The much-discussed documentary 'Cobblestone Stories' by American anthropologist Mark Neupert can be seen in Leiden's Trianon cinema on 23 April. In an interview published earlier on this site Neupert explained what makes Leiden so special for him. 'The idea is to show my American students that there…

You can't have missed it: Leiden University celebrated its 444th anniversary in 2019 with a year-long programme of activities for the people of Leiden and The Hague. The Dies Natalis on 7 February 2020 marks the end of this special year. High time to look back at what we did!

The Pilgrims to America exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal inspires reflection. How far do you go in the quest for freedom? It focuses on the Pilgrims’ relationship with the University and which knowledge they took with them from Leiden.

Dutch people are proud of the fact that genever, their national drink, was the prototype for gin, the now so fashionable British spirit. And Leiden people are proud of their Professor Sylvius, who invented genever in the seventeenth century. But is this really true?

Kim Beerden, lecturer in Ancient History, has won the 2016 LUS Teaching Prize.

The Leiden University Excellence Scholarships Programme (LExS) provides scholarships for excellent international students from outside the EU/EEA who come to Leiden to follow a master’s programme. The first eighty LExS scholarships have been awarded for this academic year.

Two hundred years ago Caspar Reuvens was appointed as the first professor of archaeology in the Netherlands. He was to lay the basis for both the National Museum of Antiquities and the Faculty of Archaeology at Leiden University. To mark the occasion, the faculty is organising an anniversary lecture…

Due to the unrest in the Middle East, many ancient Syrian manuscripts are no longer available or have even been destroyed. Professor of Old Testament Bas ter Haar Romeny received 77 microfilms of Syrian manuscripts, enabling him and his PhD students to research these ‘lost’ manuscripts.

Are you looking for some listening material for the upcoming long weekend? Staff members and alumni of the Faculty of Humanities have been creating various podcasts over the last few months. A selection is shown here:

This March, LUCSoR alumnus Dr. Mattias Brand received the Gerardus van der Leeuw PhD Dissertation Award from the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG) for his dissertation, “The Manichaeans of Kellis: Religion, Community, and Everyday Life”. It is a biennial award for a PhD dissertation…

Conference

Four scientists from Leiden University have each been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant, worth up to two million euros, gives researchers the opportunity to head up a research team for five years.

Since April 2017 the LUCDH team has received reinforcement in the shape of two brand-new Phd candidates. They will be working on existing projects set up by Victoria Nyst and Sjef Barbiers. I have the pleasure of introducing them here.

Three Leiden students will be sharing their knowledge of history while playing video games. The livestreams are part of the ‘Streaming the Past’ project and will be available on the popular streaming platform Twitch. The first livestream will be on Thursday 20 May.

No less than seven scholars of the Faculty of Humanities were awarded a Veni grant. Veni grants are aimed at excellent researcher who recently obtained their doctorate. With a maximum grant of 250.000 euros, the laureates can develop their research ideas in the coming three years.

Art and science: are they polar opposites? The theme of this year’s Sculptures in Leiden open air exhibition is ‘life sciences’. It has resulted in many intriguing sculptures, including one that is especially endearing.

In 2022, many of our staff and students won fantastic prizes and were awarded important research grants.

Researchers from the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries and from universities in the Netherlands have used high-tech imaging to uncover the details of a rare Mexican codex dating from before the colonisation of America.

At the Faculty of Archaeology, three new professors are appointed with effect from February 1, 2018. They are Ann Brysbaert, Marie Soressi, and Joanita Vroom. How do they react to their appointments, and what will be their foci in the following years?

Archival research, which student of history has not done it? Many of us have spent days in brick buildings with artificial lights, staring at ancient documents with unreadable handwritten texts, hoping to find something that is useful. To some, this may sound dreadful, but to us? We love this stuff!…

Marike van Aerde was at the brink of traveling to India for fieldwork when that country closed its borders, three weeks ago. Only a few days later, Leiden University followed suit in temporarily banning all fieldwork trips. With her research team scattered across different continents, she does her best…

Why do top athletes sacrifice so much for their sport? And does the prevailing theoretical framework for critical sports research, which is based in part on the insights of French philosopher Michel Foucault, do justice to their experiences? Leiden PhD candidate in philosophy Nathanja van den Heuvel…

Everyone agrees that university students need to learn academic skills. But what exactly are we talking about? The Leiden Teachers’ Academy organised a conference on 7 November on this topic.

Casper de Jonge, Professor of Greek Language and Literature, believes that Greek texts from the Roman Empire are more interesting than was first thought. They offer a fascinating glimpse of the polyphonic and multicultural world of the Roman Empire. Inaugural lecture on 7 October.

Violent conflicts all over the world pose a great threat. Not only to the region’s inhabitants, but also to the cultural heritage in the area. This is the subject of the Europe Lecture in The Hague on 13 June.

Society has an impact on what is viewed as heritage. Susanna de Beer investigated how heritage can be made enduring by making use of it in the present. Lars de Kruijf, student of Dutch and Journalism New Media, spoke with Susanna de Beer.

