards a materialist animal liberation”
  • Sam Garrett: “Political subjectivity and identity politics in contemporary radical organisation’

Ruth sits on supervision committees at the California Institute of Integral Studies, USA, University of Guelph, Canada, University of Helsinki and University Paul Valéry, Monpellier 3 France.

The Government of No One: The Theory and Practice of Anarchism

Publisher: Pelican

By: Ruth Kinna

Published in August 2019.

book cover of Anarchic Agreements

Anarchic Agreements

Publisher: PM Press


By: Ruth Kinna, Alex Pritchard, Thomas Swann and Seeds for Change

  • ‘Kropotkin and the Anarchist Case for Penal Abolition’ forthcoming in David Scott (ed.) , Bristol University Press.
  • Simon Stevens and Ruth Kinna, R. ‘Anarchism: war, violence and scapegoating’. Contemporary Political Theory, online first, 2024
  • José Gutierrez and Ruth Kinna, ‘’ Introduction to the Themed Section in Nations and Nationalism, 29 (1), 2023: 121-130
  • ‘Emma Goldman’ in Manjeet Ramgotra and Simon Choat (eds) (Oxford University Press, 2023)
  • Ruth Kinna, Alex Prichard, Thomas Swann and Seeds for Change (co-ed) , (PM Press, 2022) 
  • ‘’, in Marcel van der Linden (ed.) Cambridge History of Socialism, (Cambridge University Press, 2022) 331-354
  • : The Theory and Practice of Anarchism (Penguin, 2019) 
  • ‘?’ Nations and Nationalism, 27 (4) (2021): 976-991