How can I generate an elegant (academic) static CV web page?

Based on your requirements, markdown-cv seems like a good option.

To use it, you write the CV in Markdown (the same format that's used in Stack Exchange), and use Jekyll to convert it to HTML. Documentation can be found here.

Screenshots for reference:

Markdown Input:

Rendered Output:

^{I have no affiliation with this software.}

Try using a LaTeX-to-HTML converter. Since most academics already have their CVs written in LaTeX, this is the most direct path to a professional look without starting from scratch. You can use a tool like LaTeXML or Pandoc to transform the TeX source into a static HTML file. These tools convert the structural logic of a LaTeX document—like sections, itemized lists, and bold headers—into clean HTML tags. The main advantage here is that you aren't relying on a "template" from a web app that might force modern UI trends on you. Because LaTeX is designed for print, the resulting HTML usually stays very conservative and linear, which fits your requirement for a strictly static page. Since you want to avoid all JavaScript and CSS effects, you can simply strip the generated CSS file of any hover states or transitions, or ignore the CSS entirely and let the browser's default serif fonts handle the "academic" feel. Your next step should be to run the existing .tex file through Pandoc using a command that specifies HTML output. Once you have the raw HTML, open the CSS file in a text editor and delete any lines containing ":hover" or "@keyframes" to ensure there are no animation-like effects. Be careful with complex LaTeX packages, like those used for fancy tables or custom margins, as these often don't translate perfectly to HTML and might create messy code that requires manual cleanup.