A Modern Man of Letters

By Brecht Nijman & Maiah Letsch

Dirk van Miert is Associate Professor of Early Modern Cultural History at Utrecht University, and editor-in-chief of Lias: Journal of Early Modern Intellectual Culture and its Sources. In a recent interview he touched on his current research on the ‘Republic of Letters’, how he ended up as a historian and the future of the field of Humanities.

Van Miert is currently leading a project called SKILLNET, which studies the knowledge-sharing ideals of the members of the ‘Republic of Letters’ by recreating the social networks of these scholars through their letters. He chose this project due to its broad nature and his passion for researching the ‘Republic of Letters’. Van Miert acknowledged that it can sometimes be difficult to get wide public excitement for early modern history; nevertheless, van Miert highly values Open Access and implements heavily within his project. He even ostentatiously connects Open Access with the fifteenth-century tradition found within even the ‘Republic of Letters’. In an effort to keep his project Open Access, he asks for public engagement to help analyze the metadata of these old letters. Public involvement is not the only exciting methodological aspect of van Miert’s research, as he uses Social Network Analysis and other data-driven methods as well. Digital data analysis is a newer type of historical methodology, putting Van Miert’s research at the forefront of the field, while also allowing for the standardization the results, which is another integral portion of his project. If you are interested in his project and want to participate, please go to the CEMROL link here.

Van Miert is currently teaching a course that is very dear to him, ‘History of Humanities’, for the History and Philosophy of Science department. Van Miert finds great joy in being a part of such a recent field as the History of Humanities which only really evolved in the last decade. Furthermore, the subject is also of great political importance to him, as he hopes that this field can help to emphasise the importance of the humanities for society today. This is essential, he states, during this time of increasing budget cuts in education and humanities in particular.

Finally, Van Miert touched on the importance of maintaining the humanities. As a philologist, he has a clear passion for knowledge, and hopes to see age-old traditions passed down to new students. He said that he could see himself as a professor in the journals of the early modern scholars he researches, struggling to push students to be innovative while remaining disciplined within their studies. Describing himself as both a classicist and a humanist, van Miert has worked in Philosophy, Literature, and History departments, experiencing first-hand their necessity to both the academic world and the world of knowledge as a whole.

Overall, Dr. Dirk van Miert exudes an inspiring passion for his work. He truly displayed the fundamental need to follow the tradition of great scholars of the Humanities. If you are interested in learning more about Dr. Dirk van Miert, check out his official Utrecht University profile here.