Paul Michael Kurtz is a cultural, intellectual, and religious historian of modern Europe, with further expertise in ancient Judaism and Semitic studies. His research centers on the history of science/humanities: specifically, the formation, transmission, and circulation of knowledge about the ancient world both in and between Europe and the Middle East from 1770 to 1930. At Ghent, Kurtz is Associate Research Professor in History of Science (since 2022). Alongside his principal appointment in the Department of History, he also works with the Department of Philosophy & Ethics and with the German Studies Section. In addition, Kurtz is a Guest Lecturer at the University of Groningen, in the Department of History, and a Member of the Young Academy, part of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Previously, he was a Research Fellow of the Flemish Research Council at Ghent (2019–22), Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Queens’ College (2017–19), and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Göttingen (2016–17). In 2016, Kurtz earned a Dr. phil. in History at Göttingen, summa cum laude, where he first began as a Fulbright Scholar. During doctoral studies, he also held fellowships at the University of Chicago, Leibniz Institute of European History in Mainz, and Max Weber Centre for Advanced Studies in Erfurt. Nice and tidy as it may seem, this streamlined biography obscures many dark nights of academic precarity. It also omits the initial rejection of numerous articles and grant proposals.