Youri Desplenter (1974) is a full professor of Historical Dutch Literature (Middle Ages) at Ghent University (since 2010). He is deeply engaged in teaching, covering not only medieval subjects such as Middle Dutch Literature, Theory and Methodology of the History of Literature, and Old Dutch, but also Dutch teaching methodology. Bridging the gap between secondary schools and academia, especially concerning historical literature, is indeed a major concern of his. To this end, he organizes dozens of workshops each year on medieval—especially Middle Dutch—manuscripts for secondary school students.
Within his faculty, he currently serves as chair of the Master's program in Historical Linguistics and Literature, and as vice-chair of the Department of Literary Studies.
His research focuses on Middle Dutch religious literature, with particular attention to late medieval prayer texts, Bible translations, and the broader interactions between Latin and the vernacular. His PhD dissertation (Ghent University; defended January 2004) was a comprehensive study of a previously unexamined genre within Middle Dutch prayer literature: translations of Latin hymns and sequences.
Following this, as a postdoctoral researcher (FWO) at Ghent University (2004–2010), he investigated Middle Dutch Psalter translations (2004–2007) and the writings of the so-called “mystical cook” Jan van Leeuwen (†1378), a lay brother who lived and worked alongside the better-known Jan van Ruusbroec (John of Ruusbroec) in the Groenendaal convent (2007–2010).
He currently supervises doctoral research in the field of Middle Dutch chivalric literature. In the past, he has guided research on various topics, including eschatological writings in Middle Dutch, the Ten Commandments, Middle Dutch authorship, and teaching methodology. He has published several articles and books on all of these research areas.
He is member of the editorial boards of Ons Geestelijk Erf and Handboek Didactiek Nederlands.
In 2024, he was elected Chair of COST Action CA23143, Participation through Prayer in the Late Medieval and Early Modern World (PRAYTICIPATE), a European subsidised research network (2024-2028).
