The University of Sheffield
Department of Germanic Studies

Dr Caroline Pearce

Lecturer in German and Interpreting

email : c.pearce@sheffield.ac.uk

I studied French and German at Oxford University (BA, MA) and then completed a postgraduate diploma in Interpreting and Translating at the University of Bath. Subsequently, I worked for two years as a translator at the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht, where I also learnt Dutch. I returned to the UK to study for an MPhil and PhD at the Institute for German Studies (IGS) at Birmingham University, including a two-year period in Berlin. My MPhil thesis (2000) dealt with remembrance of the Nazi past in West Germany and my PhD thesis (2005) assessed debates and controversies on the Nazi legacy in the “Berlin Republic” between 1998 and 2002. During my time at the IGS I also worked as website editor for the German-British Forum, an organisation which promotes German-British cooperation in the fields of politics, business and culture. I joined the Department of Germanic Studies at Sheffield in 2003.

Research

My research interests lie in the politics, culture and history of post-war Germany, with a focus on approaches to the legacy of the National Socialist past. I am particularly interested in the role and development of memorial sites in Germany and am currently working on the representation of perpetrators in memorial sites. Further research areas include approaches to Germany’s “double past”, the Europeanisation of Holocaust remembrance, and German initiatives against far-right extremism. I retain a keen interest in German-British relations and the European Union.

I have translated and edited academic texts for organisations including the Institute for Economic Research in Halle and the Memorial and Educational Site House of the Wannsee Conference, Centrum Judaicum and Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin. I translated the English version of the permanent exhibition at the House of the Wannsee Conference in Berlin. I have also been involved in the translation, transcription and analysis of survivor testimonies for the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and am a member of the AHRC Holocaust Writing and Translation Research Network. I am currently working on a translation of the diary of the Holocaust survivor Hilma Ludomer in conjunction with the House of the Wannsee Conference.

List of publications

Undergraduate Teaching

I coordinate the School wide BA Modern Languages and Interpreting programme and teach the following interpreting modules:

In addition, I teach on the School wide module MDL201/302 Cold War Visual Culture

Postgraduate Teaching and Supervision

I offer PhD supervision in aspects of post-1945 German history, politics and culture.

Administration