His research focuses on the study of Zen Buddhist texts. His teaching interests at Duke Kunshan include ethics and leadership, global China studies, religion and literature.
Van Overmeire has a B.A. (cum laude) and M.A. (summa cum laude) in Germanic languages and literatures from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium; an M.A. in American studies (magna cum laude) from the University of Antwerp, Belgium; an M.A. in comparative literature (magna cum laude) from the State University of New York, Stony Brook; and a Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego. In 2016-17, he was a visiting assistant professor of religion at St. Olaf College. He is also a postdoctoral fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders at Ghent University, Belgium.