Christopher Sharpe

Department of Geography
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL
A1B 3X9

E mail: casharpe[at]mun[dot]ca

I retired at the end of 2015, after 39 years in the Department, and moved to Shelburne, a town of 1,700 people on the South Shore of Nova Scotia. Since moving here I’ve become involved in the Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia, and the Shelburne Historical Society, which runs three museum sites in the town. I also joined the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department. A.J. (Jo) Shawyer, another retired member of the department, and I have finally completed our book describing the development of Churchill Park Garden Suburb. “Corner Windows and Cul-de-Sacs” was published by Memorial University Press in December 2021. I’m now working on a re-evaluation of the Anglo-American ‘Bases for Destroyers’ agreement which brought the U.S. Army to St. John’s in 1941.

Teaching Interests

Urban geography

Selected Publications

  • 2016 Sweat Equity: Cooperative House-Building in Newfoundland,
    1920–1974. C.A. Sharpe (Author), A.J Shawyer (Author). Iser Books

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  • 2015 ‘Enlistment in the Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1918. A re-evaluation’. Canadian Military History 24: 11-54.
  • 2015 ‘Enlistment and Conscription: Canada’. In Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer and Bill Nasson (eds.) 1914-1918 Online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War. Freie Universitat Berlin 2015-02-22. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15463/ie1418.10670.
  • 2012 ‘Blackouts, sing-alongs and the price of eggs’. Newfoundland Quarterly 105: 3-7. (with A.J. Shawyer).
  • 2012 " '...to prevent confused or over-optimistic thinking and possible disappointment': Brian Dunfield and the Slum Clearance Problem in St. John's, Newfoundland, 1944". Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 27: 99-130.
  • 2010 'Building a wartime landscape'. In S. High (ed.) Occupied St. John's: A Social History of a City at War 1939-1945. Montreal and Kingston: Mc-Gill-Queen's University Press, 21-80. (Co-author A.J. Shawyer)
  • 2009 "Presidential Address: Is geography (the discipline) sustainable without geography (the subject). The Canadian Geographer 53: 123-138.
  • 2006 "House prices in a Heritage Area: The case of St. John's, Newfoundland". Canadian Journal of Urban Research 15: 175-201.
  • 2006 " 'a bold scheme for...doubling the living space of the town'. The origins of Churchill Park Garden Suburb, St. John's, Newfoundland, 1943". Newfoundland and Labrador Studies 21: 343-366.
  • 2006. “The rural/urban location pattern of advanced service firms in an international perspective”. In R. Lipsey and A. Nakamura (eds) Service Industries and the Knowledge_Based Economy. Ottawa: Industry Canada, 445-490. (Co-author C.M. Wernerheim)
  • 2005 “Just beyond the fringe: Churchill Park garden suburb in St. John’s, Newfoundland”. The Canadian Geographer 49: 400-410.
  • 2005. “Mr. Dunfield’s Folly: The development of Churchill Park Garden Suburb in St. John’s”. In Alan G. Macpherson (ed) Four Centuries And The City: Perspectives on the historical geography of St. John’s. St. John’s: Department of Geography, Memorial University, 83-122.
  • 2005. “Heritage Conservation in the City of St. John’s”. In Alan G. Macpherson (ed) Four Centuries And The City: Perspectives on the historical geography of St. John’s. St. John’s: Department of Geography, Memorial University, 157-221. (Co-author S. O'Dea)
  • 2005. “Employment and location patterns of advanced services in non-urban Canada”. Service Industries Journal 25: 181-211. (Co-author C.M. Wernerheim)
  • 2003. “High order producer services in Metropolitan Canada: How footloose are they?”. Regional Studies 37: 469-490. (Co-author C.M. Wernerheim)
  • 2003. “The devil’s in the details’: Benign neglect and the erosion of heritage in St. John’s, Newfoundland”. Newfoundland Studies 19: 251-281.
  • 2001. “The potential bias in producer service employment estimates: the case of the Canadian space economy”. Urban Studies 38: 563-591. (Co-author C.M. Wernerheim)
  • 2000. “ '...to arouse our city from its deathlike apathy, from its reproachable lethargy, from its slumber of industrial and social death' . The 1939 St. John's Municipal Housing Scheme”. Newfoundland Studies 16: 47-66.