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Liliane Weissberg

{{Short description|American literary scholar and cultural historian}}

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| name = Liliane Weissberg

| birth_date = 1953

| birth_place = Vienna, Austria

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| occupation = Literary scholar, cultural historian

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Liliane Weissberg (born 1953) is an American literary scholar and cultural historian specializing in German-Jewish studies and German and American literature. She is currently the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in Arts and Sciences and professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. She received, among others, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Humboldt Research Award for her research on German-Jewish literature and culture and the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin, and holds an honorary degree from the University of Graz.

Life and career

Liliane Weissberg was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1953 to a Jewish family. Her parents were political refugees who had fled from Poland in 1949. She grew up in Frankfurt, Germany.{{cite book |last1=Lützeler |first1=Paul |title=Transatlantic German Studies: Testimonies to the Profession |date=2018 |publisher=Camden House |location=Rochester, New York |pages=249–251 |isbn=9781640140127 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ON9wDwAAQBAJ&dq=Liliane+Weissberg+born&pg=PA249 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}

Weissberg graduated from the Free University of Berlin in 1977 with a master's degree in general and comparative literature, German studies, and linguistics. She obtained a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Harvard University in 1984, concentrating on American, German, and French literature. Her dissertation thesis examined allegories in Edgar Allan Poe.{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg: ANNA-MARIA KELLEN FELLOW - CLASS OF SPRING 2020 |url=https://www.americanacademy.de/person/liliane-weissberg/ |website=American Academy in Berlin |access-date=August 27, 2022}}

After teaching as an assistant professor of German at Johns Hopkins University (1983-1989), Weissberg joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor of German and Comparative Literature in 1989 and was promoted to full professor in 1994. She was the Joseph B. Glossberg Term Chair in the Humanities for several years. Since 2004, she has been the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in Arts and Sciences.{{cite web |title=On the Front Page: October 12, 2004 |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v51/n07/101204.html |website=University of Pennsylvania Almanac |access-date=August 28, 2022}} At Penn, she has several times served as graduate chair of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures and as director of the program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory.{{cite web |title=People: The Graduate Group in German Languages and Literatures |url=https://germanic.sas.upenn.edu/people |website=Penn Arts and Sciences |access-date=August 27, 2022}}

Weissberg has been a guest professor at several universities in the United States, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Princeton, Hamburg, Aachen, Frankfurt, the Humboldt University Berlin, Potsdam, Bochum, the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien in Heidelberg, Innsbruck, Vienna, the ETH Zurich),{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg: ANNA-MARIA KELLEN FELLOW - CLASS OF SPRING 2020 |url=https://www.americanacademy.de/person/liliane-weissberg/ |website=American Academy in Berlin |access-date=August 27, 2022}} and has held visiting chairs at the University of Hamburg, the University of Graz, and the University of Kassel.{{cite web |title=Advisory Board |url=https://intellectualdiaspora.org/advisory-board/ |website=The Berlin Center for Intellectual Diaspora |date=21 February 2022 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |title=Franz-Rosenzweig-Professur geht an Prof. Dr. Liliane Weissberg |url=http://www1.uni-kassel.de/uni/en/universitaet/pressekommunikation/neues-vom-campus/meldung/article/franz-rosenzweig-professur-geht-an-prof-dr-liliane-weissberg.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180704182811/http://www1.uni-kassel.de/uni/en/universitaet/pressekommunikation/neues-vom-campus/meldung/article/franz-rosenzweig-professur-geht-an-prof-dr-liliane-weissberg.html |archive-date=2018-07-04 |website=UniKassel |access-date=August 27, 2022}} She has also been a fellow at the Voltaire Foundation Oxford, the Center for Advanced Studies in Munich, the Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at Penn, the Research Library Gotha, the Dubnow Institute in Leipzig,{{cite web |title=Guests |url=https://www.dubnow.de/en/institute/people/guests |website=Dubnow Institute |access-date=September 19, 2022}} the IFK Vienna and the IZEA at the University of Halle.

