Understanding the history of Islam and Muslim societies sheds a clear light on the complex and changing social structures of the Middle East, including the current trouble spots whose effect spreads all the way to Western Europe.

Research framework CIAS

Leiden is a picturesque university city that’s brimming with history and boasts a student culture that’s tangible just about everywhere. The university has contributed to the city’s unique atmosphere for over 400 years, since its founding in 1575. Leiden’s historical centre is full of student associations,…

The master's programme in Heritage and Museum Studies at Leiden University focuses on the relationships between past and present, the role of heritage in our society, and how our heritage can contribute to improving the quality of life and the environment.

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. It is being a part of a lively and diverse student community. Living in beautiful and historic Leiden. And enjoying the rich cultural life of Holland, where you are right in the heart of Europe.

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will stem from being a part of our lively and diverse student community, as well as from life in the beautiful city of Leiden.

The research master in History at Leiden University offers five specialisations in which you will focus on historical processes, historical research, historiography and methodology.

The Master History (study load 60 EC) offers you the chance to determine a study based on your own particular interests and ambitions.

Once you have obtained your bachelor’s degree, you will be ready for a next step: continuing your studies or entering the labour market. Completing the English Language and Culture programme will give you an excellent preparation for both options.

The key subject of Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence is Inequality at local, national and global levels.

In the research master Cities, Migration and Global Interdependence at Leiden University you will study processes of migration, urbanisation, economic development and global interaction over time.

In the African Studies BA programme you will obtain in-depth knowledge about Africa and the specific theme of your choice. At the same time, you will develop valuable academic and digital competences, as well as personal skills.

The LL.M. (Governance of Migration and Diversity specialization) provides in-depth expertise on migration, asylum, diversity, and non-discrimination law with an international and European focus. Courses span multiple academic disciplines, including law, history, sociology, political science, and development…

The research master’s programme in Linguistics at Leiden University combines leading expertise with a flexible programme format.

The multidisciplinary one-year master’s programme in North American Studies provides students with comprehensive knowledge of North American history, literature, film, and culture and their connection to contemporary social, political, literary and cultural developments in an international perspecti…

Indigenous Latin American artifacts have attracted the interest of Europeans since the earliest moment of contact between Europeans and the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The ERC-funded BECACO project uses an innovative multidisciplinary framework to investigate the provenance of ethnographic and…

The debate about Africa’s changing relations with the world has rapidly evolved over the past decade. The initial emphasis on China’s role in Africa has given way to a more diversified approach, acknowledging that other emerging global players have also become important.

Ramesh Ganohariti, PhD student and Ernst Dijxhoorn, Assistant Professor at Leiden University, researched the relation between international relations and sports, with sport and sports events increasingly being used for various diplomatic and political goals.

The ASCL Research Programme for the years 2019-2024 is called ‘Strident Africa: Societal and Environmental Change in the Context of 50 Centuries of History’. It examines the dramatic changes taking place on the continent in terms of population growth, urbanization, the role of external actors and the…

This historical study argues that the Mandaean religion originated under Sasanid rule in the fifth century, not earlier as has been widely accepted. It analyzes primary sources in Syriac, Mandaic, and Arabic to clarify the early history of Mandaeism.

In his book The magic of healing, Willem van der Does talks about 14 pioneers in the history of psychiatry. These pioneers all had one thing in common: they started with a radical idea which led to great enthusiasm.

On 16 December 2021, Lisanne van Houten defended the thesis 'Flexing the Slot Regime'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P. Mendes de Leon and Prof. L. Pierallini (Luiss University Of Rome).

Southeast Asia is a term to denote a collection of at present eleven nation-states with an enormous diversity in languages, cultures and religions. Muslims can both take a majority and a minority position.

Ambient sound is a standard term used by sound practitioners to denote the site-specific background sound component that provides a characteristic atmosphere and spatial information in a sound work.

Settlement burials in the pagus Texandrië and the transformation of Merovingian society c. 700 AD (Southern Netherlands)

Andrea Giolai defended his thesis on 3 May 2017.

Published on 26 February 2021.

Shiʿi Islam

This is the first full-scale reference grammar of Classical Greek in English in a century.

Language Use, Usage Guides and Linguistic Norms will be of interest to scholars of language use in both the past and the present, as well as to anyone interested in the interplay between actual language use and prescriptive attitudes towards language.

A new vision on the Revolt of the Low Countries through the eyes of Spanish commanders

Painstaking research in Dutch and Portuguese archive materials, so far poorly assessed on the topic of social relations, reveals intense and intricate associations between different European individuals both in terms of ethnicity and social strata.

This study addresses and explains the issue of negative descriptions of the Arab Other in modern Iranian thought.

Syntacticians study how words combine into larger units (phrases and sentences) in human languages and how the combinatorial possibilities determine word order and grammatical relations between parts of a sentence.

This anthology contributes to a historically grounded understanding of the complex relationship between Christian missions and the roots of humanitarianism and its contemporary uses in a Middle Eastern context.

What kinds of vocal music were not typically transmitted in written musical notation? Can specific ‘lost’ song forms - siciliane, giustiniane, le Grechesche, gli stili “regionali“ nel canto del quattrocento - be more precisely identified than they have been until now, both in musicological research…

Ms. Monica Klasing Chen defended her thesis on 16 December 2020

This dissertation develops an innovative approach to cultural transformation in the kingdom of Commagene (modern south-east Turkey) during the 1st c. BCE, focusing on a palatial context in the capital Samosata.

This book argues that Dutch Brazil (1624–54) is an integral part of Atlantic history and that it made an impact well beyond colonial and national narratives in the Netherlands and Brazil.

On the 6th of November, Virginia Beavon Ham successfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Virginia on this achievement.

In Luganda, the widest spoken minority language in East African country Uganda, the word for photographs is Ebifananyi. However, ebifananyi does not, contrary to the etymology of the word photographs, relate to light writings. Ebifananyi instead means things that look like something else. Ebifananyi…

In The Golden Mean of Languages, Alisa van de Haar sheds new light on the debates regarding the form and status of the vernacular in the early modern Low Countries, where both Dutch and French were local tongues. The fascination with the history, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary of Dutch and French…

Mathilde Mechling defended her thesis on 28 january 2020.

This unique collection applies globalization concepts to the discipline of archaeology, using a wide range of global case studies from a group of international specialists.

This study discusses the position of the monasteries in pre-1950s Tibetan societies and how that position was informed by Buddhist monastic ideology.

English The purpose of this research is to identify and examine the challenges faced by African States in the field of foreign investment with a view to contribute not only to the academic debate, but also to foster awareness and develop the capacities of these States with regard to the drafting, negotiation…

Representations of violence are often said to generate cathartic effects, but what does “catharsis” mean? And what theory of the unconscious made this concept so popular that it reaches from classical antiquity to the digital age?

Subproject of

The members of the Institute for Philosophy study all aspects of philosophy. In our research we seek a fruitful interaction between systematic and historical approaches to philosophy, and we thrive on intensive national and international collaboration.