Professor Ingrid Sharp

Profile

Education and Leadership

I graduated from St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford (BA, MA: German and Philosophy), studied for my PGCE at the University of York and was awarded my PhD from the University of Leeds in Gender, Cultural Representation and the First World War. 

I have held a number of leadership roles at Leeds, including Subject Leader for German, Director of Postgraduate Studies and Chair of  the Examinations Group for Postgraduate research degrees.

I am currently Chair of Women in German Studies, UK and hold a Senior Fellowship in the Senior Elisabeth List Fellowship Programme, University of Graz: 'War, Welfare and Gender Politics in the First World War in Local and Global Dimensions.'

2022-2025: Mentor, Ben Lewis Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship ‘Of Comradeship and Sisterhood: A Political History of “Die Gleichheit” 1891-1917’

Responsibilities

• Deputy Director of Research and Innovation (DDoRI)

Research interests

Research Interests

In my research I look at individuals and groups, especially women, who have challenged dominant ideas and entrenched authority and sought change; at how moments of crisis and conflict can act as catalysts for these challenges, and how the aftermath of conflict offers a brief window during which societal and gender norms can be re-negotiated. My approach is from a Gender, Women’s and Cultural History perspective, with a particular interest in the ethical motivation of these parties and the ways in which they represent themselves and are represented in the culture of the time.

My research topics are reflected in and informed by my teaching, research supervision, invited conference papers and publications, and have been supported by internal and external research awards.

Gender and the First World War

A major area of my research and public engagement has focussed on WW1 and its aftermath, especially on women’s organisations and female activists during the period 1914–24 and the revolutionary upheavals of 1918, and on various forms and expressions of war resistance.

Women and the Reunification of Germany

My research into media representations of sexuality during the Wende and Unification found a national media echo when it was featured as the topic of the Improbable Research column in The Guardian published in August 2010.

RCUK Funded projects:

• PI: AHRC follow-on funding for impact and Engagement scheme (Highlight Creative Economy) February 2017–July 2018 ‘Gender and the German Revolution: Writing Women into the History of the Kiel Uprising, November 1918’
• PI: AHRC/HLF: Social Attitudes to Conscientious Objection with English Heritage, October 2016–2017
• PI: AHRC: Women’s Organisations and Female Activists 2011–2013
• Leader: Resistance to War Strand Legacies of War project 2014–18
• Winner of the VC Award for Impact 2016 and the Public Engagement witrh research award 2018
• Partners: Gateways to War Engagement Centre; Everyday Lives in War Engagement Centre; The Peace Museum Bradford; Bent Architect Theatre Company

Research Supervision

I welcome approaches from candidates interested in either an MA by Research or PhD in the following areas:

• Resistance to the First World War in the UK and Germany
• Gender aspects of the First World War and the Revolution 1918
• Gender relations in the Weimar Republic and representations of the New Woman in art, media and literature
• gendered representations of the Wende and Unification
• Feminist Crime Fiction in Germany.

Current and recent Postgraduates

• Louise Earnshaw FT PhD 2021–2024 (Joseph Wright  scholarship) Gender and Trauma in post-war Austria and Germany
• Clara-Anna Eggers FT PhD at University of Vienna: the international women’s movement
• Ann Schofield FT MAR 2021–22 Gender and Revolution
• Angus Wallace FT PhD 2019–2022 Military Tribunals in Yorkshire
• Nathan Brand FT PhD 2016–2019 Culture as politics: the semiotic construction of the conservative revolution in post-Soviet Russia
• Manal Alzahrani FT PhD 2016–2019 Saudi Feminism in Translation
• Eve Haskins PT PhD 2015–21 Resistance to War in Leeds
• Sabine Grimshaw FT PhD 2014–17 Pacifism and Protest (CDA with Imperial War Museum)
• John March PT MAR 2014–16 German Exile Photographers in Britain 1933–45
• Anja Coffey FT MAR 2015–16 Coming to terms with the Nazi past in Austrian family history.
• Corinne Painter PT PhD 2013–16 Life and Works of Clementine Krämer 1867–1941.

