Lieve Van Hoof is a Belgian classical scholar and Research

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

at the

University of Ghent Ghent University (, abbreviated as UGent) is a Public university, public research university located in Ghent, in the East Flanders province of Belgium. Located in Flanders, Ghent University is the second largest Belgian university, consisting o ...

. She specialises in work on the socio-political role of Greek and Latin literature in the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Van Hoof is currently engaged in examining Greek and Latin letters in order to understand

lobbying Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agency, regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by va ...

late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...

. Van Hoof is known in particular for her work on

Plutarch Plutarch (; , ''Ploútarchos'', ; – 120s) was a Greek Middle Platonist philosopher, historian, biographer, essayist, and priest at the Temple of Apollo (Delphi), Temple of Apollo in Delphi. He is known primarily for his ''Parallel Lives'', ...

and

Libanius Libanius (; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a critical source of history of the Greek ...

Career

Van Hoof was awarded her PhD at

KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

in 2006 with a thesis on ''The Social Dynamics of Philosophy. Reading Plutarch's 'Popular-Philosophical' Writings''. The work was subsequently published in 2010 as ''Plutarch's Practical Ethics: the Social Dynamics of Philosophy''. The monograph was recognised as the first time a scholar had taken work by Plutarch, often dismissed as "popular philosophy", and seriously evaluated its effect on non-philosophical

Graeco-Roman The Greco-Roman world , also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco-Roman or Graeco-Roman in British English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and co ...

elites. Van Hoof spent the academic year 2011-12 as a Senior Humboldt Research Fellow at the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

working on the social role of literature in the fourth century CE, and 2012-13 as a Fellow in Residence at the

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

Institute for Advanced Study working on

Late antique Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodization has since been wide ...

epistolography Epistolography, or the art of writing Letter (message), letters, is a genre of Byzantine literature similar to rhetoric that was popular with the intellectual elite of the Byzantine age."Epistolography" in ''Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, The Oxfo ...

. Van Hoof was President of the University of Ghent Postdoc community 2015–17, and in 2016 she won the Hermes Award for Public Engagement and Knowledge Transfer for "extraordinary spirit and effectiveness with which the proponents of this initiative push forward the improvement and visibility of the postdoc status. This combination of policy and professional service, and a grassroots platform has since developed into an international best practice." On 1 April 2017 Van Hoof was elected as co-chair-person of De Jonge Academie, a role she held for two years. In 2018 the academy celebrated their five-year anniversary, and Van Hoof hosted the King

Philippe of Belgium Philippe (born 15 April 1960) is King of the Belgians. He is the eldest child of King Albert II and Queen Paola. He succeeded his father upon the former's abdication for health reasons on 21 July 2013. He married Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz in 1 ...

. Van Hoof's current research project (2019-2022), ''Lobbying in late antiquity. Letters, networks and decision processes (4th - 5th c. A.D.),'' takes a fresh approach to the institution structures and powers of late antiquity to focus on individuals and interest groups who sought to influence those in power. The project uses collections of letters, such as those of

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus Quintus Aurelius Symmachus Nickname, signo Eusebius (, ; c. 345 – 402) was a Roman statesman, orator, and intellectual. He held the offices of governor of proconsular Africa (province), Africa in 373, urban prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and R ...

, to examine how official decisions could be influenced.

Selected publications

* Peter Van Nuffelen and Lieve Van Hoof, ''The Greek Fragmentary Chronicles After Eusebius : Edition, Translation, and Commentary'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019) *Lieve Van Hoof and Peter Van Nuffelen, ''The Latin Fragmentary Historians of Late Antiquity (300 – 650 A.D.): Edition, Translation, and Commentary'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019) *with Peter Van Nuffele
"The historiography of crisis: Jordanes, Cassiodorus and Justinian in mid-sixth-century Constantinople"
in ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 107 p. 275-300 (2017)
"Maximian of Ravenna, ''Chronica''"
in ''Sacris Erudiri: A Journal of Late Antique and Medieval Christianity'' 55 p. 259-276 (2016) * ''Libanius: a critical introduction'' (Cambridge University Press, 2014) * (ed.) with Peter Van Nuffelen ''Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD: Performing 'paideia', Constructing the Present, Presenting the Self (''Mnemosyne supplements. Monographs on Greek and Latin language and literature, 373. Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2014) * "Performing paideia: literature as an instrument for social promotion in the fourth century A.D." in ''Classical Quarterly'' 63(1). p. 387-406 (2013)
"Why the EU is Failing in its Neighbourhood: The Case of Armenia"
''European Foreign Affairs Review,'' 17 Issue 2, pp. 285–302 (2012) * with Peter Van Nuffelen "Monarchy and mass communication: Antioch A.D. 362/3 revisited" in ''Journal of Roman Studies'' 101. p. 166-184 (2011) * ''Plutarch's Practical Ethics: The Social Dynamics of Philosophy'' (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2010) *

References

External links

Presentation on lobbying in the ancient world (in Dutch)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Hoof, Lieve Belgian classical scholars Women classical scholars Living people KU Leuven alumni Academic staff of Ghent University Year of birth missing (living people)