Caribbean archaeological heritage is threatened by natural impacts but also increasingly by economic developments, often resulting from the tourist industry. The continuous construction of specific projects for tourists, accompanied by illegal practices such as looting and sand mining, have major impacts…

What can languages spoken in the Lesser Sunda Islands today tell us about the histories of its various population groups?

Which fungi live in Leiden University’s historic buildings and collections, and how can their impact on heritage and human health be understood and managed?

This volume offers a multidisciplinary view of cutting-edge research on bilingualism in Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions, with the aim of building a bridge between sub-fields and approaches that often find themselves isolated from one another.

These are our lecturers (in alphabetical order) for the 2026 Summer School in Languages and Linguistics.

The Institute Council (IC) provides an important link between the Institute Board, institute committees, and staff groups (i.e. scientific staff, support personnel, permanent and temporary) and student members of the institute. The IC has an important role regarding policies, strategies and other…

By documenting lexical and morpho-syntactic patterns among P’urhepecha speakers in Mexico and the US diaspora, this project will investigate the sources of language variation. The ensuing online dialect atlas will serve as an online resource for speakers, learners and researchers of the language.

On April 26th, Kate Bellamy succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Kate on this great result.

This article traces the evolution of interpretations of international law and international cyber norms on responsible state behaviour in cyberspace by reassessing five major – and allegedly state-led – cyber operations: Stuxnet 2010; Belgacom 2013-2014, the Ukrainian power grid 2015, the US presidential…

Fostering multi-polar perspectives that engage more connected, nuanced and pluralistic understandings of the world. Global Interactions encourages and supports research that provides significant new insights on these global processes across time and space.

Lodewijk Petram, author of the book 'The World's First Stock Exchange', discussed the rise of the Amsterdam stock exchange in the 17th century in the ninth Hazelhoff Guest Lecture.

Unconstrained day-to-day activities are difficult to quantify and how the corresponding movements shape the brain remain unclear. Here, we recorded all touchscreen smartphone interactions at a sub-second precision and show that the unconstrained day-to-day behavior captured on the phone reflects in…

Reproducing past, present and future: colonial visions and experience in Asia in the residencies

How can we promote social cohesion in a society that is culturally and religiously diverse?

The Faculty of Archaeology proudly presents the research brochure Perspectives on the Past, featuring passionate, dedicated researchers introducing a dazzling scala of research topics: from present-day traditional knowledge in Africa to the power of glue in Palaeolithic Europe. In addition to these…

The Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies offers outstanding PhD candidates a flexible programme and a stimulating research environment.

Spirits play a important role in post-colonial and minority literature as a means of processing black pages from history, according to literary scientist Chia-Sui Lee. PhD defence 11 January.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo

Nira Wickramasinghe, professor of modern South Asian studies at Leiden University, spoke to Al Jazeera about Sri Lanka's turbulent past:

Studying ancient materials and the way they were made can give us groundbreaking insights into the past. Not only that, the interplay between people and materials is highly relevant for society today, says Ann Brysbaert, Professor of Ancient Technologies, Crafts and Materials, at the Faculty of Archaeology.…

The Grotius Centre Working Paper Series is an occasional series through which researchers in the Grotius Centre can publish the unedited versions of manuscripts that have been accepted for publication by journals and books.

Master students Lotte Koemans and Mandy Meijer have developed an audio tour which takes you past all six wall formulas in the inner city of Leiden. In this movie, they walk the tour themselves.

Our GTGC community joined climate finance experts to discuss how climate finance landscape has changed since 2015. During this panel, researchers shared the findings of one of the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) Programme's seed grand projects.

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the three priority areas of Leiden University, which was established by its Executive Board in 2014. The objective is to set up a comprehensive strategy.

On Friday, November 7, 2025, the Leiden Jewish Studies Network together with the Leiden Interdisciplinary Migration Seminars (LIMS) and the MA Programme Governance of Migration and Diversity invited the German-Jewish writer, curator and activist Max Czollek to a conversation on his work.

Traces of the past remain hidden in rivers, lakes and seas. In his inaugural lecture Martijn Manders will explain why underwater archaeology is important to understanding our history.

Getting young people excited about history is quite possible without books. Researchers from Leiden travelled to Morocco to work with schoolchildren on reconstructing cultural heritage in the popular video game Minecraft. The result: one virtual 14th-century city gate – and 20 teens with a greater appreciation…

How do colonialism and historical slavery continue to impact the university today? And what should happen next? Students and staff discussed these questions on 11 March.

Space for open dialogue on historical slavery was created at the Keti Koti Table at Museum De Lakenhal, organised by Leiden University and the Municipality of Leiden. There, just metres away from 17th-century paintings, Leideners shared a ritual meal and spoke about the effects of slavery and our colonial…

The past decade, against the backdrop of a fragmented political landscape, has witnessed the greatest changes to the Netherlands since the aftermath of the Second World War. The labour market, the housing market, the energy market, the bank system, the pension system, the healthcare system, to name…

The annual commemoration of the nation’s war dead on Dam Square and at Waalsdorpervlakte, the Dutch apologies for historical slavery and the Cleveringa Lecture itself: our relationship with history is often ritualistic, Cleveringa Professor Frank van Vree will say in his inaugural lecture on 27 Nove…

From now on, you can go for a walk through Leiden’s scientific history and at the same time across the historic city center itself. Master students Lotte Koemans and Mandy Meijer have developed an audio tour which takes you past all six wall formulas in the inner city of Leiden.

Peter Webb is one of the four young Leiden Humanities researchers to receive a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Webb will use the funding for his project EPIC PASTS: PRE-ISLAM THROUGH MUSLIM EYES, to reevaluate the ways in which Muslims in early Islam remembered…

The First Americans exhibition in the National Museum of Ethnology showcases the resilience and creativity of native Americans. Striking artworks, fashion and prints show that the past is never far away. Artist Jacob Meders was inspired by 16th-century prints from the Leiden University Library. The…

The international conference ‘Lessons from Afghanistan’ touched on many serious issues and raised several reasons for concern. But it also ended on a positive note. While politicians on both the domestic and the international levels have failed to prevent the collapse of the Afghan state, and we are…

Leiden University is celebrating its 450th anniversary in 2025 with a feast for the eyes, ears and spirit. The anniversary year opens with an extra special Dies Natalis on 7 February. Highlights includes an alumni festival, three exhibitions and a canal concert.

You win the Leiden Teaching Prize and suddenly all eyes are on you. Three past recipients reflect on how this student-awarded prize has changed how they work and improved their teaching – and how they chose to spend the money.

Is the current existing legal framework on compulsory and voluntary care - for vulnerable young adults (between the ages of 18 to 23) - in need of revision? And if so, what kind of amendments would be advisable?