Sarah A Radcliffe

Professor Sarah A Radcliffe is a leading scholar in Latin American Geography and Fellow of Christ’s College at the University of Cambridge. She holds the position of Professor of Latin American Geography in the Department of Geography, specializing in social and territorial inequalities, indigenous citizenship, and decolonial geographies. Her research focuses on marginalized communities in Latin America, particularly Indigenous groups in Ecuador, Chile, and Peru, examining issues of multiculturalism, identity, and anti-colonial movements.

Radcliffe’s career spans over three decades, beginning with post-doctoral research at the University of Liverpool and the University of Cambridge. She has held academic positions at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of Cambridge, advancing to her current professorship in 2012. Her education includes a BSc in Geography and Anthropology from University College London and a PhD from the University of Liverpool on Andean migration and development.

Her research interests include the intersection of race, gender, and indigeneity in Latin America, with projects such as Geographies of Indigenous Citizenship (funded by the Leverhulme Trust) and Equality in Diversity: Policy, Practice and People in Ecuador’s Buen Vivir. She advocates for decolonizing geographical knowledge, reflected in her leadership of the Decolonial Research Lab and the 2017 Royal Geographical Society conference on decolonial themes.

Radcliffe supervises PhD students exploring topics like Indigenous territorial autonomy, decolonial education, and water insecurity. She is a Fellow of the British Academy and has authored/co-authored influential books such as Indigenous Development in the Andes and Culture and Development in a Globalizing World.

Her work bridges academia and activism, addressing contemporary debates on multiculturalism, neoliberalism, and postcolonial development. Recent publications include Decolonizing Geography: An Introduction (Polity Press) and articles on Mapuche youth identity and decolonial pedagogy.