[1] She taught at Butler University before joining Barnard's faculty.
Sharp's early research focused on the daily and economic struggles of migrants and locals in a plantation economy in Northwestern Madagascar.
[1] Since 1990, her work has focused on the ethical and moral consequences of innovative medicine and science, especially in the organ transplantation industry, and human-animal relations in experimental laboratory research.
[2] Sharp earned a Guggenheim Fellowship in anthropology and cultural studies in 2020.
[3] She also received the Wellcome Medal for Anthropology as Applied to Medical Problems in 2018 from the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland.