Faculty

Michiel C. Van Veldhuizen

Assistant Professor (Greek literature, religion, environmental humanities)
Email: mcvanveldhu@uncg.edu
Office: 1111 MHRA
Phone: no direct line; leave message on general office phone: 336-334-5214
At UNCG Since: 2020
On leave Spring 2024

Education

Ph.D.  Brown University – 2019
M.A.   Brandeis University – 2012
B.A.    University College Utrecht, the Netherlands – 2010

Research Interests

Dr. Van Veldhuizen specializes in the religious and intellectual history of the ancient world, with a particular interest in disaster and divination. His current book project, Divining Disaster: Signs of Catastrophe in Ancient Greek Culture, analyzes the ways in which the ancient Greeks gave meaning to such disastrous events as plagues, famines, and shipwrecks, and the lessons it may hold for a hermeneutic disaster management today. Among his forthcoming publications are a chapter on the use of abductive reasoning in deciphering oracles, and an article on the reception of Circe’s island as a place of becoming-animal in the journal Ramus. His research draws on such fields as semiotics, ecocriticism, and animal studies to illuminate ancient mentalities and modern receptions. With many years of experience as a writing consultant, Michiel is also passionate about teaching writing at all levels.

Selected Publications

  •  “Back on Circe’s Island,” Ramus 49.1. Special Volume on Deleuze and Guattari. Cambridge University Press (fall 2020).
  •  review of P. Struck. Divination and Human Nature. A Cognitive History of Intuition in Classical Antiquity, Princeton University Press. Preternature. Critical and Historical Studies on the Preternatural 7.1: 126-131 (2018).

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Interdisciplinary Fellowship. Institute at Brown for the Environment and Society. Brown University – 2018
  •  Mellon Graduate Workshop Grant: “Traces of Disaster: Memory, Trauma, and the Catastrophic Landscape.”
    Cogut Institute for the Humanities, Brown University – 2018
  •  Fondazione Lemmermann Fellowship for Research in Rome (Apr.-June) – 2017
  •  Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award in the Humanities. Brandeis University – 2012
  •  American Philological Association Excellence in Classics Award. Brandeis University – 2012

Full CV