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Contact Info

Email: escheiber [at] rider.edu

Phone Number: 609-896-5124

Department: Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

Office Location: Fine Arts

Additional Info:

Academic Focus: French and Italian

Dr. Elizabeth Scheiber received her Ph.D. from Indiana University where she wrote her dissertation on women’s literature. Prior to joining the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures, Dr. Scheiber taught at Westminster Choir College, Indiana University, the Université de Lille-III in France and the London School in northern Italy. While at Indiana University, she won an award for excellent teaching.

Dr. Scheiber’s research interests include French and Italian literature of World War II, including Holocaust literature, and Women’s literature of the 20th Century. Her current research focuses on the symbolic function of language and literature in works by authors like Charlotte Delbo and Primo Levi. She has presented papers at numerous conferences including the American Association of Teachers of Italian Conference, the Lessons and Legacies Conference on the Holocaust, and the Simone de Beauvoir Conference. Her articles have appeared in journals like Studies in Holocaust Literature, Dalhousie French Studies, Forum Italicum, The International Journal of Francophone Studies, Simone de Beauvoir Studies, and Modern Language Notes. In addition, Dr. Scheiber has participated on twice on the jury for the Zerilli-Marimò literary prize for contemporary Italian fiction.

Dr. Scheiber has participated in the BRIDGE program, which promotes the scholarship of teaching and learning, and she works for the Julius and Dorothy Koppelman Holocaust and Genocide Research Center where she is Associate Director.

Areas of specialization

  • 20th-century French and Italian Literature, Deportation and Holocaust Literature, Women’s Literature

Education

  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
    Ph.D. in French Literature, Italian Literature Minor, December 2002
  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
    M.A. in Italian Literature, May 2002
  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
    M.A. in French Literature, May 1995
  • Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky
    B.A. in French and German Language and Literature, September 1989

Publications

  • “Mi dispiacerebbe se andassero perdute: Literary Encounters and Storytelling Techniques in Lilìt.” Proceedings of the Hofstra Cultural Center Conference: Answering Auschwitz: Primo Levi’s Science and Humanism After the Fall, 26-27 April 2007. (forthcoming, 2009)
  • “Creating Community through Figurative Language in Charlotte Delbo’s None of us will Return.” (Forthcoming) Studies in Holocaust Literature. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue UP, 2008.
  • “Car cela devient une histoire: Representation of the Holocaust in the Imaginative and Collective Memoirs of Charlotte Delbo.” (Forthcoming) Re-examining the Holocaust through Literature: Memoir, Fiction, and Poetry. Aukje Kluger, Benn Williams (eds). Fall, 2008.
  • “Tout cela n’est que souvenir rapporté: Representing and Reconstructing Memory in the Work of Charlotte Delbo." For a special issue of Dalhousie French Studies on trauma. (Fall 2007)
  • [Book Review] “Madeleine and Catherine des Roches. From Mother to Daughter. Anne R. Larsen, ed. and trans.” Women in French Studies. (2007).
  • “Demeter at Auschwitz: Use of Mythology in Il sistema periodico.” Forum Italicum. 41 (2007)
  • “The Failure of Memory and Literature in Primo Levi’s Il sistema periodico.” Modern Language Notes (Italian issue)121.1 (2006).
  • “Family, Friendship, and Neurosis in Les Belles Images.” Simone de Beauvoir Studies. 21 (2004-05).
  • “L’importance de l’axe vertical dans Chants d’ombre de Senghor.” International Journal of Francophone Studies. 5.1 (2002).

Articles in Progress

  • “Mi dispiacerebbe se andassero perdute: Literary Encounters and Storytelling Techniques in Lilìt.”
  • “Dalla ‘memoria dell’offesa’ alle ‘memorie dell’offesa’: The Working of Memory and the Act of Memorialization in Works by Primo Levi.”

