I was born in England, growing up in East Anglia, and have been interested in geography for as long as I remember. I completed a B.Sc (hons) in Geography at Bristol University, before moving to Canada where I completed an MA and PhD at the University of Toronto. I then took up a position at the University of Minnesota where I worked for thirty six years, becoming a Regents Professor (the highest faculty honor), before moving to UCLA in 2012. While there I supervised some 50 PhD and MA students, undertaking research in North and South America, East, southeast and south Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa, as well as serving on the committees of over 200 other graduate students in four colleges. I also chaired my department, and served as co-director of the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change.
My scholarship embraces economic geography, with a particular focus on geographical political economy, uneven geographies of globalization and geographies of development; urban studies, with a particular focus on urban policies and politics; neoliberalism and its contestations; the spatiality social movements and other forms of contestation; geographic information technologies and society; geographic thought, philosophies and methods; and environmental justice.
I teach undergraduate and graduate courses on economic geography, development, globalization and geographic thought.