Lieve Van Hoof is a Full Professor (BOF-ZAP) within the UGent History Department, also associated with the Department of Literary Studies. Trained as a classicist, historian, and political scientist, she studies the socio-political role of Greek and Latin literature under the Roman Empire, from the first to the sixth century A.D. Over the past couple of years, she has directed several research projects on Greek and Latin letters, and what they can tell us about lobbying in Late Antiquity (ca. 300- 600 A.D.). A popularising presentation on this topic can be seen at Universiteit van Vlaanderen (in Dutch). Currently, she is directing an international project on population wellbeing and responsive governance in Late Antiquity, together with Prof. dr. Philip Bosman from the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa.
Alongside numerous articles and book chapters, Lieve has published a monograph on Plutarch's practical ethics (OUP, 2010; Chinese translation Huaxia, 2017) and an edited volume on Libanius (CUP, 2014; paperback 2018). Together with Peter Van Nuffelen, she authored the Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris (Brepols, 2020), an edition, translation and commentary on fragmentary Latin histories of Late Antiquity (CUP, 2020), a translation and commentary on Jordanes' Getica and Romana (Liverpool University Press, 2020), and an edition, translation and commentary of fragmentary Greek chronicles after Eusebius (CUP, 2025).
Before coming to Ghent, Lieve held academic positions, fellowships and scholarships at Oxford and Exeter (U.K.), Göttingen and Bonn (Germany), and Leuven (Belgium), where she obtained her Ph.D. in 2006.
Lieve is currently Director of the Ghent Centre for Late Antiquity, and also has an interest in academic policy. She is currently Director of Internationalisation of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, and was formerly Co-President of the Jonge Academie as well as President of UGent Postdoc Community. In the latter capacity, she was awarded a UGent Hermes Award 2016 together with Jasmien Van Daele.
In 2021, she received the award of Laureate of the Royal Flemisch Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, and from 2022-2028, she holds an honorary appointment as Professor Extraordinary at the University of Stellenbosch.