Robert Rakoff, professor emeritus of politics and environmental studies, received his B.A. from Oberlin College and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
He taught at the University of Illinois/Chicago and worked for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development before coming to Hampshire in 1979.
His teaching and research interests include environmental history and policy; the politics of land use; the cultural construction of nature; creative non-fiction writing about the outdoors; and the political economy of farming and rural life in the U.S.A.