David Scheffel

David Z. Scheffel is a former professor of anthropology at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.^[1]

Scheffel in Czechia in 2008

Biography

Born in former Czechoslovakia in 1954 or 1955,^[2] he emigrated in August 1968 after the Soviet invasion with his parents and sister to Austria. Scheffel earned degrees in Canada in anthropology, culminating in his doctorate from McMaster University in 1988. His main area of interest is the ethnological study of the Romani people in Europe. Scheffel is the author of numerous scholarly articles and books, including In the Shadow of Antichrist (Broadview Press, 1991), a work on the Russian Orthodox breakaway Old Believers sect in Alberta.

Scheffel's efforts to help impoverished Roma rebuild their community in the Slovakian village of Svinia is the subject of a 1998 documentary film, The Gypsies of Svinia.^[3] He is also the author of the 2005 study Svinia in Black and White: Slovak Roma and their Neighbours (University of Toronto Press).

In June 2019, a Slovakian court in Prešov found Scheffel guilty of sexual abuse, child pornography possession, and illegal weapon possession. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.^[2][4]

Books

• Scheffel, David Z. (2005-04-01). Svinia in Black and White: Slovak Roma and their Neighbours. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-0683-8.
• "Roma Marginality/Romska Marginalita". Assessment of Marginality and Integration Among Disadvantaged Groups conference held at the Faculty of Philosophy. Prešov University. September 25–27, 2003.^[5]
• Scheffel, David (1991). In the Shadow of Antichrist: The Old Believers of Alberta. Peterborough, Ont.: Broadview Press. ISBN 978-0-921149-73-6.