Dutch and foreign alumni from Leiden are the oil that keeps the wheels of Dutch-Asian relations moving smoothly. That’s one of the conclusions reached during the area day of the Dutch ambassadors in Asia and Oceania. All of them gathered in Leiden University’s Academy Building on 30 January.

In his new six-hour series, Africa's Great Civilizations, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes a new look at the history of Africa, from the birth of humankind to the dawn of the 20th century. One of the experts interviewed in the programme is our own dr. Sada Mire.

In the academic year 2018 - 2019, the Faculty of Humanities established the Educational Innovation Programme. In this way, the faculty wants to realise the ambitions from the educational vision of Leiden University in education. How is the programme currently doing? We talked to project manager Sanne…

A team of astronomers led by Dutch scientists have directly imaged a giant planet orbiting at a large distance around a sun-like star. Why this planet is so massive, and how it got to be there, is still a mystery. The researchers will publish their findings in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Investigating the contribution of interpreters, informants, hunters and guides in the making of colonial scientific knowledge.

How did free agents in the Dutch Republic react to the creation of colonial monopolies (VOC and WIC) by the States-General? This project answers this question by looking at the role individuals played in the construction of an informal global empire parallel to the institutional empire devised by the…

This Global and Comparative Philosophy master’s programme is unique in Europe. It offers comparative perspectives from around the world that will enable you to be part of the next generation of thinkers: someone studying and shaping philosophy for a globalised 21st century.

What is movements and corridors of the Bornean pygmy elephant in Sebuku forest? What is the nature of human-elephant conflict in Nunukan District in time and space? What are the diets of the Bornean elephants related to crop raiding?

The socio-political and cultural memory of the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire played a very important role in Antiquity and later ages. This book is the first to systematically chart these multiform ideas and associations over time and to define them in relation to one another, as Persianism.

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.

This omnibus brings together some old and some recent works by Jos Gommans on the warhorse and its impact on medieval and early modern state-formation in South Asia.

On 30 June 2016, Eesa Fredericks is expected to defend his Ph.D.-thesis ‘Contractual Capacity in Private International Law’ in Leiden. Supervisors are prof. Sierd J. Schaafsma (Leiden) and prof. Jan Neels (Johannesburg).

On October 31st, Paul Noorlander succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Paul on this great result.

In this lecture professor Harding considered the implications of Asia's 21st-century rise for its legal systems and our approaches to studying them in the new situation we confront in the early 21st century.

An overview of Professional Associations and Journals

Documenting and describing languages of the world.

In developing cooperation on research and education with China, Leiden University focuses on projects that promote innovation, have an impact on science, and benefit society

The present monograph, spanning a wide range of world and local literatures represents a high academic standard of both literary criticism and philological analysis. By demonstrating her expertise as an Africanist conversant with the Arabic canon, Raia reveals how the narrative of Joseph has been re-narrated…

This dissertation contains a detailed description of the Carib language, including the most extensive dictionary of the language to date. This knowledge is based on work from earlier sources and field work which was carried out by the author over a ten-year period, particularly in Galibi, a Carib village…

The correspondence of the Dutch factory in Hirado, Japan, 1609-1633

Did you know that Arabic was for centuries the lingua franca in an area stretching from the south of Spain to the Chinese border? And that the Middle East under Muslim rule was the world’s beating heart of trade, but also of science and scholarship?

At LUCL we study almost all aspects of a wide range of African languages. From phonology to anthropological linguistics, from theoretical syntax to urban youth languages, we study it all.

Debate

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Ukrainian President Zelensky has indicated on several occasions that he wants to be part of the European Union. According to Caroline van der Plas, Dutch MP for the BoerBurgerBeweging party, this is not possible. Any country that wants to join the EU must go through the standard procedure. No except…

Children will be able to return to school in the near future, but students from Leiden University are not that fortunate. For the rest of this academic year, they will attend their courses online. To support one another in this period of isolation, honours students have shared their tips and ideas in…

Climate change is going to have more and more influence on our daily lives in the near future. For example, tackling it is going to have significant consequences for many people in our society.

The ‘Wetenschapscongres for vwo’ gets an Anglophone edition: 'Leiden University’s Academic Challenge’.

Last year we organized a sustainability conference with much success together with the co-participation bodies of Leiden University.

On 17 October 2019, the Netherlands’ Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management organised a first stakeholders meeting on microfibers from textile in the LEF Future Center. The meeting was prompted by a report of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in April of this…

Attachés from the Innovation Attaché Network (IAN) visited Leiden University to meet with researchers working on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and to become more familiar with what Leiden, Leiden University and the LUMC have to offer to possible partners abroad.

Last September Henk Borgdorff participated in the art and research funding expert meeting of funding agencies initiated by the Society for Artistic Research (SAR).

Private businesses will probably soon refuse access to non-vaccinated persons in the near future. But this is more difficult when it comes to public amenities. Aart Hendriks, Professor of Health Law at Leiden Law School, contributed to an article in Dutch newspaper NRC saying that he anticipates that…

At the Hague University of Applied Sciences, a stakeholder meeting took place on 4 April in the context of peace and justice in a digital world. The meeting was an initiative of Leiden University (LCDS, eLaw) and the Hague University of Applied Sciences, to explore joint curriculum development in the…

As of 1 January 2020 the Institute of Immigration Law will become part of the Europa Institute of Leiden University.

Since 1 January Leiden has a new graduate school. The Netherlands Institute for Cultural Analysis (NICA), previously based at the University of Amsterdam, has moved to the Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

Five Leiden astronomers tell about science in the podcast Astronomy et al. This podcast was set up by Ricardo Garcia Soto in September 2016 and is focused on anyone who is interested in science.

In 2024, Professor Joanita Vroom received a substantial grant from the Packard Humanities Institute (PHI) in support for her Hinterlands of Medieval Chalcis Project (HMC Project) in Greece. PHI, a California-based non-profit organization, is dedicated to archaeological research as well as to the preservation…

Cosmopolis seeks to explore the transnational and cultural dimensions of intra-Eurasian encounters through Dutch sources.

In Sri Lanka, a prominent Singhalese Buddhist monk publicly proclaims that it is not a sin to kill Tamils. In Japan, the family register kept in a Buddhist temple and specifying the outcaste status of a lineage is provided to private detectives investigating the marriageability of a young woman. Throughout…

This project will construct an inventory of possible conceptions of the resistance of the world to scientists’ claims and theories.

The physical landscape is the setting in which human activities take place. Landscape and site context during human occupation is one of the areas of concern for the geoarchaeologist. A detailed stratigraphical study -both on- and off-site- clearly enhances the interpretation of the archaeologists,…

Leiden University has locations in both Leiden and The Hague.

This project investigates the well-preserved agricultural terraces of the Inn valley and the evolution of resource use in the inner Alps.