Awards

Lieber Memorial Associate Instructor Award - 1971

About Margaret E. Ward

Margaret E. Ward is Professor of German at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She earned her B.A. from Wilson College, and then her M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University.

Ward’s teaching career at Wellesley has been expansive, offering a wide range of courses in German language, literature and culture. She also held the rotating William R. Kenan, Jr. chair at Wellesley for two years. Other than teaching, her research focused primarily on 20th-century drama theory and practice, and the interaction between intent, content and form in political dramas of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and then of GDR-drama during the ‘80s. Mid-career, her focus shifted dramatically to 19th and 20th century German woman writers, including Fanny Lewald, Ingeborg Drewitz, and Christa Wolf. In retirement, Ward researched Latin America in the German Imagination.

Ward’s research on German women writers is exposed in her book, Fanny Lewald: Between Rebellion and Renunciation, which was published in 2006. Her book focuses on Lewald’s advocacy for the rights of women to education and work. Ward serves on the advisory board (Beirat) of the Insitut für Frauen-Biographieforschung, and has written many biographies of famous women for Berühmte Frauenkalender since 1993.

Ward was an active supporter of the Department of Women’s studies at Wellesley by co-directing the program from its inception, and serving on the Women’s Studies’ Reappointments and Promotions committee. She is also a long time member of Women in German, an allied organization of the MLA, as well as a former member of its executive board.

As of 2007, Ward is the namesake of the senior prize for excellence in Women’s Studies, which is awarded yearly at Wellesley. She is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Phi Alpha honorary societies, and has been a Fellow of NEH and Fulbright for sabbatical research.