Publications

Edited Volumes and Special Issues

• (2022) Protest, Revolution and Commemoration: Socialist Women and the Great War, 1914-1921 with Matthew Stibbe and Corinne Painter Bloomsbury, Knowledge Unlatched (Open Access)
• (2020) A Cultural History of Peace Volume 5 1815–1920 Bloomsbury
• (2018) L’Homme, Zeitschrift für europäische Geschlechtergeschichte  1914/18-revisited 29 (2) eds Christa Hämmerle, Ingrid Sharp, Heidrun Zettelbauer 
• (2018) Sharp, I.E and Stibbe, M, Internationalism in the Women’s Movement 1918–1939 Palgrave Macmillan.
• (2017) Sharp, I.E and Stibbe, M (eds) Women activists between war and peace. Europe 1918–1923 Bloomsbury
• (2016) Sharp, I.E and Stibbe, M Special Issue, Women’s History Review (online)
• (2011) Sharp, I.E and Stibbe, M (ed.) Aftermaths of War: Women’s Movements and Female Activists, 1918–1923 Brill. [REF 2014]
• (2007) Fell, A.S. and Sharp, I.E. (ed.) The Women's Movement in Wartime. International Perspectives 1914–1919. Palgrave Macmillan.
• (2007) Fell, A.S. and Sharp, I.E. Special Issue Minerva, Women and War
• (2016 online [2003]) Jordan, J and Sharp, I.E. (ed.) Diseases of the Body Politic: Josephine Butler and the Prostitution Campaigns. Routledge. 5 Volume set with introductory essays

Chapters in books/Journal articles

• (2023) ‘History beyond the Script: Rethinking Female Subjectivities and Socialist Women’s Activism during and after the German Revolution of 1918/19’ in Living the German Revolution of 1918-19: Expectations, Experiences, ed. by Chris Dillon, Steven Schouten, Kim Wünschmann, OUP

