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, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, 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 grew up in

Retie Retie (; , ) is a municipality located in the Campine region of the province of Antwerp (province), Antwerp, Belgium. The municipality comprises the town of Retie proper and several hamlets of which Schoonbroek is the largest. In 2021, Retie had a ...

, Belgium, and attended secondary school at the Sint-Jan Berchmanscollege in Mol. He read sinology at the

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

(1991). He went on to study

Chinese philosophy Chinese philosophy (Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 中国哲学; Traditional Chinese characters, traditional Chinese: 中國哲學) refers to the philosophical traditions that originated and developed within the historical ...

National Taiwan University National Taiwan University (NTU; zh, t=國立臺灣大學, poj=Kok-li̍p Tâi-oân Tāi-ha̍k, p=, s=) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Taipei, Taiwan. Founded in 1928 during Taiwan under J ...

before moving to Cambridge ( Clare Hall), where he obtained a Ph.D. in Oriental studies (1997). He was a research fellow at Oxford ( Wolfson College) and taught at the University of Arizona before returning to Cambridge in 2002. He served as Secretary-General of the European Association for Chinese Studies from 2006 to 2012, and has been a long-serving trustee of the Needham Research Institute. In 2013 he was elected

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

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