Sharad Chari

Associate Professor Sharad Chari

Sharad Chari is an Associate Professor of Geography at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-director of the Program in Critical Theory. His research intersects Marxist critique, racial capitalism, oceanic studies, and the Black radical tradition. He holds a Ph.D. in Geography from UC Berkeley (2000) and has held fellowships at the University of Michigan (2000-03) and Stellenbosch Institute of Advanced Studies (2023). Previously, he taught at the London School of Economics (2004-12) and the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa (2013-16), where he remains affiliated with the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER).

Research & Publications

• Apartheid Remains (2024): Explores spatial legacies of apartheid in Durban through photography and political struggle.
• Gramsci at Sea (2023): Reinterprets Gramsci through oceanic critiques of imperialism and racial capitalism.
• Co-edited volumes include Keywords in Radical Geography (2019) and Other Geographies (2017).

Teaching

Teaches courses on globalization, colonialism, political economies, and oceanic geographies. Recent courses include Ocean Worlds and Capitalism and Sexuality.

Key Themes

Focuses on:

• Geographies of labor and agrarian studies
• Racial and environmental justice
• Marxist critiques of global capitalism
• Indian Ocean and Black Atlantic intellectual currents

His work bridges spatial theory with anticolonial and abolitionist frameworks, emphasizing interdisciplinary methods and radical thought.