• (2021) ‘Women of Aktion: Performance, Gender and the German Revolution of 1918’ Feminist German Studies  
• [2021 ‘History beyond the Script: Rethinking Female Subjectivities and Socialist Women’s Activism during and after the German Revolution of 1918/19’ in Living the German Revolution of 1918–19: Expectations, Experiences, ed. by Chris Dillon, Steven Schouten, Kim Wünschmann, OUP (forthcoming).]
• (2020) ‘Dangerous Visionaries and Revolutionary Transformations: Women’s Political Cultures in the Aftermath of War.’ Oxford German Studies Vol 49, 2020 401–419. 
• (2020) ‘Love as moral Imperative and gendered anti-war Strategy in the International Women's Movement 1914–19’ Diplomacy and Statecraft Vol 31, 2020 Issue 2 630–647.
• (2019) Psychology of War: Jane Addams and the Biology of Peace A Cultural History of Peace Bloomsbury (forthcoming).
• (2018) ‘Gedenken an den Kriegswiderstand 1914/18 in Grossbritannien: eine geschlechtergeschichtliche Bilanz  in L’Homme 29 (2)
• (2018) ‘A Peace Play in Wartime? Euripides’ Trojan Women in performance, Berlin 1916’ Classical Receptions Journal
• 2018 (with Matthew Stibbe)‘“In diesen Tagen kamen wir nicht von der Strasse…“ Frauen in der deutschen Revolution von 1918/19‘ Ariadne Forum für Frauen- und Geschlechtergeschichte Juli 2018 Heft 73-74 Die weibliche/n Geschichte/n der Weimarer Republik: 32–39.
• (2016) ‘Una difficile «sorellanza. L’internazionalismo come sfida e impegno, 1914–1924’ Le Donne e la Grande Guerra, 1914–1918, in La grande Guerra delle Italiane. Mobilitazioni, diritti, trasformazioni Rome
• (2016) ‘An unbroken family’? Gertrud Bäumer and the German Women’s Movement’s Return to Internationalism in the 1920s in Women’’s History Review Special Issue on Internationalism post 1918 ed. Matthew Stibbe and Ingrid Sharp (online and at press)
• (2015) History and Policy: ‘Women, peace and transnational activism, a century on’ Helen McCarthy, Ingrid Sharp, Laura Beers, Glenda Sluga, Celia Donert and Helen Pankhurst
• (2015) ‘Legacies of War: International Women’s Movements in the Aftermath of War’ in Erinnerungskulturen, Foreign Office publication, Berlin
• (2014) ‘Gender History and the First World War in Germany: Developments and Perspectives’. ['Geschlechtergeschichte und die Erforschung des Ersten Weltkrieges in Deutschland‘] Geschichte und Region No. 2 pp. 49–66 [potential REF 2021]
• (2014) ‘Overcoming Inner Division: Post suffrage strategies in the organised German women’s movement.’ Special Issue of Women's History Review on Feminists and Feminism after suffrage. Women’s History Review Vol 23 No 3 pp. 347–354 [potential REF 2021]
• (2014) ‘Witnessing the First World War Käthe Kollwitz’s War Cycle 1923’ Vestnik Issue 12 2016 Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University pp. 101–110
• (2013) ‘Feminist Peace Activism 1915 – 2010: Are We Nearly There Yet?’ Peace and Change issue 2 April 2013 volume 38, pp.155-180 [REF 2014]
• (2013) ‘A foolish dream of sisterhood’: anti-pacifist debates in the German women’s movement 1914-1919’ in Christa Hämmerle, Oswald beregger, Brigitta Bader Zaar  Gender and the first World War, Palgrave Macmillan, pp.195–213 [REF 2014]
• (2011) ‘Käthe Kollwitz’s Witness to War: Gender, Authority and Reception.’ Women in German Yearbook Vol 27  pp.87–107 [REF 2-14]
• (2011) ‘The disappearing surplus: the spinster in the post-war debate in Weimar Germany’, 1918-1920 in Sharp, I.E and Stibbe, M Aftermaths of War: Women’s Movements and Female Activists, 1918-1923 Brill pp.178–212

International Keynotes (from 2014)

• November 2021: ‘Women of Aktion: weiblicher Aktivismus in der Novemberrevolution 1918/19’ University of Graz
• October 2021: Women’s Activism and the German Revolution 1918/19 University of Neuchatel
• June 2019: ‘Ending War, Imagining Peace: Gendered thinking about Sustainable Peace in the Aftermath of the First World War’ Peace among the Ruins. The Legacy of Andrew Carnegie’s Internationalism and the World Crisis of 1919, Edinburgh
• October 2018: King’s College London ‘Dangerous Visionaries and Revolutionary Transformations: Women’s Political Cultures in the Aftermath of War’. Aftermath: German and Austrian cultural responses to the end of the First World War (1918–1933)
• October 2017: Making a Stand Against the War: German Resistance to War, Remembering Muted Voices: Conscience, Dissent, Resistance, and Civil Liberties in World War I through Today,  National World War I Museum and Memorial Kansas City, MO, USA
• September 2016: Women against the War: Pacifism and Internationalism in the women’s movement 1914–1924: Women and Modern Wars, Lisbon
• September 2015: Italian Women and the First World War, University of Rome (Roma Tre)
• October 2014: Käthe Kollwitz’s pacifism: Centenary commemorations in Käthe Kollwitz’s birthplace, Kaliningrad, Russia, previously Knigsberg. (NB: Unable to attend due to prior commitment)
• April 2014: Euripides’ Trojan Women in performance in Berlin 1916: Classics and the Great War conference, Leeds
• March 2014: Gender perspectives on the First World War, Germany 1990–2014: Bozen/Bolzano workshop on Gender and Region.

