The Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Arabia (LeiCenSAA) announces a new open access, peer-reviewed journal dedicated to the epigraphy of Arabia and its cultural and linguistic context: Arabian Epigraphic Notes

From 1 June onwards, Erik-Jan Zurcher, professor of Turkish Studies, will be the new academic director of the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS). We asked him about his plans.

Dr. Joanita Vroom (Near Eastern and Mediterranean archaeology) has been invited to join the prestigious French POMEDOR Project as co-applicant and regional coordinator for Greece and Turkey. The POMEDOR Project focusses on the interaction between population, pottery and food in the Medieval Eastern…

The Fourth Annual Leiden Austrian Studies Lecture “Was the Habsburg Empire an Empire?” was given by Professor John Connelly on Monday, March 20, 2023 at Leiden University’s Faculty Club.

On Wednesday 16 June 2021, Karim Khan was sworn in at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague. Experts say this is no easy time to join the ICC.

Cultural heritage throughout the world is under threat from wars, neglect and looting. Learn more about it during a free online course.

Starting in September 2017, two new English-taught bachelor’s programmes will be offered by Leiden University’s Faculty of Humanities: Arts, Media and Society and Philosophy: Global and Comparative Perspectives. People looking to get a taste of the programmes can partake in the ‘online experience’:…

In the interests of knowledge exchange and research, a delegation from the China Academy of Chinese Medicinal Sciences (CACMS) in Beijing paid a visit to the Hortus botanicus in Leiden. The visit was part of a joint research study on herbal medicine.

A group of ten Indonesian scholars, NGO-members, and state officials coming from the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry visited their Dutch colleagues, academic and practical experts, to discuss issues related to water management and environmental regulation .

Can you still remember the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, or the Dutch royal state visit to Indonesia in 1971? These are only a few of the dramatic events covered by Hans Beynon, whose archive of 7.000 photos was recently donated to the Leiden University Libraries (UBL) by his family.

On a thursdaymorning our students were guided around a new exhibition in the Museum of Islamic Art in Cairo. This exhibition displayed photographs and documents from the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century Western Arabian Peninsula.

On 23 February 2011, Hans de Iongh gave a Skype lecture for a group of 15 students of the Duke University of North Carolina, USA on the invitation of Dr Andrew Jacobson.

An interesting Ottoman History podcast that deals with the slave trade and the African Diaspora in Ottoman Izmir.

Amazing discoveries by Jean Jacques Hublin of Early modern Humans in Morocco.

Prof. Dr. Joris F. Borghouts (1939-2018) was Full Professor of Egyptology at Leiden University and a specialist in ancient Egyptian grammar and magic.

Before coming to Leiden, Dr. Stökl was Reader in Hebrew Bible / Old Testament at Kings College London.

Dr Mark Leiser, Assistant Professor in Law and Digital technologies at eLaw, has been appointed an International Research fellow at the Coordinated Research Center in Information Society and Law of the University of Milan in Italy. The aim of the Center is to conduct research on issues related to the…

The faculty has been investigating hundreds of ancient stone tombs in Jordan’s Black Desert.

Read all about YAL membership and the members of the Young Academy Leiden.

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Dr Victor Klinkenberg calls himself a generalist pur sang. As an expert on digital archaeology he has worked on nearly all the regions the Faculty of Archaeology focuses on. “All I need to do is travel to the Caribbean once, and then I have done everything we do in Leiden.” We asked him about his background,…

Early November, a delegation of the Faculty of Science visited two Indonesian universities to shape the collaboration in bioscience. The Faculty also opened a new Indonesian office in Yogyakarta.

Dr. Mikihiro Moriyama was born in Kyoto, Japan in 1960. He first came to Leiden for a year in 1988, and then stayed from 1992 to 1995 and was back again in June 2003 for his PhD. 'I’d never heard of the Sweat Room until I heard about it at a Leiden alumni meeting in Jakarta. When I visited Leiden in…

How do you make niche subjects interesting and accessible? Benjamin Suchard, historical linguist and researcher, seems to have created the perfect recipe, which consists of his various projects alongside his regular research, including a Twitter account and a major international film.

