Faculty of Arts and Philosophy - Research Portal

Dr. Jan Vandersmissen

jan.vandersmissen@ugent.be

Department

Department of History

Research group(s)

GRH - Global and Regional Histories

SARTON - Sarton Centre for History of Science

SocialHistory - Social History since 1750

Other institution(s)

Member and Past President (2019) - Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences (Brussels)

Board member & Treasurer (2017-2025) - Académie Internationale d'Histoire des Sciences (Paris)

Research Focus

Research Period

Research Region

Tabgroup

Projects

Projects as postdoc

The road to Alexandria. The sensation of landscapes in European travel writing, 1919-1939 (2021 - 2025)
Pyramids and progress. Belgian expansionism and the making of egyptology, 1830-1952 (2018 - 2022)
'Les Indes africaines' versus 'Le Congo minotaure'. Climate, acclimatization, hygiene and the contested idealization of the imperial project of Leopold II in Congo, 1876-1908 (2017 - 2020)
Environment as object and actor of conquest and conservationism in (post)imperial Africa

Publications

Most recent publications

Vandersmissen, Jan. “Entre Antiquités et Histoire Naturelle : Le Voyage de Jean-André Peyssonnel En Afrique Du Nord (1724-1725) et Son Héritage Littéraire.” Polyhistor Europaeus : Études Sur l’âge Classique Offertes à Chantal Grell, edited by Mathieu Da Vinha et al., vol. 112, Brepols, 2025, pp. 132–61, doi:10.1484/m.dda-eb.5.137811.
Vandersmissen, Jan. “Leopoldian Imperial Cartography : The Case of the Kouilou-Niari Basin Prior to the Foundation of the Congo Free State.” PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL ACADEMY FOR OVERSEAS SCIENCES, vol. 3, no. 1, 2025, pp. 173–94, doi:10.5281/zenodo.16925696.
De Meyer, Marleen, et al. “The Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth in Belgium and the Creation of National and Transnational Egyptological Research Infrastructures in the 1920s–1940s.” Oriental Societies and Societal Self-Assertion : Associations, Funds and Societies for the Archaeological Exploration of the “Ancient Near East,” edited by Thomas L. Gertzen and Olaf Matthes, vol. 10, Zaphon, 2024, pp. 141–66.
Vandersmissen, Jan, and Christophe Verbruggen. “Governing Belgian Expansionism in Egypt : The Practice of Interlocking Directorates (1893-1947).” JOURNAL OF BELGIAN HISTORY-REVUE BELGE D HISTOIRE CONTEMPORAINE-BELGISCH TIJDSCHRIFT VOOR NIEUWSTE GESCHIEDENIS, vol. 53, no. 3, 2023, pp. 18–46.
Huskens, Gert, et al. “Lifting the Veil of Levantine Cosmopolitanism : Diplomatic Networking in Egypt, 1873-1914.” DH_Budapest_2022 & DARIAH DAYS Conference, Abstracts, 2022.

Full bibliography