Invited papers (from 2014)

• September 2021: Anti-war German women 1914–1918 Mrs Wilson’s Knitting Circle National WW1 Museum and Memorial (online)
• February 2020: ‘Performing feminist peace: reflections on research-based performances of women’s anti-war resistance 1918–19’, London School of Economics, Centre for Women, Peace and Security (Public Seminar).
• December 2019: ‘Germany November 1918: a People’s Revolution’ Richmond Barracks, Dublin (Public Lecture).
• July 2019: Tshisimani Centre for Activist Education in Cape Town to lead a series of lectures and seminars commemorating Rosa Luxemburg's life and death (Public lectures/seminars).
• December 2018: Divided and united: emerging political cultures and post-war cooperation in the international women’s movement  "Aufbruch 1918" Munich
• November 2018: Vermessung einer Zeitenschwelle. Die Bedeutung des Jahres 1918 in europäischer und globaler Perspektive. Surveying a Time Threshold. The Meaning of 1918 in European and Global Perspective, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Festsaal, Vienna
• May 2018: International Research Seminar, Bern
• November 2017: Weimar, Germany Women and the German Revolution Internationale Fachtagung Zusammenbruch, Aufbruch, Abbruch? Die Novemberrevolution als Ereignis und Erinnerungsort Weimar, Germany
• September 2017: Heidelberg, Germany ‘Weimar und die Welt’, University of Leipzig School of History Reichspräsident-Friedrich-Ebert-Gedenkstätte
• June 2017: ‘Understanding Conflict: Forms and Legacies of Violence’ University of Brighton
• June 2017: Käthe Kollwitz: Art as Activism 1918–45 Peace History Conference, Imperial War Museum London
• May 2017: School for European Culture and Languages at the University of Kent. “Time to Remember: Anniversaries, Celebration and Commemoration"
• January 2017: Gendering Peace, University of Sheffield 
• June 2016: Two Centuries of Peace-making: From the Peace Society to Martin Luther King Newcastle: invited paper ‘Restoring the international Community of Women after World War I’ 
• March 2016: Centenary of the German Revolution in Kiel, Historical workshop organised by Kiel Maritime Museum, invited paper on Women and the Revolution 
• October 2015: Portsmouth, UK Women and the First World War ‘Love as moral imperative and anti-war strategy in the international women’s movement 1914–1919’
• September 2015: Women’s History Network, Canterbury: post-suffrage panel with papers on Britain and Hungary
• March 2015: History and Policy Roundtable, Queen Mary’s University, London UK 
• December 2014: “European Commemoration” Berlin. German Federal Foreign Office, the ifa (Institut fr Auslandsbeziehungen) and the Chairs for Contemporary and Public History of the University of Heidelberg: women’s response to the First World War 
• November 2014: Living War, Thinking Peace 1914–21, Venice Letting our hearts speak: pacifism in the international women’s movement 1914–1919
• September 2014 Objections to War: Pacifism, anti-interventionism and conscientious objection in Literature, theatre and art 1830–1918, University of Hull, UK
• July 2014: Panel and Paper ‘Making a stand against the War’ Anglo American Historians’ Conference, London.

• Of Comradeship and Sisterhood: A Political History of 'Die Gleichheit', 1891-1917

Qualifications

• Leeds PhD Gender and Cultural Representation of the First World War
• York PGCE
• Oxford MA German and Philosophy

Professional memberships

• Women in German Studies (Chair)
• German Studies Association (GSA)
• Association of German Studies (AGS)

Student education

Student education

I teach German cultural and gender history at all levels, and have contributed to cross-School and cross-Faculty modules on translation. I am particularly committed to teaching Women's and Gender History and cultural representation. I have offered a number of specialist modules, including War Imagined, Women in Germany and Cultures of Protest and Resistance. I supervise undergraduate dissertations on marginalised identities and protest movements as well as historical and gender topics.

Postgraduate Training

I have led the Postgraduate Training Programme within the School and continue to offer sessions for Postgraduate Researchers. I have also led the University training for Internal Examiners

Research groups and institutes

• German
• Gender
• History

Current postgraduate researchers

• Angus Wallace
• Wiebke Acton