Dame Sarah Jane Whatmore (born 25 September 1959) is a British geographer. She is a professor of environment and public policy at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. She is a professorial fellow at Keble College, moving from Linacre College in 2012. She was associate head (research) of the Social Sciences Division of the university from 2014 to 2016, and became pro-vice chancellor (education) of Oxford in January 2017. From 2018 she has been head of the Social Sciences Division.

Background

Born in Aldershot, Hampshire into a military family, Whatmore moved often - including Germany, Cyprus, and Hong Kong.http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/classic/midday/201404/miv-2014-04-10.mp3 She studied geography at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

(BA 1981), has an MPhil (Town Planning) in 1983 (''Financial institutions and the ownership of agricultural land'') and worked at the

Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. It replaced the earlier London County Council (LCC) which had covered a much smaller area. The GLC was dissolved in 198 ...

. She returned to UCL for a PhD supervised by Richard Munton (''The 'other half' of the family farm: an analysis of the position of 'farm wives' in the familial gender division of labor on the farm'', 1988) and lectured at Leeds University,

Bristol University , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

(1989-2001) and the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

(2001-2004). She lives in Upton, Oxfordshire.

Scholarship

Whatmore began studying rural geography, gender and alternative food networks, moving into the critical geography of environmental issues at the end of the 1990s. She has questioned Marxist materialist approaches in favour of actor-network theory and feminist science studies. Her approach, laid out in her 2002 book ''Hybrid Geographies'', attempts to develop what she terms "more than human" modes of inquiry, and question the relationship between science and democracy. ''Hybrid Geographies'' has been cited over 1,800 times. Her research focuses on the treatment of evidence and role of expertise in environmental governance, against growing reliance on computer modelling techniques. It is characterized by a commitment to experimental and collaborative research practices that bring the different knowledge competences of social and natural scientists into play with those of diverse local publics living with environmental risks and hazards like floods and droughts. Her ideas were developed further in ''Political Matter'' (Whatmore & Braun eds. 2010). Her critical ideas have been well received by theorists, but less so by policy-oriented environmental thinkers and traditional geographers less inclined to "theorise" human-environment relationships. Nonetheless, she has been a member of the Science Advisory Council to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and chair of its Social Science Expert Group; a member of the Science Advisory Group established to advise the Cabinet Office’s National Flood Resilience Review (2016), and as a member of the board of the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.

Honours and awards

*2013:

Ellen Churchill Semple Ellen Churchill Semple (January 8, 1863 – May 8, 1932) was an American geographer and the first female president of the Association of American Geographers. She contributed significantly to the early development of the discipline of geography i ...

award,

Department of Geography, University of Kentucky The Department of Geography in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky offers undergraduate degrees and graduate degrees and courses in physical and human geography. The department has an international reputation for the stu ...

* 2014:

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in the United Kingdom # C ...

, the United Kingdom's

national academy A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the humanit ...

for the humanities and social sciences. * Fellow,

Academy of Social Sciences The Academy of Social Sciences is a representative body for social sciences in the United Kingdom. The Academy promotes social science through its sponsorship of the Campaign for Social Science, its links with Government on a variety of matters, a ...

* DSc,

University of Bristol , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. * 2020:

Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(DBE) in the

2020 New Year Honours The 2020 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to the study of environmental policy

Selected bibliography

* * * Nigel Thrift and Sarah Whatmore (eds.). 2004. ''Cultural geography: critical concepts in the social sciences''. London: Routledge. * * * Sarah Whatmore, Terry Marsden, Philip Lowe (eds.) 1994. ''Gender and rurality''. London: David Fulton Publishers. * Philip Lowe, Terry Marsden, Sarah Whatmore (eds.). 1994. ''Regulating agriculture''. London: David Fulton Publishers. * Sarah Whatmore. 1991. ''Farming women: gender, work and family enterprise''. Basingstoke: Macmillan. * Terry Marsden, Philip Lowe, Sarah Whatmore (eds) 1992. ''Labour and locality: uneven development and the rural labour process". London: David Fulton Publishers. * Terry Marsden, Philip Lowe, Sarah Whatmore (eds.). 1990. ''Rural restructuring: global processes and their responses''. London: David Fulton Publishers. * Philip Lowe, Terry Marsden, Sarah Whatmore (eds.). 1990. ''Technological change and the rural environment''. London: David Fulton Publishers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whatmore, Sarah Living people English geographers Fellows of Keble College, Oxford Fellows of Linacre College, Oxford Alumni of University College London Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences Fellows of the British Academy 1959 births Women geographers Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire Scientists from Aldershot