While majoring in philosophy, Sharp went with friends Clyde Kluckhohn and John J. Hanks on summer treks to archaeological sites on the Kaiparowitz Plateau in Arizona and Utah.

These expeditions sparked his interest in the concrete, culturally informed anthropologist's perspective on human nature, in contrast to the more abstract, universalizing view of a philosopher.

Sharp moved to Austria to study Southeast Asian Ethnology under Robert Heine-Geldern, receiving the Certificate in Anthropology from the University of Vienna in 1931.

Upon returning to Cornell, Sharp oversaw the expansion of the anthropology program, making it a leading center for graduate training and research.

In 1947, Sharp began the Cornell-Thailand Project, a ground-breaking initiative to collate baseline data in a comprehensive study of a farming village (Bang Chan) on the outskirts of Bangkok.

This continued in the Bennington-Cornell Project started in 1963, which entailed a broad regional survey of the upland and lowland peoples of northern Thailand.

Several of his publications became classics in their fields: Steel Axes for Stone-Age Australians (1952), People Without Politics (1958), and Cultural Continuities and Discontinuities in Southeast Asia (1962).

A number of his coauthored works exhibited his multidisciplinary research and interest in culture change, such as Siamese Rice Village (1953) and Bang Chan: Social History of A Rural Community in Thailand (1978).