He engages with the social and cultural history of the pre-modern Islamic world, with a particular focus on the Islamic middle period (ca. 1000-1500), on Egypt and Syria, on the practices, discourses and structures of power elites in the sultanate of Cairo (ca. 1200-1517), and on the de/construction of grand narratives in Mamluk/Islamic history.

He was a research fellow of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC, 1997-8, 2003), a research assistant at KULeuven (Belgium) and the Flemish Science Foundation (FWO) (1998-2003), a lecturer at the University of St Andrews (2004-7), a senior research fellow at the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg: History and Society during the Mamluk Era (1250-1517) (Bonn, 2014-15), and a visiting lecturer/professor at the British Museum and at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London) (2006-13), at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes (Paris) (2008), and at the National University of Malaysia (2009).

Jo Van Steenbergen has been the recipient of a European Research Council Starting Grant (2009-14) and of a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (2016-21), for research projects on the political history and historiography of 15th-century Egypt and Syria (‘The Mamlukisation of the Mamluk Sultanate’). Jo Van Steenbergen was general editor of al-Masāq: the Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Routledge/Society for the Medieval Mediterranean) (2011-16). He is a programming committee member of the annual International Medieval Congress (Leeds, UK), editorial board member of Mamluk Studies (Bonn UP/ASK) and The Medieval Mediterranean (Brill) and honorary fellow of the Society for the Medieval Mediterranean. He was an ERC panel member and panel chair (SH6: Study of the Human Past, Starting Grant, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024) and a member of the 'Conseil Scientifique' of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO) (2018-20).

Projecten

Projecten als promotor

Publicaties

Belangrijkste publicaties

Meest recente publicaties

Volledige bibliografie

Onderwijs

Aankondigingen

Dienstverlening

Institutional Responsibilities (since 2009 only)

2022-26. Academic Secretary, Faculty Board, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2020-24 chair, PhD examination committees of the department of languages and cultures (UGent) (shared with M. Meeuwis, A. Niehaus)

2013-… UGent representative in the steering committee of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) for the Flemish participation in the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC)

2012-… member, Faculty Council, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2012-22 member, Faculty Research Committee, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2012-… co-ordinator, section of Arabic, Islamic and Middle East Studies, Department of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University (middleeast.ugent.be)

2010-… UGent representative in the academic advisory board (‘Wetenschappelijke Adviesraad’) of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC)

2010-24 member, executive committee, Henri Pirenne Institute of Medieval Studies, Ghent University

2016-17 member, Faculty Library Committee, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2017 secretary, selection committee for a tenure track position in social and cultural history and/or anthropology of the modern and contemporary Middle East (1800-present), Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2013-17 occasional member, Social Sciences and Humanities Committee, Research Council, Ghent University

2011 Chair, Near Eastern Studies Department, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2010-11 co-ordinator, research assessment exercise Oriental, African and East-European Languages and Cultures and Sciences of Culture, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Ghent University

2011-14 founding member, executive committee Centre for Turkish Studies, Ghent University

Commissions of Trust

2018-22 co-president (with Dr Antonella Luizzo Scorpo, Lincoln), Society for the Medieval Mediterranean

2018-24 European Research Council, ‘Expert’: Starting Grant Evaluation 2018, 2020, 2022, 2024 (Panel Member/Panel Chair SH6 ‘Study of the Human Past’)

2017-…. co-ordinator ‘Islamic World’, programming committee, annual International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK

2017-20 Conseil Scientifique de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale (Caïro), Ministère de l’enseignement supérieur, de la recherché et de l’innovation, République Française, ‘personnalités scientifiques, françaises et étrangères, choisies en raison de leur competence dans les disciplines correspondant aux missions de l’école’

2015-… member, editorial board, monograph series ‘The Medieval Mediterranean. Peoples, Economies, Cultures’ (Brill Academic Publishers)

2015-19 member, editorial board, international journal Annales islamologiques (IFAO, Cairo)

2015, 2019 member, jury Dionisius Agius Book Prize, Society for the Medieval Mediterranean

2014 external member, search committees for 2 tenure track positions in medieval Middle Eastern/Mediterranean and in modern Middle Eastern history, History Department, University of Antwerp, Belgium

2012-… member, editorial board, monograph series ‘Mamluk Studies’ (Bonn University Press & V&R unipress)

2012-14 curator Quran, exhibition ‘Sacred Books’ — Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience, Antwerp, Belgium, September-December 2014

2011-16 general editor, international peer-reviewed journal al-Masāq: Journal of the Medieval Mediterranean (Routledge/Carfax-Taylor&Francis) (volumes 23-28)

2007-… member, editorial board Middle & Near East section, international journal History Compass (Wiley)

2006-7 section editor Middle & Near East, international journal History Compass (Wiley)

2009 -… external referee and/or evaluator for American University in Beirut (full professor application, tenure review), School of Oriental and African Studies (reader application), British Academy (postdoctoral fellowship application), EPHE (demande de subvention), University of Edinburgh (senior lecturer application), University of Cyprus (full professor application), AHRC (doctoral programmes), New York University of Abu Dhabi Institute (Humanities Research Fellowship Program; workshop proposal); Qatar University (associate professor application), Israel Science Foundation (project grant application), University of Redlands (pre-tenure review), FRS-FNRS (postdoc applications), the Leverhulme Trust (Research Fellowship application), DFG (project application), American University in Cairo (tenure review), CUNY Queens College (full professor application), Swiss National Science Foundation (project application), University of Michigan (tenure track appointment), University of Virginia (tenure track appointment), European Research Council (Consolidator Grant Proposal review)

2009 -… book proposal/manuscript reviewer for Routledge, Edinburgh University Press, Brill Academic Publishers, American University in Cairo Press

2008-17 co-ordinator ‘Mediterranean and Islamic Studies’, programming committee, annual International Medieval Congress, Leeds, UK

2004-… External/internal examiner, PhD examining (Ghent University, University of Manchester, Université de Liège, University of Peshawar, University of Toronto, Birkbeck University of London, EPHE Paris, Leiden University, Utrecht University, SOAS University of London, St Andrews University)