Sophie van Romburgh is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

More information about Sophie van Romburgh

Fields of interest

• Poetic thinking, visualisation, vividness, paronomasia, presence, and performance in early modern philology
• Early modern humanist philology on medieval Germanic literature
• Old and Middle English Philology
• Early modern erudite culture

Research

I research the learned process, practices and scholarly culture of Septentrional philology – the early modern study of medieval Northern European words and literatures called ‘Germanic’ today. In part the reflective practice of a philologist researching philologists, my interest especially concerns the Septentrionalists’ reflective process, philological practice, embodiment, poetic and visual thinking, presence, paronomasia, metalepsis and performance. Continuing my project on the ideas seventeenth-century philologists developed on medieval Germanic literatures (2003–2007), funded by a NWO Veni grant, my focus is on the early modern philologists’ intertwining of scholarship steeped in humanist Latin culture and the medieval Germanic vernacular past, with some emphasis on the studious pursuits of Francis Junius and Ole Worm.

Over the past few years, I have worked on preparing several publications. My most recent essay “Hyperboreo sono: an exploration of erudition in early modern Germanic philology” (accepted) reflects on the generative force of embodied, poetic, visual thinking in early modern erudition, with a focus on Septentrional philology. I have analysed the learned language play of occasional poems that mix seventeenth-century scholarly culture and early Germanic language in the paper “Le jeu de l’hybridité des poèmes de circonstance scaldiques et anglo-saxons modernes” (accepted). In my contribution to Mittelalterphilologien heute (in print), I consider how early modern scholars sought to make the ancient Germanic materials present in their philology (“How to Make the Past Age Present: Some of Ole Worm’s and Francis Junius’ Humanist Efforts”).

Since 2011, I have also assisted interested researchers and applicants across LUCAS with the editing and fine-tuning of their research proposals for various NWO and ERC grants, including the VENI scheme, VIDI scheme, ‘Vrije Competitie’, KIEM, Humanities–Creative Industries, Rubicon, PhD scheme ‘duurzame geesteswetenschappen’, and the ERC starting grant. Besides some expertise gained at LURIS meetings, I bring to this my experience in researching the learned process of early modern humanist scholars, and my experience in the creative process from a BFA in fine arts and an independent art practice.

My site “art by walking : the presence of passing” shows more of my art practice.

Forthcoming publications

“How to Make the Past Age Present: Some of Ole Worm’s and Francis Junius’ Humanist Efforts,” in Alessandra Molinari and Michael Dallapiazza, eds, Mittelalterphilologien heute. Eine Standortbestimmung. Teil 1: Die germanischen Philologien (Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen und Neumann) [in print].

“Le jeu de l’hybridité des poèmes de circonstance scaldiques et anglo-saxons modernes,” in Anne-Pascale Pouey-Mounou and Paul Smith, eds, Langues hybrides et expérimentations littéraires (XVIe–début XVIIe siècles)/ Hybridsprachen: Linguistische und literarische Untersuchungen (16.–Anfang 17. Jh.) (Geneva: Droz) [accepted].

“Hyperboreo sono: an exploration of erudition in early modern Germanic philology,” Erudition and the Republic of Letters [accepted].

Curriculum vitae

• researcher and guest university lecturer, LUCAS, and independent visual artist (2011–ongoing)
• BFA (Fine Arts) student, Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague (2007–2012, graduation 2012)
• university lecturer in English Philology, Leiden English Department (2003–2010)
• coordinator of the Medieval Studies minor, Leiden Faculty of Humanities (2004–2007)
• postdoctoral researcher, “Renaissance Ideas and Early Germanic Literature: Interconnections between Germanic Studies and Humanist Scholarship and Ideology,” NWO VENI grant, Pallas Institute, Leiden (2003–2007)
• junior lecturer in Historical English Literature, Department of English/American, Catholic University Nijmegen (now Radboud University) (2000–2003)
• Doctorate ‘cum laude,’ an edition of the complete correspondence of Francis Junius, Leiden (2002); published 2004
• developer of computer-assisted teaching projects for Philology, Leiden English Department (1998–2001)
• PhD candidate (‘Aio’), Pallas Institute, Leiden (1994–1998)
• teaching assistant and adjunct instructor in Philology and Language Acquisition, Leiden English Department (1994–1998)
• student in English Language and Literature, Leiden (1988–1994, graduation ‘cum laude’)
• Erasmus exchange student, University College London (1993)
• teaching assistant in Linguistics, Leiden English Department (1991–1992)
• ‘propedeuse’ (first year) in Theatre and Film Studies, Utrecht University (1987–1988)
• primary and secondary school (‘VWO with Latin and Greek’), Baarn

Teaching activities

Currently, I am a second evaluator of BA theses for the Leiden BA in English Language and Culture (mostly philology and literature).

Key publications

“Hyperboreo sono: an exploration of erudition in early modern Germanic philology,” Erudition and the Republic of Letters [accepted].

“How to Make the Past Age Present: Some of Ole Worm’s and Francis Junius’ Humanist Efforts,” in Alessandra Molinari and Michael Dallapiazza, eds, Mittelalterphilologien heute. Eine Standortbestimmung. Teil 1: Die germanischen Philologien (Würzburg: Verlag Königshausen und Neumann) [in print].

Alicia C. Montoya, Sophie van Romburgh and Wim van Anrooij, eds, Early-Modern Medievalisms: The Interplay between Scholarly Reflection and Artistic Production, Intersections: Interdisciplinary Studies in Early Modern Culture 15 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010).

“For My Worthy Freind Mr Franciscus Junius.” An Edition of the Correspondence of Francis Junius F.F. (1591-1677), Brill’s Studies in Intellectual History 121 (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2004).

“Why Francis Junius (1591–1677) Became an Anglo-Saxonist, or, the Study of Old English for the Elevation of Dutch,” in T.A. Shippey, with Martin Arnold, eds, Appropriating the Middle Ages: Scholarship, Politics, Fraud, Studies in Medievalism 11 (Cambridge [etc.]: D.S. Brewer, 2001), 5–36.

Activities