Wil Verhoeven, Professor of American Studies in the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics, was Head of School of Arts, English and Languages at Queen’s University Belfast (2017-2020). He died on October 11, 2024.
He was formerly Professor of American Culture and Cultural Theory, and founding Chair of the American Studies Department at the University of Groningen (The Netherlands). He was also Invited Research Scholar in the American Studies Department at Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island). From 2002-2003 he was inaugural Charles H. Watts II Professor in the History of the Book and Historical Bibliography at the John Carter Brown Library and the Department of English at Brown University. In 2006, he was made a Kentucky Colonel for his services to the state.
Wil’s research on the Age of Revolution and Enlightenment in the Atlantic world was wide ranging and highly respected. His award-winning publications included Americomania and the French Revolution Debate in Britain, 1789-1802 (Cambridge University Press, 2013) and Gilbert Imlay: Citizen of the World (Routledge, 2008). He was General Editor of the 10-volume Anti-Jacobin Novels (Pickering & Chatto, 2005) and the 5-volume The Novels and Selected Plays of Thomas Holcroft (Pickering & Chatto, 2007), editing himself two volumes in each series. He edited or co-edited a number of novels, including The Emigrants (Penguin, 1998), The Vagabond (Broadview, 2004) and The Female Quixote (Penguin, 2006). He was also editor of Revolutionary Histories: Transatlantic Cultural Nationalism, 1775-1815 (Palgrave, 2002); co-editor of Epistolary Histories: Letters, Fiction, Culture (University of Virginia Press, 2000); and co-editor of Revolutions & Watersheds: Transatlantic Dialogues, 1775-1815 (Rodopi, 1999). He published numerous book chapters and journal articles on Charles Brockden Brown, German print culture in America, and other trans-Atlantic topics.
Wil’s work contributed to the renaissance in early American literature that began in the 1980s, and was especially significant for scholarship outside of US-based institutions. His intellectual curiosity, deep learning, and sense of humor will be missed.
Mark L. Kamrath
University of Central Florida