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Christina explores culture, gender and subjectivity from an international perspective, through theoretically-informed empirical research, and collaboration with colleagues and students. Before joining CMCI, Christina was Fellow in Contemporary Social Thought at the Sociology Department, London School of Economics.

Christina has an interdisciplinary background, encompassing Gender Studies (PhD, LSE), Culture and Society (MSc, LSE, Distinction), and Sociology and Politics (BA, University of York, First Class).

• Gender and sexuality
• Engagements with feminism
• Entrepreneurial subjectivities
• Cultural and creative work
• Qualitative research methods

Scharff, C.M. (2014) “Schröder versus Schwarzer? Analysing the Discursive Terrain of Media Debates about Feminism”, Feminist Media Studies, available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2013.805157

Riley, S. and Scharff, C.M. (Forthcoming) “Feminism versus Femininity: exploring feminist dilemmas through cooperative inquiry research”, Feminism & Psychology.

Scharff, C. (2012). Femininities. Gender: The Key Concepts. M. Evans and C. Williams. London, Routledge.

Scharff, C. (2012). Repudiating Feminism: Young Women in a neoliberal world.  Farnham, Ashgate. To read the introduction, or to order the book, please go to: http://www.ashgate.com/isbn/9781409410300

Scharff, C. (2011). “It is a colour thing and a status thing, rather than a gender thing”: negotiating difference in talk about feminism. Feminism & Psychology 21(4): 458–476.

Gill, R. and C. Scharff, Eds. (2011). New femininities: postfeminism, neoliberalism and subjectivity. Basingstoke, Palgrave.

Scharff, C. (2011). "Disarticulating Feminism: Individualization, neoliberalism and the othering of 'Muslim women'." European Journal of Women's Studies18(2): 119-134.   http://ejw.sagepub.com/content/18/2/119.full.pdf+html
DOI: 10.1177/1350506810394613

Scharff, C. (2011). The new German Feminisms: of Wetlands and Alpha-Girls.New femininities: postfeminism, neoliberalism and subjectivity. R. Gill and C. Scharff. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.

Scharff, C. (2011). Passages to feminism: encounters and rearticulations.Transatlantic Conversations: Feminism as Travelling Theory. K. Davis and M. Evans. Farnham, Ashgate.

Scharff, C. (2011). "Towards a pluralist methodological approach: combining performativity theory, discursive psychology and theories of affect " Qualitative Research in Psychology   8(2): 210-221. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14780887.2011.572739

Scharff, C. (2010). Silencing differences: the 'unspoken' dimensions of 'speaking for others'. Secrecy and silence in the research process: feminist reflections. R. Ryan-Flood and R. Gill. London, Routledge.

Scharff, C. (2010). "Young women's negotiations of heterosexual conventions: theorizing sexuality in constructions of 'the feminist'." Sociology 44(5): 827-842. http://soc.sagepub.com/content/44/5/827.full.pdf+html
DOI: 10.1177/0038038510375736

Pereira, M. d. M., N. Marhia, et al. (2009). "Interrogating Language Difference and Translation in Social Science Research: Towards a Critical and Interdisciplinary Approach." Graduate Journal of Social Science  6(2): 1-12.http://gjss.org/index.php?/Vol-6-Issue-3-December-2009-Lost-and-found-in-Translation.html

Scharff, C. (2008). "Doing class: a discursive and ethnomethodological approach." Critical Discourse Studies  5(4): 331-343.DOI: 10.1080/17405900802405247

Selected Conference Papers

June 2012 Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, Annual Conference, Boston, MA, USA ‘Enterprising selves? Negotiating precarious employment in cultural work’

June 2012 7th International Gender and Language Association Conference, Sao Leopoldo, Brazil ‘Schröder versus Schwarzer? A call for an intersectional, feminist analysis’

September 2011 German Studies Association Annual Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, USA ‘Of Alpha-Girls and Wetlands: Exploring Difference, Individualization, and Heteronormativity in the New German Feminism’

June 2011 Young Women in Movement: Sexualities, Vulnerabilities, Needs and Norms, ESRC seminar series, Goldsmiths College, London, UK ‘Gender and Precarity: reflections on cultural work’

June 2011 The 4th conference of the Psychosocial Studies Network, Affect, subjectivity and social order/disorder, University of Brighton, UK ‘Affect, subjectivity and discourse: evaluating different theoretical approaches’

April 2011 British Sociological Asosciation Annual Conference, London, UK ‘Social identities and social divisions: young women talk about feminism’

For a full list of publications, please contact Dr. Christina Scharff at: christina.scharff@kcl.ac.uk

Research

Christina conducted empirical research on young women’s engagements with feminism, postfeminism and neoliberalism (ESRC) and participated in various collaborative projects, such as coopartive inquiry research on dilemmas of femininity (British Academy). She also takes a keen interest in research methods and explored the issues of language difference and translation in the research process (with Dr. Maria do Mar Pereira and Natasha Marhia). Christina’s current research project ‘Women and entrepreneurialism in classical music’ (British Academy) focuses on early-career female musicians in Berlin and London. More specifically, it explores how they negotiate entrepreneurialism, defined as an ethos to work on and improve the self.

Teaching

Christina is passionate about teaching and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She contributes to the compulsory module ‘Research Approaches for the Cultural and Creative Industries’ and the option module ‘Gender, Media and Culture’. 

Christina is currently supervising three PhD students:

Brigid McClure, Catherine Elzerbi and Natalie Wreyford.

She welcomes proposals for PhD research linked to her research interests.

Funded Research

2012-2013 Women and entrepreneurialism in classical music. British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grants – SG120354. 

2011-2012 Young Women and feminism: Disseminating findings from an international study on young women’s attitudes towards feminism. ESRC Research Grant – PTA-026-27-2725.

2005-2009 Young Women’s Dis-identification with Feminism: Negotiating Heteronormativity, Neoliberalism and Difference. ESRC Postgraduate Studentship - PTA-030-2006-00047. Grant-holder: Christina Scharff

2007-2009 Lost (and Found) in Translation. Postgraduate Teaching and Learning Project funded by the Higher Education Academy’s Subject Centre for Sociology, Anthropology and Politics. Project Reference: PG/07/05. Project leaders: Natasha Marhia, Dr. Maria do Mar Pereira and Christina Scharff

2006-2009 Exploring Dilemmas of Femininity with Co-operative Inquiry. The British Academy Small Research Grant. Grant Holders: Prof. Rosalind Gill and Dr. Sarah Riley 

Awards and Scholarships

2010 Historic Thesis Project, London School of Economics

Thesis selected because of its contribution to the development of thought at the LSE.

2007-2008 Erasmus Mobility Grant to study at Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany

2006 Hutchins Studentship for Women, LSE

2005 Hobhouse Memorial Prize, Sociology Department, LSE
Departmental Prize for best overall performance in the Master programmes.

2002 Honours List, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, UC Berkeley, USA

2002-2003 Education Abroad Programme at UC Berkeley, USA

One of two students at York University who were offered a place at UC Berkeley. The exchange programme covered tuition fees and provided a small stipend.