Jo Sharp


Joanne Patricia Sharp, is a Scottish geographer. She researches and writes on geopolitics and feminist geography. In April 2022 she became Geographer Royal for Scotland, the first woman to hold the title which was created in 1682. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and has been awarded the President's Medal of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.

Biography

Academic background

Sharp's dissertation was published in 2000 under the title Condensing the Cold War: Reader's Digest and American Identity. She was a Professor at the University of Glasgow from 1995 to 2019, and later a Professor at the University of St Andrews.

Research

Geopolitics and critical political geography

Sharp's dissertation, focused on the American magazine Reader's Digest and how it contributed to the creation of a certain "American identity" between 1922 and 2000. According to her, Reader's Digest consolidated its image of America in opposition to the Soviet Union and communism.

Feminist geography

Sharp has published significant research on feminist geography, notably with co-author Linda McDowell.

Postcolononial geography

According to Heidi Bojsen:
''"Joanne Sharp reminds us that colonial cartography, that of conquered territories, first served colonizers to control and occupy colonized countries and, second, as a concept that allowed the colonized to imagine themselves as 'nations' and thus to claim their independence."''

Personal life

Sharp was born and raised in Perth, Scotland and attended Perth Academy. She credits her love of geography to her “inspirational” teacher, Kenneth Maclean.
Sharp has been married to the Scottish crime writer Val McDermid since October 2016.

Awards and recognition

Sharp became Geographer Royal for Scotland in April 2022. This distinction was created in 1682 and the first geographer to hold this title was Robert Sibbald. It was reintroduced in 2015, having not been awarded for nearly a century. Sharp is the first woman to hold this title. Her position as Geographer Royal for Scotland is scheduled to last for six years, from 2022 to 2028.
Sharp has also received the following medals, distinctions, and awards:

Works

  • Linda McDowell and Joanne Sharp, Space, Gender, Knowledge: Feminist Readings. London, Routledge, 1997, 483 p.
  • Linda McDowell and Joanne Sharp, A Feminist Glossary of Human Geography, London, Routledge, 1999, 382 p.
  • Joanne Sharp, Paul Routledge, Chris Philo and Ronan Paddison, Entanglements of Power. London, Routledge, 1999, 320 p.
  • Joanne P. Sharp, 2000, Condensing the Cold War: Reader's Digest and American Identity, NED-New edition, University of Minnesota Press, 2000
  • Joanne P. Sharp, 2008, Geographies of Postcolonialism. London: Sage. ISBN 9781526498823

    Articles and chapters

  • Joanne P. Sharp, “Publishing American identity: popular geopolitics, myth and The Reader's Digest”, Political Geography, vol. 12, no 6, November 1, 1993, p. 491–503
  • Joanne P. Sharp, “Gendering Nationhood: A feminist engagement with national identity”, in Nancy Duncan, BodySpace: Destabilizing Geographies of Gender and Sexuality, London, Routledge, 1996, 288 p., pp. 97–107
  • Lorraine Dowler and Joanne Sharp, “A Feminist Geopolitics?”, Space and Polity, vol. 5, no. 3, 1 December 2001, pp. 165–176
  • John Briggs and Joanne Sharp, “Indigenous knowledges and development: a postcolonial caution”, Third World Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 4, 1 May 2004, pp. 661–676
  • Joanne Sharp, Venda Pollock and Ronan Paddison, “Just Art for a Just City: Public Art and Social Inclusion in Urban Regeneration”, Urban Studies, vol. 42, nos. 5–6, May 2005, pp. 1001–1023