Aarhus Universitets segl

Evert van Emde Boas - New Associate Professor at the Department of History and Classical Studies

Evert van Emde Boas has accepted a position as Associate Professor from April 2020.

I come to Aarhus from Oxford, where I have most recently been working as Leventis Research Fellow in Ancient Greek at Merton College. Before that I worked in various teaching and research posts at different Oxford colleges, as well as a number of universities in the Netherlands. I was trained in Amsterdam (BA/MA) and Oxford (MSt/DPhil).

My research focuses on the application of contemporary linguistic and cognitive methodology to Ancient Greek literature. My first book, Language and Character in Euripides’ Electra (OUP 2017), is a study of Euripides’ play through the lens of a variety of modern linguistic approaches, such as conversation analysis, sociolinguistics (on gender and politeness), and paroemiology. I was particularly interested in how Euripides uses language to portray his characters: this interest in literary characterization has resulted in various further research projects, such as the edited volume Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature (Brill 2018) and a book currently in preparation, tentatively entitled Characterization through Speech in Greek Literature: A Cognitive Approach.

My current book project, as its title suggests, is also informed heavily by cognitive approaches — a relatively new but rapidly growing area of research within classics. More generally, I am very interested in interdisciplinary work: in Oxford I was a member of a research group comprising researchers from the fields of Classics, English Literature and Psychology, working on the psychological processes involved in the experience of fiction and drama. I hope to continue such work at Aarhus University, and it is exciting to see that there is already an active network of scholars in Aarhus working along similar lines.

A final, more traditional area of interest to mention is Greek grammar. Together with three colleagues I wrote the Cambridge Grammar of Classical Greek (CUP 2019), a new large-scale reference grammar of the language which attempts to bring the description of the language in line with recent developments in linguistics.

I am very much looking forward to starting my teaching in Aarhus, and to meeting many new colleagues from across the School of Culture and Society and beyond.


Contact:

Evert van Emde Boas
Institut for Kultur og Samfund
Jens Chr. Skous Vej 5
bygning 1463, 325
8000 Aarhus C

evert.vanemdeboas@cas.au.dk