Jenny Pickerill

Jenny Pickerill (born 23 November 1973) is a Professor of Environmental Geography at the University of Sheffield and Vice President of Research and Higher Education at the Royal Geographical Society. Her work explores alternatives to capitalism that generate environmental and social justice.

Early life and education Pickerill studied geography at the Newcastle University. She moved to Scotland for her graduate studies, where she specialised in geographic information systems at the University of Edinburgh. Here she studied the internet activism of Australian environmentalists. She spent 2008 as a visiting fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute. She has studied how environmental activists share their understanding of the environment using technology and how they frame their message. She is also interested in environmental activists who choose to protect one aspect of the environment whilst ignoring another. Her work recognises that environmental issues often overlap with other aspects of inequality; including racism, colonialism and neo-liberalism. Often activist movements incorporate populations of a range of social categories, and Pickerill has looked at its role in the Occupy movement, anti-war movement and the environmental movement in Australia.

Pickerill has studied the impact of experimental solutions on environmental challenges and role of students in redesigning their future. This has included ways to self-build safe, environmentally friendly housing. She has revealed that women are not well represented in eco-building communities.

Selected publications

Alongside her academic publications, Pickerill has written for The Conversation.