Weissberg has curated exhibitions at the Slought Gallery at Penn, Jewish Museum Frankfurt,{{cite web |title=Antisemitismus im Museum: Liliane Weissberg im Gespräch |url=https://politikkultur.de/themen/antisemitismus/antisemitismus-im-museum/ |website=Politik und Kultur |date=3 June 2022 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |title=Juden. Geld. Eine Vorstellung |url=https://www.juedischesmuseum.de/besuch/detail/judengeldeinevorstellung/ |website=Jüdisches Museum Frankfurt |access-date=August 27, 2022}} the Museum of Modern Literature in Marbach, and the German Historical Museum in Berlin.{{cite web | url=https://www.dhm.de/en/exhibitions/preview/what-is-enlightenment-questions-for-the-eighteenth-century/ | title=What is Enlightenment? Questions for the Eighteenth Century - Deutsches Historisches Museum | date=18 October 2024 }} She has served on numerous institutional boards,is currently a member of the board of the German Historical Museum in Berlin{{cite web |title=Psychoanalytic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania: Prof. Liliane Weissberg |url=https://web.sas.upenn.edu/psys/people/liliane-weissberg/ |website=Penn Arts and Sciences |access-date=August 27, 2022}} and the advisory board of the Leo Baeck Institute London,{{cite web |title=Advisory Board |url=https://www.leobaeck.co.uk/advisory-board |website=Leo Baeck Institute London for the Study of German-Jewish History and Culture|date=27 November 2013 }} and the Center for Jewish Studies, Graz. She was one of the founding members of the Research Center Sanssouci for the Study of the Enlightenment (RECS), a collaboration between the University of Potsdam and the Public Castles and Gardens Sanssouci,{{cite web |title=International Boards |url=https://germanic.sas.upenn.edu/news/international-boards |website=Penn Arts and Sciences |access-date=August 28, 2022}} and served on the advisory board of the Moses Mendelssohn Center in Potsdam. Weissberg has also been a guest speaker on several radio shows, including BBC World Service, CBC Toronto, Deutschlandfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, NPR and the MLA radio service.{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg – profile |url=https://criticaltheoriesofantisemitism.net/liliane-weissberg-profile/ |website=critical theories of antisemitism network |date=25 December 2012 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |title="Eine Verknüpfung, die immer noch im Kopf ist": Liliane Weissberg im Gespräch mit Michael Köhler |url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/eine-verknuepfung-die-immer-noch-im-kopf-ist-100.html |website=Deutschlandfunk |date=27 April 2013 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}

Research

With her books and more than 200 academic articles, Weissberg's research has covered German and American literature from the eighteenth to early twentieth centuries, cultural studies, literary and psychoanalytic theory, aesthetics and material culture.{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg: Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor in the School of Arts & Sciences Professor of German and Comparative Literature |url=https://germanic.sas.upenn.edu/people/liliane-weissberg |website=Penn Arts and Sciences |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Lenz |first1=Susanne |title="Es gab heiße Diskussionen. Zum Beispiel: Dürfen Frauen Postkarten schreiben?" |url=https://www.fr.de/kultur/es-gab-heisse-diskussionen-zum-beispiel-duerfen-frauen-postkarten-schreiben-90028937.html |website=Frankfurter Rundschau |date=23 August 2020 |access-date=August 28, 2022}} She has contributed to the rediscovery of German-Jewish literary and cultural traditions and has researched the German-Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala), Romanticism in America and Europe, German realism, and visual studies. Weissberg has also studied issues concerning the Holocaust.{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg, 2015 Rutman Fellow, Studies Trauma as Narrative in the Visual History Archive |url=https://dornsife.usc.edu/cagr-news/news/2015/08/9856-liliane-weissberg-2015-rutman-fellow-studies-trauma-narrative-visual-history |website=USC Dornsife|date=4 October 2023 }}{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg. Image, Voice, and Text: On Recording Holocaust Victims |url=https://german.yale.edu/event/liliane-weissberg-image-voice-and-text-recording-holocaust-victims |website=Yale University: Department of German Languages and Literature}} She has extensively dealt with figures like Edgar Allan Poe, Rahel Varnhagen, Hannah Arendt, Dorothea Schlegel, Henriette Herz, Johann Gottfried Herder, Moses Mendelssohn, Walter Benjamin, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Heinrich von Kleist.{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg |url=https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/who-we-are/liliane-weissberg |website=Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg, Ph.D.: Rutnam Fellowship for Teaching and Research |url=https://sfi.usc.edu/content/liliane-weissberg-phd |website=USC Shoah Foundation |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |last1=Lenz |first1=Susanne |title="Schöne Grüße von Moses": Als die Postkarte etwas Sensationelles war |url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/kultur-vergnuegen/schoene-gruesse-von-moses-als-die-postkarte-etwas-sensationelles-wa--li.91760?pid=true |website=Berliner Zeitung |date=11 July 2020 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite news |title=Baltimore Has Poe; Philadelphia Wants Him |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/06/us/06poe.html |website=The New York Times |date=6 September 2008 |access-date=August 28, 2022|last1=Urbina |first1=Ian }}

