Draft:Walter Prevenier

Walter Prevenier (Zelzate, September 25, 1934) is a Belgian historian and specialist in the history of the Middle Ages, paleography and diplomatics. Until 1999 he was a full professor at the University of Ghent. His teaching repertoire included a landmark course on historical criticism. He has been a visiting professor at several foreign universities. Prevenier is a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (section of Humanities) in Amsterdam, and of the Medieval Academy of America, Cambridge (Mass., USA).

Academic career

Prevenier earned an M.A. at the University of Ghent in 1956 with a thesis under the supervision of Professor Hans Van Werveke on the representation of the Estates under Philip the Bold and his posture with respect to other social groups in the country of Flanders. He simultaneously earned a teaching licensure.

In 1959 he was certified as an archivist-paleographer at the General Archives at Brussels. In 1962 he obtained his doctorate under Professor Egied Strubbe at the University of Ghent with a thesis entitled "The Charters of the Counts of Flanders (1191–1206): A Diplomatic and Paleographical Study with a Critical Text Edition."

Prevenier began his academic career in January 1957 as an assistant to Professors Strubbe and Van Werveke. He became a permanent supervisor in 1962. In July 1967, he was appointed part-time lecturer in Latin paleography and in courses on diplomatics, paleography, and historical criticism. By the end of that year, he was promoted to full professor. In 1971, he was appointed chairholder in Auxiliary Sciences and Methodology of History. He retired from the University of Ghent in October 1999.

He also served as a part-time professor at the Free University of Brussels beginning in 1966 and as an extraordinary professor in paleography at Ghent from 1971 to 1996. He was known as a popular and beloved teacher.

His additional roles at Ghent University included:

Dean of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy (1984–1986)

Chair of the Public Relations section (1989–1992)

Member of the Board of Directors (1989–1992)

Chair of the Tribute Committee for Prof. Dr. Adriaan Verhulst

Member of the anti-discrimination advisory committee (2003)

Member of the campus use policy committee (2005–2006)

International appearance

Prevenier gave guest lectures at the University of Utrecht in 1968 and held visiting positions at:

University of California, Berkeley (1983, 2004)

Rutgers University (1987, 1989)

University of Pennsylvania (1989)

Columbia University (1993, 2000, 2001, 2011)

College of William and Mary (1999, 2000)

Princeton University (2000)

University of California, Los Angeles (2008), where he inaugurated the Anthony van Dyck Chair

He also held residencies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1996 and 1999. In 2011, he served as Queen Wilhelmina Chair at Columbia University, teaching a course on popular culture in the late medieval Low Countries.