Leiden University offers ambitious students a world-class environment in which to reach their full potential.

Studies on the Disappearance of the Amphora Phenomenon

Browse the latest articles and issues of Inter-Section.

The master’s programme in Book and Digital Media Studies introduces you to the history of the written and printed word, and to theories and practices of publishing as well as digital textual media.

Through our research, we work towards a fundamental understanding of the world and people around us. We use that knowledge to make the world a safe, healthy, sustainable, prosperous and just place.

The MA Classics and Ancient Civilizations at Leiden University covers the entire range of present-day research on the civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Syria and Palestine, Greece and the Roman Empire. In chronological terms, the program covers thousands of years, from the early origins…

The MA Arts and Culture at Leiden University offers two specialisations: Art History and Museum Studies.

The PhD programme of the Institute for Philosophy is embedded in the Graduate School of Humanities. The Institute for Philosophy is an active research unit with a strong international reputation. It provides a stimulating environment for post-graduate research in the field of philosophy.

History is being taught at Leiden University since the days of Justus Lipsius [1547-1606]. In 1860, following the appointment of Robert Fruin as Leiden professor of Dutch History, modern historical investigation started in the Netherlands.

Academic staff and students blog about their research and teaching.

Leiden’s expertise on the Middle East spans from ancient history to contemporary tensions in the region. By studying languages, cultures, religions, literature, art, and philosophy in in conjunction, we create an indispensable, in-depth understanding.

For a long time, even many researchers thought that guide dogs were a relatively modern invention. An accidental encounter with archival material showed university lecturer Krista Milne that guide dogs helped their blind owners as far back as the Middle Ages. Milne now has received an NWO XS grant to…

Joanita Vroom, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Archaeology, has received a DANS Klein DataProject (KDP) bursary for her project entitled ‘Data Atlas of Byzantine and Ottoman material culture: archiving Medieval and Post-Medieval archaeological fieldwork data from the Eastern Mediterranean (600…

NVIC welcomes Ahmed Hassan, a PhD candidate at Indiana University as a guest researcher.

The IGTM workshop "Rules, Regulations, and Regimes in Medieval Religion" (21 June 2023) for graduate students and junior scholars, in which early career scholars have the opportunity to discuss their research with peers and senior referents in an informal setting, takes the 800th anniversary of the…

Joanita Vroom, Professor Archaeology of Medieval and Early Modern Eurasia at the Faculty of Archaeology, has again received a DANS Klein DataProject (KDP) bursary for her project entitled ‘Data Atlas of Byzantine and Ottoman Material Culture: Archiving Medieval and Post-Medieval Archaeological Fieldwork…

On the 7th and 8th of November, Radboud University and Utrecht University are jointly organising a masterclass for (Re)MA students and PhD candidates on the life and times of those lay people dependent on monasteries.

Lecture

Nadine Akkerman's book Spycraft, which she co-wrote with historian of science Pete Langman, has garnered top publications, with reviews featured in The Telegraph, Literary Review, The Spectator, History Today, and the Times Literary Supplement.

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

Yusen Yu wins the prestigious Graduate Student Prize of the Middle East Medievalists (MEM) with his article

In Mapping the Pāśupata Landscape: Narrative, Place, and the Śaiva Imaginary in Early Medieval North India, Elizabeth A. Cecil explores the sacred geography of the earliest community of Śiva devotees called the Pāśupatas.

The Department of Historical Studies at Central European University (Vienna, Austria) is pleased to announce its call for applications for the 2025/2026 academic year. The deadline is February 1, 2025.

Thijs Porck, university lecturer of medieval English at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (RHS).

Dr. Joanita Vroom has been awarded a Breed Grant by the Leiden Global Interactions research profile to support the realisation of her project ‘Shifting Empires, Cultural Encounters. Mapping Material Culture and Foodways in the Medieval & Post-Medieval Eastern Mediterranean and Adjacent Near East (600-1900…

Rachel Schats has been a familiar face at the Faculty of Archaeology since she started her bachelor’s in Archaeology in 2005. Now she is an assistant professor, working on her Veni project on malaria in the Middle Ages. ‘I have included in this project so many skeletal collections that no one has ever…

Maria started as a team-member in one of dr. Catia Antunes' research projects in December 2014 as Early Stage Researcher of the Marie Curie – ITN Project ForSEAdiscovery on ‘Portuguese forest resources and timber supply in the Early Modern period’.

Lecture

Lecture, LIMS seminar

Paul Brakefield, Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the Institute of Biology in Leiden (IBL) has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant for his research. He will receive 2.5 million euro to develop his research programme over a period of five years.

Lecture, LIAS Lunch Talk Series

Uniting an international consortium of scholars, the Skandapurāṇa Project comprises a team of researchers working in fields across the Humanities. We are creating a critical edition of a foundational work of purāṇic literature and, in doing so, tracing the dynamics of a textual tradition to better understand…

Conference

Inaugural lecture

Inloopavond

Conference

Lecture

Historian Robert Stein is a lecturer in Medieval History. He was recently awarded the Senior Teaching Qualification. What did he learn from the STQ track and what lessons does he plan to apply in his hybrid lecture room?

On Saturday 16 January 2016, the Faculty of Archaeology opened its doors to welcome over 100 archaeology and living archaeology enthusiasts from all over the Netherlands. They were participating in a full-day symposium organised by Céline den Engelsman and Casper van Dijk, BA3-students from the archaeology…

Recently Professor Joanita Vroom’s book Feeding the Byzantine City was published by the prominent academic publishing house Brepols. This volume is the fifth in a series called Medieval and Post-Medieval Mediterranean Archaeology, of which she is the editor. ‘This series aims to offer new perspectives…

In the nationalist nineteenth century, people developed an interest in medieval language and literature. The study of medieval material in one’s own vernacular was thought to reveal a great national past. But why, then, was Old English studied by Germans, Danes, Italians and many other nationalities…

On December 13th & 14th Singer Niels Berentsen will defend his thesis Discantare super planum cantum. New Approaches to Polyphonic Improvisation 1300-1470 to obtain his doctoral degree.

A freely accessible online street map of late medieval and early modern northern Europe (1350-1650) has been published by the Viabundus project.

The University of Oslo offers three postdoctoral positions in early medieval studies. Deadline: 9 November 2022.

The medieval manuscripts collection of the Athenaeumbibliotheek Deventer, which consists of around 130 manuscripts and 20 fragments, has now completely been digitized.