Simulation is a formal scientific method used to develop, compare and test hypotheses (models). In the last few decades the use of simulation has increased dramatically in virtually all scientific disciplines, but is still limited in archaeology due to the technological barrier – coding skills. Starting…

Two statues of gorillas abducting women: they were what led PhD candidate Dick van Broekhuizen to write a new type of history of nineteenth-century sculpture. ‘If you view nineteenth-century art history from a less narrow perspective, the narrative changes completely.’ PhD ceremony on 21 June.

This semester archaeologist Dr Marike van Aerde teaches an Honours Course at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs in The Hague. “In the course, archaeology meets current issues.” For a course like this, the word interdisciplinary fits like a glove.

During the summer, staff and students of the Faculty of Archaeology travel to all parts of the world, initiating or joining fieldwork projects. Read some of our students' stories here!

What makes Leiden the best student city in the Netherlands? This was the question students were invited to answer in films about their city. The winner will be announced on 29 June in the Schouwburg in Leiden.

A delegation from Leiden University will be visiting several Japanese universities and research institutions from 18 to 26 November to discuss research and teaching collaborations.

Quick resuscitation can save lives, but under 1% of the population of Leiden is a community first responder. Student associations and various partners in Leiden want to give a resuscitation course to 500 residents and students of Leiden. This special project has won the LUF’s Snouck Hurgronje Prize.

Season 2 of the Leiden Psychology podcast has started, and we're kicking it off with a special Q&A featuring our new hosts Aziza and Priya. In this episode you are offered a chance to get to know them better.

Students were able to continue their studies in September 1945 after the University had been closed for several years during the Second World War. This moment was celebrated for four days, with the traditional cortège, commemorative services and a party in the Botanical Garden. Queen Wilhelmina was…

What is freedom worth in times of hunger? ‘Beleg’ is a modern interpretation of Lucretia van Merken’s 1774 play. With five performances in Leiden’s Schouwburg theatre, the play is a prominent part of the Relief of Leiden celebrations, and Leiden alumni are playing a big role. Take a look behind the…

As every academic year, the leadership team of the Young Academy Leiden (YAL) is changing. Sarah Giest, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration, will be the new Vice-Chair. Annemarie Samuels, Asssociate Professor at Social Sciences, will be the new Chair. The Young Academy Leiden…

The Lectorate Design at the KABK explores the research method of walking from a design perspective, and features the working process used by public space and landscape designers Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens (KCCM) who teach field research in BA Interior Architecture and Furniture Design…

Ancient peoples might have harnessed the power of fire to modify their environment

A group of chemists, that includes Sander van Kasteren and Hermen Overkleeft, has discovered that azides, a certain type of chemical compound, can determine whether or not T cells respond to or ignore a vaccine. Their discovery is set to be published in Angewandte Chemie.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) granted the research proposal submitted in the Free Competition by Prof. dr. F.C.W.J. Theuws (University of Leiden, Faculty of Archaeology) and Prof. dr. M. de Jong (University of Utrecht) entitled

Professor Peter Bisschop, lecturer in Sanskrit and Ancient Cultures of South Asia, has been awarded a grant by the NWO Free Competition to fund his research into the rapid growth of Saivism in the sixth and seventh centuries in South and Southeast Asia. The research project, entitled ‘From Universe…

In the beginning of December 2016 PhD candidate Catarina Guzzo Falci was awarded a scholarship for a collections study by Musée du quai Branly. The Musée du quai Branly has implemented this scholarship programme to document its collections.

Professor of Archaeometry Patrick Degryse analyses archaeological finds using techniques from chemistry, physics and biology. He will give his inaugural lecture on 19 February. He reflects on three interesting propositions from his lecture.

Leiden research on psychology and archaeology will boosted by two subsidies. Both research projects focus on children.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded Veni funding to four Humanities researchers in at Leiden University. This award offers promising young scientists the opportunity to develop their own ideas over a period of three years.

Rosmarijn van Kleef hopes to defend her PhD thesis soon on the liability of football clubs for the misconduct of supporters. In view of the upcoming European Football Championship, a highly topical subject of which a glimpse is given below. The defence will take place on 19 May in Leiden.

How do archaeologists test ideas about the evolution of the modern brain? Veni-researcher Geeske Langejans and then Master student Paul Kozowyk (Leiden University) prepared different Prehistoric glue recipes and tested these for strength in modern test machines at the Delft University of Technology.

World history is often framed in terms of flows of people and migration: humans coming ‘out of Africa’, the spread of farmers in the Holocene, Phoenician and Greek diasporas over the ancient Mediterranean, the colonization of the world by Europeans from the 16th century onwards. Together with his Exeter…

From July 25th till August 7th, a team led by Professor Marie Soressi went to France and worked at La Grande Roche de Quinçay, a cave site located in a forested area close to the city of Poitiers. The corona outbreak triggered the need to rethink the organisation of the excavation.