Eric Sheppard (born 1 October 1950) is a British and American geographer, currently Distinguished Research Professor of

Economic geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. Economic geography takes a variety of approaches to many different topi ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

Background

Sheppard grew up in Cambridge, England, the son of Norman Sheppard and Kay McClean/Sheppard. He studied geography at the

University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...

under Andy Cliff and

Peter Haggett Peter Haggett CBE (24 January 1933 – 9 February 2025) was a British geographer and academic, Professor Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow in Urban and Regional Geography at the School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol. Life ...

, graduating in 1972. He moved to the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

, where he completed his MA in 1974 and Ph.D. in

geography Geography (from Ancient Greek ; combining 'Earth' and 'write', literally 'Earth writing') is the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding o ...

in 1976, advised by Leslie Curry, Ross MacKinnon and Allen Scott. He taught at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

from 1976 to 2012, where he was appointed Regents Professor, before being appointed to the Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Geography at

, 2012-2022. He served as president of the

Association of American Geographers The American Association of Geographers (AAG) is a non-profit scientific and educational society aimed at advancing the understanding, study, and importance of geography and related fields. Its headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. The ...

(2012-2013).

Contributions

Sheppard has made contributions to geographical political economy, uneven geographies of globalization, spatial capitalist economic dynamics, urban sustainability and

environmental justice Environmental justice is a social movement that addresses injustice that occurs when poor or marginalized communities are harmed by hazardous waste, resource extraction, and other land uses from which they do not benefit. The movement has gene ...

, and the use of critical geographic information technologies. He is identified with a group of radical economic geographers including Trevor J. Barnes and

Jamie Peck Jamie Peck Royal Society of Canada, FRSC FAcSS (born July 9, 1962 in Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, UK) is Canada Research Chair in Urban & Regional Political Economy and Professor of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Canada. He is ...

, who are critical of the tendency of the modern capitalist economy to create great differences in wealth and poverty, and to create environmental problems and injustices.

Awards

*Distinguished Scholarship Honors, Association of American Geographers (1999) * Ellen Churchill Semple award, Department of Geography, University of Kentucky, 2000Ellen Churchill Semple Day
(accessed 30 June 2015) *Fellow, Center for Advanced Studies in the Social and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University (2005-6) *Regents Professor, University of Minnesota (2008–12)

Publications

*''Urban Studies Inside-out'' (co-edited with H. Leitner and J. Peck). London: Sage, 2020. *''Spatial Histories of Radical Geography: North America and Beyond'' (co-edited with T. Barnes). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2019. *''Limits to Globalization: Geographical disruptions of capitalist development''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016, 212 pp. AAG Meridian Book Prize, 2017 *''The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Economic Geography'' (co-edited with T. Barnes and J. Peck). London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. *''A World of Difference: Encountering and contesting development'' (second, fully revised and expanded edition with P. W. Porter, R. Nagar and D. Faust). New York: Guilford Press, 2009, 664 pp. *''A Companion to Economic Geography'' (co-edited with T. Barnes). Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2000, 2003. 590 pp. (translated into Chinese, published by the Commercial Press of China, 2008) *''Reading Economic Geography'' (co--edited with T. Barnes, J. Peck and A. Tickell). Oxford: Blackwell, 2004, 432 pp. (translated into Chinese, published by the Commercial Press of China, 2007) *''Contesting Neoliberalism: Urban Frontiers (co-edited with H. Leitner and J. Peck). New York: Guilford Press, 2007, 340 pp. *''Politics and Practice in Economic Geography'' (co-edited with T. Barnes, J. Peck and A. Tickell). Beverly Hills: Sage Publishers, 2007, 320 pp. *''Scale and Geographic Inquiry'' (co-edited with R. B. McMaster). Oxford: Blackwell, 2004, 272 pp. *''A World of Difference: Society, Nature, Development'' (with P. W. Porter). New York: Guilford Press, 1998, 614 pp. *''Rediscovering Geography: New relevance for the new century'' (with T. Wilbanks and 14 others). Washington DC: National Research Council, 1996. 233 pp. *''The Capitalist Space Economy: Geographical Analysis after Ricardo Marx and Sraffa'' (with T. J. Barnes). London: Unwin and Hyman, 1990. 328 pp. *''Geography or economics? Conceptions of space, time, interdependence, and agency.' In: Gordon L. Clark, Maryann P. Feldman and Meric S. Gertler (editors). ''The Oxford handbook of economic geography.'' Oxford (England):

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2000.

References

Eric Sheppard at the Department of Geography, University of Minnesota.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheppard, Eric University of Toronto alumni Alumni of the University of Bristol 21st-century American geographers University of Minnesota faculty British geographers Geographers from Cambridge 1950 births Living people Economic geographers Presidents of the American Association of Geographers