In dermatology, there should be a high level of multidisciplinary collaboration among institutes and specialists, Professor of Translational Dermatology, Robert Rissmann, will say in his inaugural lecture on 8 July. He is building an infrastructure that will put pre-clinical and clinical skin research…

The oldest forms of literature and law originate from Mesopotamia (3000 BC until AD 70), as do important discoveries in science and technology. All these developments were recorded in cuneiform texts on clay tablets. There is still a lot to learn from the study of cuneiform texts, says Professor of…

To mark its 75th anniversary, the Netherlands War Graves Foundation is publishing a portrait of a war victim every week this year. On 24 January the drawing of Irawan Soejono, a Leiden student and Indonesian resistance member, was unveiled at the Groenesteeg cemetery in Leiden, the place where Soejono…

The idea that prejudices about the (Middle)-East came to be during the colonisation of North-Africa in the 19th century is false. Mounir el-Badri wrote a cum laude bachelor thesis about orientalist judgments with which 18th century slaves in Morocco much earlier characterised their captors with.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was a lifelong inspiration to artist Harry van Kruiningen. This tale from Mesopotamia about the adventures of Gilgamesh, the legendary king of Uruk, and his friend Enkidu is one of the oldest surviving epics in world literature. Despite its almost 4,000 year age, it still captures…

Leiden University Libraries (UBL) recently participated in the Pagode-Europeana-China project as an associated partner. As a result, almost two hundred items related to China from the UBL Special Collections are now available via the Europeana website. The UBL was the only library to participate in…

A new and recently started Getty Foundation project, Material Entanglements in the Ancient Mediterranean and Beyond, aims to forge connections among Mediterranean and Eastern scholars who rarely come into contact with one another’s work. Ann Brysbaert is one of the 25 invited specialists investigating…

University Lecturer on Middle Eastern cultures Judith Naeff, associated with the Faculty of Humanities, will receive a Veni grant of 250,000 euros. This will allow her to carry out research into Arab documentary and fiction.

Middle Eastern Studies, African Studies or International Relations: all examples of studies that are part of Area Studies at the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden. Within Area Studies you study a region and immerse yourself in (complex) subjects of that region, such as cultural uniqueness, conflicts,…

Senior lecturer Rick Honings has been appointed Scaliger professor with effect from 1 July 2020. In the coming years his focus will be on promoting teaching and research on the Special Collections of the Leiden University Library. Honings succeeds book historian Erik Kwakkel, who held this chair until…

Whether finding signals of dark matter or discovering hydrogen in the vicinity of exoplanets, Leiden astronomers are world players in their field, and they are part of a long tradition: Leiden was the first university in the world to have its own observatory.

You’re about to start your minor at Leiden University. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

You’re about to start your minor at Leiden University. Make sure you are well prepared and get your studies off to a good start.

The coal-power energy sector is using enormous amounts of fresh water which is projected to negatively affect lives and the ecological balance of the surrounding region. This is the conclusion of the new report The Unquenchable Thirst of Energy Production, published by Greenpeace Bulgaria and Leiden…

Ukrainian Yana Rudenko lived through the Russian occupation of Bucha in March 2022 and thereafter came to Leiden to study. thereafter De Oekraïense Yana Rudenko (24) jaar heeft in maart 2022 de Russische bezetting van Boetsja meegemaakt en is daarna gaan studeren in Leiden.

What with coronavirus, the American elections and the Brexit botheration, we had almost forgotten that something miraculous happened in 2020: the repressed people of Belarus rallied against dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years. Months later, what remains of the protest?…

From artificial intelligence to letters from the Dutch East Indies and from breast-cancer gene BRCA-1 to the collaboration between government and opposition: nine researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Vidi grant for their research.

On Friday 16 February 2024, Rudolf E. de Jong passed away unexpectedly in Cairo. Since 2012, he was the director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC), which he skillfully managed for 12 years. He was laid to rest in Amsterdam on 27 February. Rudolf was 65.

Peter Akkermans, Professor of Archaeology of the Middle East, cannot say for certain how much damage the destruction by IS has caused in Palmyra.

Animal species that are dear to us in the Netherlands often spend a large part or all of their lifecycle in other parts of the world. But their habitats worldwide are under increasing pressure, are often inadequately protected and much poorer than the global average. ‘If we truly care about these animals,…

CML grants three Stans Awards each year, known as the best PhD paper, best student thesis and best outreach from the past year. The CML staff nominated students and colleagues and this year’s jury Prof.dr. Koos Biesmeijer and Prof.dr. Nicole de Voogd made the final decision.

Authors: Pierre-Bruno Ruffini and Olga Krasnyak

How do migrants navigate key life events? Researchers from the Living on the Other Side project looked at the experiences of migrants who have settled in Morocco. During a recent tour through Morocco, they shared their insights with respondents and fellow researchers.

On Friday 16 February 2024, Rudolf E. de Jong passed away unexpectedly in Cairo. Since 2012, he was the director of the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC), which he skillfully managed for 12 years. He was laid to rest in Amsterdam on 27 February. Rudolf was 65.