Steve Wharton

Steve Wharton is Senior Lecturer in French and Communication at the University of Bath's Department of Politics, Language and International Studies, where he has worked since 1990. He is a social and cultural historian whose research has three main strands:

• LGBT activism (including perceptions and portrayals of homosexuality, and the 'gay marriage' debate)
• Political communication
• The German Occupation of France, and its Legacy

Now Honorary Vice Secretary of the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France or ASMCF, he previously served twice as both Hon Treasurer and Hon Secretary. He represents both ASMCF and The University of Bath on the University Council of Modern Languages.

After primary school education at Wimborne St Giles followed by Cranborne Middle School and Queen Eizabeth's School, Wimborne Minster, Wharton read French and German at Aston University before remaining there for his PhD. First appointed to a lectureship in French Studies at the University of Manchester, Wharton moved in 1990 to Bath, where he has remained since. Between 2000 and 2008 he served on the National Executive of both the Association of University Teachers (AUT) and the University and College Union (UCU) which was formed through the AUT's merger with Natfhe in 2006; he was the last AUT President (2005/06) and first joint President of UCU (2006/07). He led the union when it successfully took industrial action to raise salaries for the sector in March–June 2006, resulting in the highest uplift in scales for almost 20 years, in part through the application of his tenet of matching the aspirations of activists to the pragmatics of circumstances. In September 2016 he was appointed by UCU as one of its three Directors of the Trustee Company of USS, the Universities Superannuation Scheme.

In February 2012 the French Government appointed him Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques for services to French Culture.

A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts since 2006, he has been Chair of Directors of the trustee company of Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) since 2013, and has served as Vice-Chair of its Management Committee since shortly after his election as Director in 2011.

He is the author of:

• Screening Reality: French Documentary Film During the German Occupation. Oxford: Lang, 2006. ISBN 9780820468822. Other publications include:
• "Cover story: Lib Dem Manifesto tries to offer something for everyone", The Conversation online, 16 February 2015
• “Bars to understanding? The 'gay bar' in Coming Out, Les Nuits Fauves and Beautiful Thing. In: Griffiths, R., ed. Queer Cinema in Europe. Intellect, 2008, 106-116.
• “Mais la loi ne fait pas tout: l'homophobie dans la France contemporaine“. Les Cahiers du MIMMOC 4, 2007, 40-42
• (With Orero, P.) “The Audio description of a Spanish phenomenon: Torrente 3“. Journal of Specialised Translation, 2007 (http://www.jostrans.org/issue07/art_orero_wharton.php)
• “From margin to mainstream? Establishing a community of gay citizens”. In: Cole, A., ed. Redefining the French Republic. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2006, 82-96.
• “Pédés et polemiques: Faggots and Fireworks - Les Nuits fauves and its Moral(ity)”. In: Everett, W., ed. The Seeing Century: Film, Vision, and Identity. Amsterdam: Editions Rodopi, 2000, 174-185.
• “Unwilling Filmstars: Service de travail obligatoire and its filmic representation“. Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, 26, 2000, 373-382.