Sharon Beder is an environmentalist[1] and former professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia.
[2] Her research has focused on how power relationships are maintained and challenged, particularly by corporations and professions.
[2] Beder was born in 1956 in Wellington, New Zealand, granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Scotland, England and eastern Europe, before the second world war, and daughter of Jacqui and Yoss Beder.
[1] Beder initially trained and worked as a civil engineer in New Zealand[3] before becoming interested in the social, political and philosophical aspects of engineering and then environmental politics.
She completed a PhD in Science and Technology Studies at the University of New South Wales in 1989 based on research into the process of engineering decision-making using a case study on the development of Sydney's sewerage system.