Professor Dame Sarah Whatmore FBA

Sarah is a cultural geographer with an established reputation for leading interdisciplinary research projects working at the interface of the social and natural sciences to understand and manage environmental conflicts and risks better. Her work is known for using collaborative research methods which engage communities living with these conflicts and risks in the research process. She has published widely on the theoretical and political implications of these questions and is an acknowledged pioneer in what have become known as 'more-than-human' modes of enquiry, concerned with the material and ecological fabric of social life and the politics of knowledge through which this fabric is contested and re-made historically and today. Prior to her Oxford appointment as a Statutory Professor of Environment and Public Policy in 2004, her academic career has included positions at University College London, the University of Bristol and the Open University.

Whilst at Oxford, Sarah has served as the Head of her department and in a variety of senior university roles, including Head of the Social Sciences Division, Pro Vice Chancellor for Education and Academic Champion for Public Engagement with Research. She has also held a variety of UK government advisory appointments, including as a member of the Defra Science Advisory Council (SAC) and Chair of its Social Science Expert Group. In 2014 she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, and in 2020 appointed DBE in recognition of her contributions to the study of environment and public policy.

Most recently, she has been elected Warden of Keble College from October 2026. She is no longer available to supervise graduate students but continues to co-teach a 'policy into practice' workshop with Dr Kieron Stanley as part of her ongoing commitment to the Science and Politics module in SoGE's MSc programme in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance.