Nigel Thrift

Nigel John Thrift (born 12 October 1949 in Bath)[1][2] is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick and a leading academic in the field of human geography.

Contents

Early life and career

Born in 1949, and educated at Nailsea School, Thrift has held posts at numerous universities including University of Wales, Aberystwyth, University of Wales, Lampeter, the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford. At Oxford, Thrift served as Head of the Life and Environmental Sciences Division before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research. In 2003, he became a fellow of the British Academy [3] and was awarded the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.[4] In 2005 he was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick, taking up the position in July 2006.

Contribution to geography

Thrift has been described as one of the world's leading human geographers [5] and social scientists, and is credited with coining the phrase soft capitalism as well as originating 'Non-representational theory'. He has been awarded several prizes and commendations recognising his research including the Scottish Geographical Medal in 2009, and he was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. Thrift sits on a number of advisory committees for the UK Government, and was a member of the ESRC Research Priorities Board. In 1982 Thrift co-founded the journal Environment and Planning D: Society and Space[6] whilst serving as managing editor, since 1979, of Environment and Planning A.[7]

His work on time, language, power, representations and the body have been influential and it has been suggested that Thrift's career reflects and in some cases spurred the substantial intellectual changes in Human Geography in the 1980s and '90s. Thrift can most readily be associated with poststructuralism through his attention to subjectivity, representation, identity and practice. Most recently he has written on what he terms 'non-representational theory', which stresses performative and embodied knowledges and is a radical attempt to wrench the social sciences and humanities out of an emphasis on representation and interpretation by moving away from contemplative models of thought and action to those based on practice. Thrift has claimed that non-representational theory addresses the 'unprocessual' nature of much of social and cultural theory. Major themes within non-representational theory include subjectification; space as a verb; technologies of being; embodiment; and play & excess. Non-representational theory has provoked substantial debate within the field of Human Geography around the limits of the mediation of our world through language and how we might see, sense and communicate beyond it.

Selected bibliography

Selected Books

Thrift has written three monographs and co-authored more than twenty other books.[8]

Journal articles

References

Warf B (2004) "Nigel Thrift" in Hubbard P, Kitchin R & Valentine G (Eds.) Key Thinkers on Space and Place, London: Sage

  1. ^ Debrett's entry
  2. ^ Lucy Hodges (13 September 2007). "Going up in the world: Warwick's rank ambitions". The Independent on Sunday. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/going-up-in-the-world-warwicks-rank-ambitions-402122.html. Retrieved 15 November 2009. 
  3. ^ http://www.britac.ac.uk/fellowship/directory/ord.asp?letter=T
  4. ^ "Vice-Chancellor, Professor Nigel Thrift". University of Warwick. http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/vco/vc/. Retrieved 2009-06-26. 
  5. ^ The Geographer Spring 2009 page 2
  6. ^ http://www.envplan.com/epd/epdinfo.html
  7. ^ http://www.envplan.com/epa/epainfo.html
  8. ^ A full list of all of the books he has co-authored is available from Professor Thrift's website: Nigel Thrift's Books and Monographs - nigelthrift.org

External links

Academic offices
Preceded by
David VandeLinde		 Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick
2006–present		 Succeeded by
Incumbent