Awards

  • Senior Fellow, IFK Vienna (2023){{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}
  • Honorary Degree (Dr. phil. h.c.), University of Graz (2022){{cite web |title=Worthy and Dignified: University of Graz awards honorary doctorate to literary and cultural scholar Liliane Weissberg |url=https://news.uni-graz.at/en/detail/article/wert-wuerdig/ |website=University of Graz |access-date=August 27, 2022}}
  • Research Prize Fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2019){{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg Has Been Awarded a 2019 Humboldt Research Fellowship For Her New Book Project on Early Twentieth Century Material Culture |url=https://germanic.sas.upenn.edu/news/liliane-weissberg-has-been-awarded-2019-humboldt-research-fellowship-her-new-book-project-early |website=Penn Arts and Sciences |access-date=August 27, 2022}}
  • Berlin Prize; Anna-Maria Kellen Fellowship, American Academy in Berlin (2020){{cite web |title=Eight Women Academics Honored With the Berlin Prize |url=https://www.wiareport.com/2019/05/eight-women-academics-honored-with-the-berlin-prize/ |website=WIA Report |date=23 May 2019 |access-date=August 27, 2022}}
  • Humboldt Research Award, Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (2012){{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg received the 2012 Alexander von Humboldt-Forschungspreis |url=https://www.facebook.com/events/liliane-weissberg-received-the-2012-alexander-von-humboldt-forschungspreis/267989016718627/ |website=Facebook |access-date=August 27, 2022}}{{cite web |title=Profile: Prof. Dr. Liliane Weissberg |url=https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/en/connect/explore-the-humboldt-network/singleview?tx_rsmavhsolr_solrview%5BpPersonId%5D=1147177&cHash=22294256355230162dbc0b1b219bc178 |website=Alexander von Humboldt Foundation |access-date=August 30, 2022}}
  • Fulbright-Freud Visiting Scholarship/Professorship, Sigmund Freud Museum and University of Vienna{{cite web |title=Fulbright-Freud Visiting Lecturer of Psychoanalysis |url=https://www.freud-museum.at/en/Fulbright-Scholarship |website=Sigmund Freud Museum |access-date=August 28, 2022}}
  • Fellow at Center for Advanced Studies, the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (2010, 2013, 2018){{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg appointed Visiting Professor in Zürich and Munich |url=https://germanic.sas.upenn.edu/news/liliane-weissberg-appointed-visiting-professor-zürich-and-munich |website=Penn Arts and Sciences |access-date=August 27, 2022}}
  • Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Pennsylvania (2003){{cite web |title=Lindback and Provost's Awards: 2003 Winners |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/v49/n30/lindback.html |website=University of Pennsylvania Almanac |access-date=August 27, 2022}}
  • Fellow of the American Philosophical Society (1998){{cite web |title=SAS Term Chairs: Dr. Waldron, Dr. Weissberg |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/v45/n19/020299.html |website=University of Pennsylvania Almanac |access-date=August 28, 2022}}
  • Fellow of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture (1992){{cite web |title=Glossberg Chair Renewed |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/v50/n09/weissberg.html |website=University of Pennsylvania Almanac |access-date=August 28, 2022}}
  • Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1992){{cite web |title=Liliane Weissberg |url=https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/liliane-weissberg/ |website=John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation |access-date=August 27, 2022}}
  • Voltaire Foundation Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford University (1991){{cite web |title=SAS Term Chairs: Dr. Waldron, Dr. Weissberg |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/v45/n19/020299.html |website=University of Pennsylvania Almanac |access-date=August 28, 2022}}

