Sixth-Year PhD Candidate
Email:
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Italian Resistance literature, ecocriticism, contemporary activism, environmental humanities, Italian cinema, digital pedagogy
Steven Jacobs is a PhD candidate in Italian at Rutgers University. His dissertation explores representations of landscape, environment, and collective resistance in postwar and contemporary Italian literature, focusing particularly on the Susa Valley and the No-Tav movement. His research engages with ecocriticism and the intersections between political activism and cultural production. He has taught Italian language and culture courses at Rutgers and Marist University and is currently serving as a Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor of Italian at the University of Notre Dame. His broader interests include Italian cinema, resistance song traditions, and environmental memory in music and literature.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS & CONFERENCES
Articles
- Belilovets, P., Gaugler, K., Jacobs, S., & Matheus, C. (2020). Conversational User Interfaces and Second Language Skills. In INTED2020 Proceedings, 1092–1100. (14th International Technology, Education and Development Conference, Valencia, Spain) library.iated.org
- (2025) “Transalpin: Documenting Resistance and Ecology Across Borders.” La Fusta.
- (2021) “Degrees of Separation: Jhumpa Lahiri’s Translation of Domenico Starnone’s Trust.” Reading in Translation.
Recent Conference Presentations
- Organizer and Session Chair, Undergraduate Research in Italian Studies, AATI 2025.
- Presenter, “Revolutionary Strides: Ada Gobetti’s Flânerie in Diario partigiano, AAIS 2025.
- Presenter, “Traveling Slow in the Anthropocene,” NeMLA 2025.
DIGITAL PROJECTS
- 2023–present: Barriers to Integration: Voices of Latin-Americans in Italy (link). Co-Founder: Ariana Guzman
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- Visiting Assistant Teaching Professor, University of Notre Dame (2025 – ): Intermediate Italian I, Let’s Talk Italian II.
- Adjunct Professor, Marist University (2025): Italian Cinema, Elementary Italian I, Italian Civilization.
- Instructor of Record, Rutgers University: Introducing Italy City by City: Rome, Italian Composition and Stylistics, Elementary Italian I & II, Italian for Travel, Italian Review, Italian for Reading Knowledge.
- Grader, Rutgers University: Mafia Movies.
- Coordinator & TA, Montclair State University, Italian Summer Intensive Program