Conference Presentations

  • “L’ambigua perennità dei personaggi letterari: What it means to be “un uomo” in Primo Levi”. Joint Conference of American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) and American Association for Italian Studies (AAIS). Taormina, Sicily, Italy. 22-25 May 2008.
  • “Writing/Righting Wrongs.” Academic Alliance of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Department, 6 May 2008.
  • “L’immagine di lui che ho conservato: Communication and Memory in Lilìt.” Primo Levi in the Present Tense: Reflections on his Life and Work before and after Auschwitz. Yale University, New Haven, CT, 28-29 February 2008.
  • “Comunicare si può e si deve: Communication in Primo Levi’s Short Fiction.” Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI), Washington, DC, 11-13 October 2007.
  • “Answering Auschwitz: Primo Levi’s Science and Humanism After the Fall.” Hofstra Cultural Center. Hofstra University. 26-27 April, 2007.
  • “Romanticism and Pragmatism in Senghor’s Chants d’ombre”. Literature and the Arts in Senegal I: Birago Diop and Léopold Sédar Senghor, Then and Now, Indiana University Bloomington, March 29-31, 2007.
  • “Car cela devient une histoire: Issues of Representation in the Imaginative and Collective Memoirs of Charlotte Delbo.” Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, Tucson, AZ, 12-14 October 2006.
  • “C’est la fin d’un rail: Arrival at Auschwitz and the Persistence of Memory in French Holocaust Writing.” International Conference on Fear & Awe in Literature and the Visual Arts, University of West Georgia, Atlanta, GA, 2-4 November 2006.
  • “Creating Community in Holocaust Literature.” International Conference on War & Letters in Literature and the Visual Arts, University of West Georgia, Atlanta, GA, 27-29 October 2005.
  • “Demeter at Auschwitz: Primo Levi’s Use of Greek Mythology to Depict the Holocaust in Il sistema periodico.” Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI), Washington, DC, 13-15 October 2005.
  • “"Vanadio" and the Failure of Memory to Explain the Holocaust in Primo Levi's Il sistema periodico.” Conference of the American Association of Teachers of Italian (AATI) in association with the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), Chicago, IL, 19-21 November 2004.
  • “Christ Says Kaddish: The Role of Jews in the Holocaust Fiction of Jorge Semprùn.” 8th Biannual Lessons and Legacies Conference on the Holocaust, Brown University, Providence, RI, 4-6 November 2004.
  • “Women Writing the War: Understanding Works by Simone de Beauvoir and Charlotte Delbo.” International Conference on Truth & Mendacity in Literature and the Visual Arts, University of West Georgia, Atlanta, GA, 22-24 October 2004.
  • “Family, Friendship and Neurosis in Les Belles Images.” 12th International Conference of the Simone de Beauvoir Society, Monterey Institute of International Studies, Monterey, CA, 21-23 May 2004.
  • “Witness and/or Author: An Examination of Motive and Form in French Deportation Literature.” 57th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 15-17 April 2004.
  • “Arriving at ‘Truth’ in French Deportation Fiction: The Case of Jorge Semprùn.” Southeast Coastal Conference on Languages and Literatures, Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, GA, 25-27 March 2004.
  • “The Fates are Responsible: A Narratological and Psychological Study of Françoise Mallet-Joris’ Allegra.” 56th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 24-26 April 2003.
  • “City of Light or City of Dark? Alienation and Mythical Paris in Novels by Simone de Beauvoir and Christiane Rochefort.” 55th Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 18-20 April 2002.
  • “When Story-Telling is Unethical: A Brief Study of L'Empire Céleste by Mallet-Joris.” 21st Annual Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 10-12 May 2001.
  • "Unethical Story-Telling in L'Empire Céleste by Mallet-Joris." 10th Annual French and Italian GSO Colloquium, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Spring 2001.

Literary Jury Membership

  • Zerilli-Marimò Prize for Italian Fiction, Summer 2003
  • Zerilli-Marimò Prize for Italian Fiction, Summer 2002

Awards and Grants

Rider University Summer Developmental Fellowship, Summer 2008
Rider University Summer Fellowship, Summer 2006
Rider University Summer Fellowship, Summer 2005
Fellowship to the Holocaust Educational Foundation Summer Institute, Summer 2005
Indiana University College of Arts and Sciences Travel Grant to participate in the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, May 2002
Department of French and Italian Teaching Award for excellence in teaching, April 1998
Grace Young Award for Outstanding Graduate Student, April 1998
Fullbright Teaching Fellowship to France, 1989-90

Languages

  • Italian, near-native
  • French, near-native
  • German, good spoken and written
  • Spanish, good written, fair spoken