An interdisciplinary cultural analysis of how the Hindustani double migration informs contemporary processes of identification and problematises the juxtaposition of tradition and modernity.

Memory and Identity is one of the six research themes of the LUCAS Modern and Contemporary cluster.

This doctoral dissertation explores classical music performance from a curatorial perspective, reflecting upon and challenging the traditional configuration of performance environments.

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This book examines the role of memory in animation, as well as the ways in which the medium of animation can function as a technology of remembering and forgetting. By doing so, it establishes a platform for the cross-fertilization between the burgeoning fields of animation studies and memory studie…

How did Anglo-Saxons reflect on the experience of growing old? Was it really a golden age for the elderly, as has been suggested?

The civilizations of ancient China and Mesoamerica, although not historically related and obviously different in many specific aspects (such as language and writing), show many interesting commonalities and similar tendencies in their cultural manifestations.

At the LAK, you can participate in a wide range of creative courses, supervised by passionate professionals. From drama and presentation to dance, visual arts, singing and music, photography, and writing – there's always something for you. You'll not only develop your talents but also meet like-minded…

The workshops are open to everyone aged 17 and over. Leiden University students receive a discount on the course fee. View the varied offerings below. (The visual arts workshops include use of materials.) Choose your workshop and sign up!

On 19 February 2019, Mirjam Sombroek-van Doorm defended her thesis 'Medisch beroepsgeheim en de zorgplicht van de arts bij kindermishandeling in de rechtsverhouding tussen arts, kind en ouders'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. A.G. Castermans en Prof. mr. C.J.J.M. Stolker.

On 1 November, Stijn Bussels assumed his role as professor of Art History, especially before 1800 at Leiden University. The chair is located at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

There’s a change of staff at ACPA. The institute is bidding farewell to Professor Janneke Wesseling and welcomes Anke Haarmann, who is not only a new professor, but will also take over Wesseling's responsibilities as Director of PhD Arts. In this interview we look back and ahead with them.

Staging the Archive: Art and Photography in the Age of New Media is dedicated to art practices that mobilize the model of the archive, demonstrating the ways in which such archival artworks probe the possibilities of what art is and what it can do.

'The Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia' explores the nature and implications of civil society across the region, engaging systematically with both theoretical approaches and empirical nuance for a systematic, comparative, and informative approach.

Our Winter School alumna Ginevra Montefusco defended her Master thesis this March with the title Food in the Margin: a feminist analysis of sense of place in Barriera di Milano, Turin (supervisors: Alessia Toldo and Egidio Dansero).

On January 25th, artist Jonas Staal will defend his dissertation which explores the development of propaganda art from the 20th to the 21st century.

On 1 January Minna Valjakka was appointed Professor of Contemporary Art History and Theory from a Global Perspective. Valjakka sees her appointment as 'extremely topical' because of the discussions about the decolonisation of the arts: 'Art teaches us not just about art, but also about contemporary…

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

How can the importance of the image in late medieval spirituality be understood in the context of the love mysticism inspired by the imagery of the Song of Songs?

How can artist PhD candidates research their own work? They need to be good at switching from maker to critical observer and their research has to have a solid theoretical basis. This is the premise of Professor Janneke Wesseling. The aesthetic value of their work also has to be up for discussion. Inaugural…

How do we experience sensual wonder and enchantment and to what extent can (early) modern imagination-techniques be implemented to create an artwork and performance, which offer a sensory and novel experience.

The key questions posed in this dissertation centre on the interaction between spectator and artwork. What happens between a spectator and an artwork? How do we experience ‘meaning’ in an artwork? How may the process of interpretation be understood and articulated?

ACPA Professor of Auditory Culture and Music Philosophy Marcel Cobussen and ACPA PhD Supervisor Vincent Meelberg are, together with composer and Simon Fraser University Professor Barry Truax, editors of the recently published Routledge Companion to Sounding Art.

No criticism is allowed in Turkey of the mass murder of Armenians that took place a century ago. PhD candidate Alaettin Carikci examined how contemporary artists, authors, film directors and museums have nonetheless found indirect ways of expressing their criticism.

Are you ready to take on an extra challenge during your bachelor’s programme? You may want to check out options like the Honours College, the Humanities Lab and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), that will give you additional depth, intensity and study credits.

Come and enjoy a unique free concert on 16 December. With performances by students from Leiden University, who alongside their studies are following the Practicum Musicae talent programme at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. Various ensembles, quartets and duos and a brand-new orchestra will treat…

This film will be screened on Sunday, 17 May 2026 at 7:00 pm.

The studies of two researchers previously working within the VICI-project ‘Art, Agency and Living Presence’ are now published by Leiden University Press in conjunction with Akademie Verlag.

From 11 to 17 September, Leiden will be all about art and science. What can the combination of these two domains do for us? And how can cooperation between them be strengthened? Several public events and a brand new symposium for specialists should answer these questions.

Professor of Criminal Law Marc Kessler proposes starting an experiment in criminal law cases: replacing parts of police interview reports with an audio-visual recording. His inaugural lecture is on 28 October 2016.

Modern scientific discovery increasingly depends on High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems that combine traditional processors with specialized accelerators such as GPUs.

From games to scavenger hunts: museums already do all sorts of things for children. But how do children really look at art? Do paintings affect them more if they receive information that is specially tailored to young visitors? Join psychologist Francesco Walker at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and see…

Leiden’s Faculty of Humanities is one of the broadest of its kind, offering courses in no fewer than 80 different languages and a very broad spectrum of academic disciplines.

If you are interested in an academic programme, but do you not wish to complete the entire programme? Then, you can choose one of the many à la carte courses the Faculty of Humanities offers.

Photographer and Visual Ethnography alumna Wilke Geurds captured special encounters during her travels. As an anthropologist, Wilke is always curious about other countries, people and cultural customs. That curiosity forms the core of her new photo exhibition, which can be seen during the Kunstroute…

This project will clarify how these concepts operated in theoretical writings on performance ,this broadened conceptual framework will not only give us a clear view on how sublime effects in performance were theorized, it will also provide us a concrete apparatus to understand the cultural and political…

Children are generally not drawn to abstract art, research shows. But how exactly does abstract art affect our emotions? Through empirical research, psychologists from Leiden University are investigating at the Josef Albers Museum in Germany how this form of art can be made more relatable to the world…

People need to get to know each other to see the positive side of migration, according to photographer and documentary maker Koen Suidgeest. Since the end of September, Suidgeest has been the new city photographer for the region of Leiden. His goal is to photograph as many cultural identities as possible…

The Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA) provides artistic research and education in the arts.

How can we understand the material instability of photographic (mixed media) artworks (1960s - present) from an integrated approach of Art History, Conservation Science and Chemistry in order to preserve these works for the future?

This programme aims to identify the intellectual contexts that were of importance for the architectural theory of the period, and especially to clarify the relation of architectural theory to primitivism.