Following the success of The Middle Period Chinese Studies Conference held in 2014 at Harvard University, we welcome paper proposals for the second conference of this kind to be held at Leiden University, September 14-17, 2017.

This PhD research sets out to unravel and explain the socio-structural and cultural impacts of oil-industrialization on the local Bakhtiari community in general and the industrial laborers it provided in specific.

Arab Identity and the Rise of Islam

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…

On Wednesday 20 November 2024 Sara Mirahmadi successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

De Pagus Renensis van de 4de tot de 8ste eeuw na Chr.: Een archeologische synthese

In this course, we will focus on the fascinating history of the Arabic Medieval World. We will take you on a journey through the Middle Ages. All along, we will present you with historiographical debates and dilemmas and travel back and forth in time explaining to you how events of the past affected…

The Saalian archaeological record at Maastricht-Belvédère (the Netherlands).

Political scientist Nicolas Blarel (Leiden University) analyses the background and implications of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel.

On the 2nd of September Jiyan Qiao successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Huda Abi-Fares defended her thesis on 10 January 2017.

India’s prime minister Narendra Modi admires Israel’s achievements, but structural differences between Indian and Israeli national security situations, differences in the leaders’ worldviews and the absence of a common enemy inhibits stronger strategic rapprochement, argues political scientist Nicolas…

In the study of West-East relations, difference often takes centre stage. This holds for both culturalist and postcolonial perspectives. By contrast, in my investigation of Netherlands-Iran political relations in the 1960s and 1970s, I will focus on the role of SIMILARITY. What lay at the root of the…

This dissertation provides a detailed description of the interaction between verb semantics and the two grammatical voice categories in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Rigveda.

How have Muslims imagined the world before Muhammad? Stories about pre-Islamic times feature across all genres and periods of Arabic literature, and while many writers have derided the pre-Islamic past as disorderly paganism, others celebrate its memory as a time of Arab nobility and fine literature.…

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

"To see, to hear, to touch, to kiss, and so on: Dealing with charters in the early Middle Ages." Guest lecture by Prof. Dr. Philippe Depreux (University of Hamburg): Tuesday 9 May 2023, 15.00-16.30

The Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen organises a Winter school on the theme of Gender, Emotion and Monstrosity in the Middle Ages. Deadline for proposals: 1 August.

In the context of the summer school "Medieval Religon" prof. Christopher M. Bellitto (Kean University) will give a keynote lecture on June 26th: "Politics and Religion in the Middle Ages and Today: Thoughts of an American Medievalist". This lecture is also open to those interested who do not participate…

The Research Training Group “Byzantium and the Euro-Mediterranean Cultures of War” invites scholars to submit paper proposals for a series of sessions on “Perceptions of Just War in the Middle Ages” at the IMC 2025. These sessions aim to explore the diverse theological, philosophical, legal, and cultural…

Exploitation of smaller game is rarely documented before the latest phases of the Pleistocene, which is often taken to imply narrow diets for earlier hominins. In a study now published in Scientific Reports, a team of German and Dutch archaeologists present new data that contradict this view of Lower…

On an excavation site in Oegstgeest Leiden University archaeologists discovered a very rare silver bowl from the first half of the seventh century. The bowl is decorated with gold-plated representations of animals and plants and inlaid with semi-precious stones. The discovery suggests the existence…

On Monday 3 September, the ARC forum (art_research_convergence) will come together in The Grey Space in the Middle in The Hague. The forum, initiated by the Leiden University Academy for Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) is focused on the presentation and discussion of artistic research.

A comparative study on the spatial origin and development of towns in the northern Netherlands, 700-1400.

In this book, Vanessa Newby provides the first detailed examination of credibility’s essential place in peacekeeping.

On Wednesday 3 July 2024 Renata Schiavo successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

On Thursday 27 June 2024 Sigrid van Roode successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

This research investigates everyday lives and workplace experiences of Iranian workers employed at textile industry, which was the second biggest industry after oil following the latter’s discovery in 1908.

Arts and culture

City dwellers in the Middle Ages were probably no worse off than people living in villages. Both groups had very different health risks, is Rachel Schats' conclusion from her research on bone material. PhD defence 3 November.

On Wednesday 23 October 2024 Judith Jurjens successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

A selected group of unpublished amulets from various collections in the world will be studied and edited.

On Thursday the 15th of March, an exhibition displaying funerary masterpieces of Deir el-bersha was opened at the Egyptian museum on the occasion of 120 years of archaeological research at the site. The exhibit runs until 15 April.

Finding solutions to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the not-inconsiderable task of the new Peace Academy in The Hague. Professor Maurits Berger and twelve students from different conflict zones are starting a creative thinking process that aims to discover the basic conditions for peace in the…

Political scientist Kevin Köhler (Leiden University) has been awarded a Consolidator Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This prestigious grant enables him to set up a research group in the coming five years. Köhler and his team will examine how elite conflict affects processes of regime change…