Sharon Barnes, Ph.D.
Sharon L. Barnes earned a Ph.D. in English from The University of Toledo with a doctoral dissertation focused on the poetry and feminist theory of Audre Lorde. Her scholarly interest has remained on Lorde, especially her work on spirituality, illness, death and dying, and on other feminist poets whose work reflects similar themes. In articles such as “Marvelous Arithmetics: Womanist Spirituality in the Poetry of Audre Lorde,” “Audre Lorde’s Seboulisa: Muse for the Death Journey,” and “Marvelous Arithmetics: Prosthesis, Speech, and Death in the Late Work of Audre Lorde,” Dr. Barnes explores how Lorde’s poetry stands as spiritual theory and political witness.
After earning her PhD, Dr. Barnes held a position at Kent State University before returning to UT. She developed and teaches many of the courses in the Sexualities Studies Minor in WGST and often teaches “Global Issues in Women’s Studies,” the university’s non-western, writing intensive core course open to all students. Other areas of interest include lesbian feminist thought and culture, working class women poets, ecofeminism, feminist spirituality, and recently, women and wilderness. She is also involved in community justice organizing and is a long-time supporter of Toledo’s Take Back the Night event, one of the largest anti-violence against women events in the region. She currently serves as chairwoman of the UToledo Department of Women’s and Gender Studies.
