Delville teaches literature and comparative literature at the Université de Liège, where he heads the Centre interdisciplinaire de Poétique appliquée. He has published works on literature, the visual arts, music and, more generally, cross-disciplinary studies in the humanities (see selective bibliography below). He has received the following awards and distinctions for his scientific work: the 1998 SAMLA Book Award, the Choice Outstanding Book Award, the Prix Léon Guérin, the 2001 Alumni Award of the Belgian American Educational Foundation, and the 2009 Wernaers Prize for Research and the Dissemination of Knowledge.
Delville has been composing jazz, rock and electronic music since the late 1980s. His main band, The Wrong Object, founded in 2001, has seven albums to its credit.