John Pickles currently serves as the Phillips Distinguished Professor of International Studies and Chair of the Department of Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is a public research university located in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States...

. Pickles attended the University of Oxford

University of Oxford

The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree in Geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

, with a minor in Geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

, and a Master's degree in Geography. He later earned doctorate degrees from the University of Natal

University of Natal

The University of Natal was a university in Natal, and later KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, that is now part of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. It was founded in 1910 as the Natal University College in Pietermaritzburg, and expanded to include a campus in Durban in 1931. In 1947, the university...

, South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, and the Pennsylvania State University

Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State or PSU, is a public research university with campuses and facilities throughout the state of Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, the university has a threefold mission of teaching, research, and public service...

, USA. Pickles is a renowned scholar in the areas of critical cartography

Critical cartography

Critical Cartography is a set of new mapping practices and theoretical critique grounded in critical theory. It differs from academic cartography in that it links geographic knowledge with power, and thus is political...

, phenomenology

Phenomenology (science)

The term phenomenology in science is used to describe a body of knowledge that relates empirical observations of phenomena to each other, in a way that is consistent with fundamental theory, but is not directly derived from theory. For example, we find the following definition in the Concise...

, and post-socialist spaces. He is the author of numerous books, including Phenomenology, Science, and Geography: Space and the Human Sciences, Ground Truth: The Social Implications of Geographical Information Systems, and A History of Spaces: Cartographic Reason, Mapping and the Geo-Coded World.