Roel Sterckx FBA (born 1969) is a Flemish-British sinologist and anthropologist. He is the Joseph Needham Professor of Chinese History, Science, and Civilization at

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

, and a fellow of

Clare College Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded ...

Life and career

Sterckx attended secondary school at th
Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege
in

Mol, Belgium Mol () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Mol. In 2021, Mol had a total population of 37,021 inhabitants. The total area is 114.19 km2. Mol is a popular holiday resort, w ...

, and read sinology at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (1991). He went on to study

Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy originates in the Spring and Autumn period () and Warring States period (), during a period known as the " Hundred Schools of Thought", which was characterized by significant intellectual and cultural develop ...

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; ) is a public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. The university was founded in 1928 during Japanese rule as the seventh of the Imperial Universities. It was named Taihoku Imperial University and served d ...

before moving to Cambridge ( Clare Hall), where he obtained a

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

in Oriental studies (1997). He was a research fellow at Oxford (Wolfson College) and Assistant Professor at the University of Arizona before returning to Cambridge in 2002. He served as Secretary-General of the

European Association for Chinese Studies The European Association for Chinese Studies (; EACS) is an international scholarly association representing China scholars from Europe. It was founded in 1975 and is registered in Paris. The Association is governed by a Board and its daily activit ...

from 2006 to 2012. In 2013 he was elected Fellow of the British Academy.

Selected works

* ''The Animal and the Daemon in Early China''. Albany: SUNY Press, 2002. * ''Of Tripod and Palate: Food, Politics and Religion in Traditional China''. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005. * ''De l'Esprit aux Esprits: Enquête sur la notion de shen en Chine'' (with Romain Graziani). Saint-Denis: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, 2007. * ''In the Fields of Shennong.'' Cambridge: Needham Research Institute, 2008. * ''Food, Sacrifice, and Sagehood in Early China.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011 (2015) * 胡司德, 古代中国的动物与灵异. Nanjing: Jiangsu renmin chubanshe, 2016. * 胡司德, 早期中国的食物、祭祀和圣贤. Hangzhou: Zhejiang daxue chubanshe, 2018. * ''Animals Through Chinese History: Earliest times to 1911'' (with Dagmar Schaefer and Martina Siebert). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. * ''Chinese Thought. From Confucius to Cook Ding.'' London: Penguin, 2019. (''Highly commended; Pen Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2020''). * ''Ways of Heaven. An Introduction to Chinese Thought.'' New York, Basic Books, 2019. * ''Chinees Denken. Over Geschiedenis, filosofie, en samenleving.'' (Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Nieuwezijds, 2021) * 中国思想. 从孔夫子到庖丁. 上海: 文艺出版社, 2022. * Китайская мысль: от Конфуция до повара Дина. Moscow: Alpina, 2022.

External links

Homepage at Cambridge University

Inaugural Lecture

Profile British Academy
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sterckx, Roel Belgian sinologists Living people Fellows of Clare College, Cambridge Catholic University of Leuven alumni National Taiwan University alumni Fellows of the British Academy Alumni of Clare Hall, Cambridge Alumni of Wolfson College, Oxford 1969 births