Dr Simon WARD

Dr Simon WARD The University of Aberdeen School of Language & Literature Lecturer work +44 (0)1224 272491 pref simon.ward@abdn.ac.uk pref School of Language and Literature Taylor Building King's College Old Aberdeen AB24 3UB

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Biography

After completing his degree in Modern History and Modern Languages at Oxford, Dr Ward wrote his doctoral thesis on constructions of self in the works of Wolfgang Koeppen, which appeared as a book with Rodopi (see below). He is currently completing a book on the urban memory in Berlin from 1960 to 2012, focusing on the relationship between memory, visual culture and the urban environment, and moving away from a focus on 'space' in the city towards a reading of the experience of 'time' in the city.

He is also preparing a book on 'Modernity off the Rails? A Cultural History of the Railways in Twentieth Century Europe', based around a number of articles he has already published.

His teaching interests are principally in German cultural history and visual culture; he has devised and taught Honours courses on Berlin, City of the Twentieth Century; the cultural history of travel and tourism in Germany since 1770; and on German History since 1945. He also teaches a range of literature courses relating to twentieth-century German modernist literature. 

Reflecting his growing interest in film and visual culture, he has developed modules on the cinema of Wim Wenders, as well as other film modules on 'Cinematic Cities' and 'Transport Technologies', courses which itself crosses the boundaries between European, American and 'world' cinema. He has also developed a module on 'Filming German History' which examines  the strategies used by film makers such as Edgar Reitz, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Oliver Hirschbiegl to put 'history' on film, as a way of discussing the changes that have taken place in German film making in the post-unification era.

 

In his spare time, he enjoys running and playing cricket.

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Research Interests

His wider research interests focus on the relationships between architecture and critical theory, and the cultural significance of 'in-between' spaces as they are encountered and imagined in urban space, artistic discourse, including travel writing, and between artistic disciplines. He contributes to the M. Litt in Visual Culture. He would be particularly interested in supervising a PhD on the relationship between regeneration and resistance in art and literature in post-unification Berlin, as well as in any area of twentieth-century German literature and film.

He is also interested in Northern Irish prose and poetry since Louis MacNeice, with particular reference to Derek Mahon and Michael Longley. 

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Research Grants

British Academy Overseas Conference Grant, January 2008.

Carnegie Research Grant for travel to Berlin, July 2009

AHRC Research Leave Scheme, September 2009 - January 2010

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Teaching Responsibilities

FS2505 (coordinator/lectures)

FS2002 (coodinator / Lectures)

FS35FA (coordinator / lectures)

FS30FB (coordinator / lectures)

LN2501 (coordinator/lectures)

GM1543 (coordinator / lectures)

GM2543 (coordinator / lectures)

GM3514/4514 (coordinator/ seminars)

GM3053/4053 (Coordinator / seminars)

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Admin Responsibilities

Undergraduate Programme Coordinator, Film & Visual Culture, 2006-2007, 2010 to date

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Publications

Contributions to Journals

Articles

• Ward, S. (2010). 'Obsolescence and the Cityscape of the Former GDR'. German Life and Letters, vol 63, no. 4, pp. 375-397.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0483.2010.01506.x
• Ward, S. (2006). 'Responsible Ruins: W.G. Sebald and the Responsibility of the German Writer'. Forum for Modern Language Studies, vol 42, no. 2, pp. 183-199.
  [Online] DOI: 10.1093/fmls/cql007
• Ward, S. (2005). 'The Passenger as Flâneur?: Railway Networks in German-language fiction since 1945'. Modern Language Review, vol 100, no. 2, pp. 412-428.
• Ward, S. (2003). '"Station to Station": Circulation in the "New" Berlin"'. German as a Foreign Language, vol 1, pp. 93-105.

