He joined the University of Waterloo in 1987 and has taught courses pertaining to the cultural history of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods, the 19th century, and also participates in topics including urban history and film history. He is currently Professor of Cultural History in the university's architectural faculty.
Holocaust research
Van Pelt's Holocaust studies began while he was studying the Temple of Solomon under Renaissance scholar Frances Yates as part of his doctorate. He has stated that he was stunned when he first entered the Auschwitz architectural archive, commenting that the place allows one to imagine what the place looked like during the war and holds a "tactile reality" as to how the camp was built, and that here, he found his mission. His pursuit of Auschwitz as a point for architectural study arose when he nominated one of the crematoria and gas chamber complexes at Auschwitz-II Birkenau to be included in the University of Virginia architecture classes canon, a decision which he says was controversial among academics there. Van Pelt has also appeared in Errol Morris's , a documentary film about Fred Leuchter where he comments on and criticises Leuchter's methods and findings that constituted Leuchter's report for the defense of Ernst Zündel. In the film, van Pelt offers the analogy that the Nazis were the first Holocaust deniers, because through the obscure euphemisms and terminology they used in reference to their homicidal equipment, they attempted to deny to themselves what they were doing. In the successful defence of Deborah Lipstadt, van Pelt was one of the four Holocaust historians who served as expert witnesses, and he defended the 770-page report he produced during five days of cross-examination. His involvement in the trial was included in the 2016 filmDenial, in which he was played by British actorMark Gatiss. Also in 2016, his research into the architecture of Auschwitz was presented in the exhibition Architecture as Evidence at the Venice Biennale and the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
Writing
Van Pelt has written five books and co-authored two with Debórah Dwork. He has also contributed chapters to twenty books, and has published more than thirty articles. In addition, he has served as an advisor on films and has also contributed in both the physical and dramatical reconstructions in Laurence Rees' television documentary. He wrote the introduction to the first English-language edition of David Koker's diary.
