Bart Dessein (PhD Ghent University 1994) is professor in the Department of Languages and Cultures (section Chinese Language and Culture) of Ghent University, where he also is the president of the research group ‘East Asian Culture in Perspective: Identity, Historical Consciousness, Modernity”. He also is Honorary Professor at Liaoning University, People’s Republic of China, and Guest Professor at Shanghai University, People’s Republic of China where he is the co-director of the 'Ghent University - Shanghai University Joint Lab on World War I Studies'. He is former board member and Vice-president of the ‘European Association for Chinese Philosophy’ (2014-2016), and former President of the ‘European Association for Chinese Studies’ (2016-2022). Currently, he also is board member of the Belgian Institute for Higher Chinese Studies. He is a senior fellow at the Egmont Royal Institute for International Relations, where he leads the institute's 'Focus on China'. His research activities concern Buddhist philosophy, Chinese political philosophy, and modern and contemporary Chinese history.
Key publications
Dessein, B. (2007). “The first Turning of the Wheel of the Doctrine. Sarvāstivāda and Mahāsāṃghika Controversy”, in The Spread of Buddhism, Edited by Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher. Leiden: E.J. Brill, pp.15-48.
Dessein, B. (2019). “Buddhists, Hellenists, Muslims, and the Origin of Science”. In Encountering Buddhism and Islam in Premodern Central and South Asia, edited by Ingo Strauch and Blain Auer. (Welten Süd- und Zentralasiens – Worlds of South and inner Asia – Mondes de l’Asie du Sud et de l’Asie Centrale. Volume 9). Berlin/Boston : De Gruyter, pp.177-202.
Dessein, B. (2024). “Abhidharma and the Formation of Buddhist Ontology in China”, in Chinese Philosophy and Its Thinkers. Volume II: Chinese Imperial Philosophy After Buddhism. Edited by Selusi Ambrogio and Dawid Rogacz. London, New York, Oxford, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury, pp.11-30.
Dessein, B. (2025). "A 'Sovereign Internanationalist' Assessment of the Cross-Strait Issue: Power, Order, and Normativity", Chinese Political Science Review 79 (2025.6), pp.1-42.
Dessein, B. (2025). “The Weight of History: Competing Narratives in the Context of a Rising China”, in Narrating China and Europe in Uncertain Times. Edited by Ágota Révész, Duncan Freeman, Magnus Feldmann and Steven Langendonk. Bristol: Bristol University Press, pp.244-263.
Complete list of publications