Bibliography

=Monographs=

  • Geistersprache. Philosophischer und literarischer Diskurs im späten achtzehnten Jahrhundert. Königshausen & Neumann, Würzburg 1990, ISBN 3-88479-480-9.
  • Edgar Allan Poe (= Sammlung Metzler. Band 204). Metzler, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-476-10204-1.
  • Hannah Arendt, Charlie Chaplin and the Hidden Jewish Tradition(= Vorlesungen des Centrums für Jüdische Studien. Band 1). Leykam, Graz 2009, ISBN 978-3-7011-0165-8.
  • Über Haschisch und Kabbala. Gershom Scholem, Siegfried Unseld und das Werk von Walter Benjamin (= Marbacher Magazin. 140). Deutsche Schillergesellschaft, Marbach am Neckar 2012, ISBN 978-3-937384-94-8.
  • Münzen, Hände, Noten, Finger: Berliner Hofjuden und die Erfindung einer deutschen Musikkultur (= Vorlesungen des Centrums für Jüdische Studien Graz. 12). Clio Verlag, Graz 2018, ISBN 978-3-902542-71-7.

=Editions=

  • Weiblichkeit als Maskerade. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-596-11850-6.
  • Hannah Arendt: Rahel Varnhagen. The Life of a Jewess. The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8018-6335-X.
  • Kennedy J. Gerald and Liliane Weissberg. 2001. Romancing the Shadow : Poe and Race. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513710-8.
  • Affinität wider Willen? Hannah Arendt, Theodor W. Adorno und die Frankfurter Schule (= Jahrbuch zur Geschichte und Wirkung des Holocaust. 2011). Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-593-39490-9.
  • Beckman, Karen, and Liliane Weissberg, eds. On Writing with Photography. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2013.978-0-8166-8885-2.
  • (with Andreas Kilcher) Nachträglich, grundlegend: Der Kommentar als Denkform in der jüdischen Moderne von Hermann Cohen bis Jacques Derrida.ISBN 978-3-8353-3369-7.
  • Benjamin Veitel Ephraim: Kaufmann, Schriftsteller, Geheimagent. 2021, ISBN 978-3-11-072240-6.
  • Psychoanalysis, Fatherhood, and the Modern Family. 2021, ISBN 978-3-03082123-4.

=Articles (selection)=

  • „Der Jude als Paria: Stationen in der Geschichte einer Idee im Diskurs der Assimilation“. In: Christina von Braun (Hrsg.): Was war das deutsche Judentum? (= Europäisch-jüdische Studien. Beiträge 24). Oldenbourg De Gruyter, 2015, p. 117–133.
  • Rückkehr im Widerstand. In: Katharine Rauschenberger (Hrsg.): Rückkehr in Feindesland? Fritz Bauer in der deutsch-jüdischen Nachkriegsgeschichte. (= Jahrbuch des Fritz Bauer-Instituts. 2013). Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 15–37.
  • Sehnsucht nach Goethe. Sigmund Freud und der Sommer 1931. In: Stephan Braese, Daniel Weidner (Hrsg.): Deutsche *Sprachkultur von Juden und die Geisteswissenschaften. Kadmos Verlag, Berlin 2015, p. 201–214.
  • Das Unbewußte der Bundesrepublik: Alexander Mitscherlich popularisiert die Psychoanalyse. In: Zeitschrift für Geistes- und Ideengeschichte. V 3, 2011, p. 45–64.
  • Karl Löwiths Weltreise. In: Monika Boll, Raphael Gross (Hrsg.): „Ich staune, dass Sie in dieser Luft atmen können“. *Jüdische Intellektuelle in Deutschland nach 1945. Fischer Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2013, p. 126–170.
  • Postcards from the Avant-Garde. In: MLN. Band 132, Nr. 3: Else Lasker-Schüler and the Avantgarde. 2017, p. 575–601.

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [https://germanic.sas.upenn.edu/people/liliane-weissberg Liliane Weissberg] at Penn's Department of German Languages and Literature
  • [https://www.americanacademy.de/videoaudio/fellow-spotlight-liliane-weissberg/ Fellow Spotlight: Liliane Weissberg] at the American Academy in Berlin

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Weissberg, Liliane}}

Category:1953 births

Category:Living people

Category:Free University of Berlin alumni

Category:Harvard University alumni

Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty

Category:University of Pennsylvania Department of German faculty

Category:Johns Hopkins University faculty

Category:Literary historians

Category:Cultural historians

Category:Jewish scholars

Category:Berlin Prize recipients

Category:Humboldt Research Award recipients

Category:21st-century American women

Category:American women academics

Category:Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor

Category:American academics of German literature