In 2019, Valentin Decloquement obtained his PhD in Greek literature from the University of Lille and Ghent University, with a dissertation on the reception of Homeric poetry in Philostratus' Heroicus. In 2020, he received a thesis award from the French Association of Ancient Languages Professors in Higher Education (Association des Professeurs de Langues Anciennes de l’Enseignement Supérieur).
As a former undergraduate student of the French “Preparatory Classes” (“Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles”, equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree), he received intense training in Greek and Latin grammar, philology, translation, philosophy and history, along with courses on French, English and German modern literatures. In 2015, he obtained a master in Greek and Latin literature and culture from the University of Lille. Between 2020 and 2022, he was a research and teaching assistant in undergraduate courses in the University of Lille.
During his PhD thesis, he developed an interest in the Second Sophistic and ancient views on the canon of literary models (ancient Homeric criticism most notably), from the beginnings of the Imperial period (1st century AD) to Byzantium (12th century). His research focuses on Greek and Latin imperial literature, Philostratus, history of scholarship, ancient rhetoric, literary periodization. He currently studies the history of the concept of the “Second Sophistic” from its beginning with Philostratus, over Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, up to 19th-century philology.
