Rate My Professor Sarah Wright

Sarah Wright is an Honorary Professor in the School of Science, Discipline of Geography and Environmental Studies, at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Previously, she served as Professor and Australian Research Council Future Fellow in geography and development studies. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Washington and a Bachelor of Science with Honours from the University of Sydney. Wright's research centres on critical development studies, geographies of food and food sovereignty, Indigenous and post-colonial geographies, and Indigenous ontologies of connection and co-becoming. Her Future Fellowship project investigates Weather Cultures through songs, songlines, and stories to explore how weather co-constitutes people and place. She is a member of the Bawaka Collective with senior Yolŋu sisters from Northeast Arnhem Land—including Laklak Burarrwanga, Ritjilili Ganambarr, Merrkiyawuy Ganambarr-Stubbs, Banbapuy Ganambarr, and Djawundil Maymuru—alongside Kate Lloyd and Sandie Suchet-Pearson. The collective promotes Indigenous-led understandings of time and place, more-than-human methodologies, and decolonised practices in development studies and natural resource management, with Country as co-author in publications. She also participates in Yandaarra on Gumbaynggirr Country, led by Aunty Shaa Smith and Uncle Bud Marshall, to practice caring for Country in colonised contexts. Over two decades, Wright has collaborated with community groups, NGOs, and social movements in Australia, the Philippines, and Kenya, addressing the politics of knowledge and supporting farmer-led sustainable agriculture.

Wright's career includes roles as Associate Professor at the University of Newcastle, Fellow in the Social Sciences Research Council Program on Global Security and Cooperation, Casual Academic in the University of Washington Department of Geography, and Research Coordinator at the Mineral Policy Institute. She has received major awards, including joint winner of the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards in the non-fiction category (2020), Eva Powell Award for Best Information Book (honour book, 2014), Edward Ullman Award for outstanding written scholarship (2004), and Social Science Research Council Fellowship (2002). Key publications encompass Songspirals: Sharing Women's Wisdom of Country Through Songlines (2019), Welcome to My Country (2013), Stories of Struggle: Experiences of Land Reform in Negros Island, Philippines (2018), Becoming Weather: Weather, Embodiment and Affect (2025), The Dunggiirr Brothers and the Caring Song of the Whale (2022), and Yildaan Our Dreaming Track (2025). Her contributions have advanced Indigenous knowledge systems, intellectual property issues, and relational conservation through ARC-funded projects, PhD supervisions, and praxis-oriented outputs.