In her work with the Arts and Humanities Forum, Ward helped develop research opportunities for faculty and graduate students, with a particular emphasis on community-focused events. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she is co-organizing a “Humanity and Health” webinar series that exemplifies how OU research makes meaningful contributions in the public realm. She will also serve as the president of the German Studies Association during 2021 and 2022.
“I am delighted to have this opportunity to contribute to the nurturing of research convergence and collaboration across OU’s departments and colleges and with external partners,” Ward said. “The ongoing research, scholarship and creative activity of OU’s wide-ranging areas of excellence provide a strong set of foundations for further building our national and global reputation.”
After joining OU in 2011 as professor of history, Ward served as a faculty fellow for humanities and social sciences research in the College of Arts and Sciences. Previously, Ward was associate professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she also served as the director of interdisciplinary programs.
Ward is a transdisciplinary scholar of urban studies, visual culture and European cultural history and memory. She has received fellowships and awards from the American Council of Learned Societies, Fulbright, German Academic Exchange Service, Getty Research Institute, National Endowment for the Humanities, Summer Institute for Israel Studies and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
She is completing her current book, “Sites of Holocaust Memory,” for Bloomsbury Academic. She has authored two other monographs, “Post-Wall Berlin: Borders, Space and Identity” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) and “Weimar Surfaces: Urban Visual Culture in 1920s Germany” (University of California Press, 2001), as well as 35 peer-reviewed essays and articles. She is the co-editor of four additional books, with a fifth underway on “Fascism in America,” as well as journal special issues on the Oklahoma City bombing and on confronting racial hatred.