Chapters in Books, Reports and Conference Proceedings

Chapters

• Ward, S. 'Film, The City and the Museal Gaze'. P McIsaac (ed.), in: The Past on Display. University of Toronto Press.
• Ward, S. (2009). 'Globalization and the Remembrance of Violence: Visual Culture, Space, and Time in Berlin'. C Lindner (ed.), in: Globalization, Violence and the Visual Culture of Cities. Questioning Cities, Routledge, London, United Kingdom, pp. 87-106.
• Ward, S. (2009). 'Berlin as Space and Place in the later writings of Wolfgang Koeppen'. D Clarke & R Rechtien (eds), in: The Politics of Place in Post-War Germany: Essays in Literary Criticism. Edwin Mellen Press, Lewington, NY, USA, pp. 67-84.
• Ward, S. (2007). 'The limits and possibilities of dialogue between poetry and music: The collaborative work of Clemens Gadenstätter and Lisa Spalt'. J Preece, F Finlay & RJ Owen (eds), in: New German Literature: Life-Writing and Dialogue with the Arts. Leeds-Swansea colloquia on contemporary German literature, vol. 1, Peter Lang Pub., Oxford, UK, pp. 183-204.
• Ward, S. (2005). 'Material, Image, Sign: On the Value of Memory Traces in Public Space'. in: In: Memory Traces: 1989 and the Question of German Cultural Identity, Peter Lang, Oxford. In: Memory Traces: 1989 and the Question of German Cultural Identity, Peter Lang, Oxford, pp. 281-308.
• Ward, S. (2004). '"Neues, altes Tor zur Welt": The New Central Station in Berlin'. in: In: Berlin: The Symphony Continues, De Gruyter, Berlin. In: Berlin: The Symphony Continues, De Gruyter, Berlin.
• Ward, S. (2004). 'Ruins and the Imagination of Cultural Tradition after 1945'. in: In: German Literature, History, and the Nation (eds. Midgley,D.;Emden,C.), Peter Lang, Oxford. In: German Literature, History, and the Nation (eds. Midgley,D.;Emden,C.), Peter Lang, Oxford, pp. 329-354.
• Ward, S. (2004). '"Connecting" Music and Literature'. On the Collaborative Work of Clemens Gadenstätter and Lisa Spalt, and its Interpretation'. in: In: Blueprints for No-Man's Land: Connections in Contemporary Austrian Culture, Peter Lang, Oxford. In: Blueprints for No-Man's Land: Connections in Contemporary Austrian Culture, Peter Lang, Oxford.
• Ward, S. (2004). ''Wolfgang Koeppen: "Unmasking" the "Author" of a Holocaust Testimony'. in: In:Fakes and Forgeries, Cambridge Scholars Press. In:Fakes and Forgeries, Cambridge Scholars Press.
• Ward, S. (2004). 'Ruins and Poetics in the works of WG Sebald'. in: In: WG Sebald: A Critical Companion, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh:. In: WG Sebald: A Critical Companion, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh:, pp. 58-74.
• Ward, S. (2002). '"Zugzwang" or "Stillstand"?--Trains in the Post-1989 Fiction of Brigitte Struyzk, Reinhard Jirgl and Wolfgang Hilbig'. in: In: Recasting German Identity, Camden House, New York. In: Recasting German Identity, Camden House, New York.
• Ward, S. (2001). 'Werner Bergengruen's Am Himmel wie auf Erden: the historical novel and "inner emigration"'. in: In: Travellers in Time and Space: the German historical novel, Rodopi, Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA. In: Travellers in Time and Space: the German historical novel, Rodopi, Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA.

Books and Reports

Books

• Stewart, JC. & Ward, S. (2004). 'Blueprints for No-Man's Land: Connections in Contemporary Austrian Culture'. Unknown Publisher, Connecting and Locating Culture, Peter Lang, Oxford.
• Ward, S. (2001). 'Negotiating Positions: Literature, Identity and Social Critique in the Works of Wolfgang Koeppen'. Unknown Publisher, Rodopi, Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA.

Scholarly Editions

• Ward, S. (2007). '„sthetischer Radikalismus in der Posthistoire. Zum literarischen Bild der Geschichte in Reinhard Jirgls Hundsnächte'. German Monitor, Rodopi.

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