How can pre-Islamic poetry be used as a source to reconstruct the history of central Arabia at the dawn of Islam?

As a PhD candidate, you are strongly advised to discuss your budget for travel and other research-related costs with your supervisor and the institute management at the start of your research in order to be able to plan your work well and to avoid unpleasant surprises. Please note that all travel must…

Jean-Eric Paquet, a Director-General at the European Commission, visited Leiden University on 20 February. He was impressed by the researchers’ drive, the wide range of topics that they research and the strong collaboration with Leiden Bio Science Park.

On the 7th and 8th of November, Radboud University and Utrecht University are jointly organising a masterclass for (Re)MA students and PhD candidates on the life and times of those lay people dependent on monasteries.

The Leiden Risk & Regulation Lab serves as hub for excellent research at the forefront of regulation and risk governance and acts a platform for engagement with the practice of, and education in, regulation and risk governance.

Settlement burials in the pagus Texandrië and the transformation of Merovingian society c. 700 AD (Southern Netherlands)

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.

'Collaboration, Mediation, and Comparison: Epistemological Tools from Theory-driven Fieldwork Practice' is written by Cristina Grasseni and published in Anthrovision.

The Risk and Regulation Lab is co-directed by:

Bringing Dominican indigenous collections back to the community

This Conference volume unites a wide range of scholars working in the fields of history, archaeology, religion, art, and philology in an effort to explore new perspec-tives and methods in the study of primary sources from premodern South and Southeast Asia.

The ERC project 'Food citizens?' is a comparative analysis of a growing phenomenon in Europe: collective food procurement, namely networks of people who organize direct food production, distribution, and consumption.

Ironies of Solidarity is an ethnographic study of how financial products and services affect inequalities and conflicts in South Africa.

The department of World Archaeology combines research and education about regions all over the world, from Human Origins to the Middle Ages, and from Europe, to Asia, Africa and the America’s. That broad range in time and space makes the department a dynamic pluriform community with many different approaches,…

The Near East, situated at the nexus of Europe, Africa, and Asia, was central to the development of ancient societies in all three continents.

We investigate the physics and design of mechanical metamaterial, intricately sculpted materials with properties set by their architecture.

The key facts and figures about Leiden University from its Annual Report for 2024.

Team Economic and Social History

COUNTERRR examines domestic responses to jihadist armed groups in Africa, analyzing variation in state repression, community resistance, and the evolution of security across Mali, Nigeria, and Mozambique.

The Young Academy Leiden (YAL) organises listening sessions across faculties. The aim of these listening sessions is to learn more about the wants and needs of (post-PhD) Early Career Researchers at Leiden University.

The Sport Data Center (SDC) consists of the data science disciplines of Leiden University and Technical University Delft, combined with the sport science branches of the Amsterdam Institute for Sport Science and the Sport Engineering Institute of the Technical University of Delft.

Today marks the launch of the LDE Bachelor Honours Programme Sustainability. Students from Leiden University, TU Delft and Erasmus University will work together on concrete sustainability issues of organisations. Interest in the new programme turned out to be overwhelming. Two lecturers involved share…

Japanese was not always the language spoken in Japan. Researchers link the arrival of the language in Japan with the migration of farmers around 400 BC. Linguist Elisabeth de Boer has been awarded an ERC Starting Grant to carry out research on the further spread of the language in Japan.

The second phase of Global Interactions will see a significant expansion of our funding program. With an annual budget of nearly 150,000 euros, we will introduce larger 'Breed' grants, post-docs and cross-faculty teaching development grants in addition to a slightly expanded program of seed grants.

Fifty years ago a group of students started the Leiden Student Working Group on LGBT. Today students can contact Leiden University Pride and for staff there is the LGBTQ+ Core Network. Five questions for Kirsten de Mare, student of linguistics and chair of LU Pride.

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

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2019, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

In 2023, many of our students and staff won great prizes and secured important research grants.

The Leiden Papyrological Institute celebrated its eightieth birthday on Monday 19 January. Its collection of papyri – including paper, potsherds, pieces of wood and even lead – covers the period from 300 B.C. until after 800 A.D. and is entirely of Egyptian origin. The institute’s anniversary is being…

We are interested in understanding the mechanics of soft materials, of which biological materials are prominent examples.

Our research deals with the deep history of Europe and Eurasia, from the inception of farming up until the beginning of the Roman Period. This was a period in which key developments took place that had a profound impact on European landscapes and society until the present day. Our research and teaching…

We aim to create an innovative e-learning and virtual reality training that helps healthcare providers to optimize placebo effects and minimizes nocebo effects via their communication.

The conquest by Rome brought profound changes to large parts of Europe. Unprecedented infrastructural works were created, towns sprang up, a ribbon of fortresses was laid out along the frontiers.

Research into the evolutionary backgrounds of our diets can help us make the right choices in diet, health and lifestyle.

This study relates the vicissitudes of the Amerindian peoples who lived or still inhabit the islands of Trinidad and Tobago, from the earliest occupants, ca. 8000 BC, until at present.

Nowadays, most Europeans speak a language belonging to the Indo-European language family. However, very different languages were spoken on our continent before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. The EUROLITHIC project tries to find answers to the question which languages these were and where they came…

The CMCB brings together microbial cell biology expertise in Leiden. It aims at optimal resonance between the groups and maximal exploitation of the available infrastructure and to develop innovative cross-boundary technology platforms.

ASLU 28 Michalis Karambinis (2015)

Read more about working at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) are widely used, and nanotechnological innovations grow with rapid pace. Studies on nanotoxicology have demonstrated that chemical toxicology as well as particle toxicology should be accounted for in predicting the safety of ENMs.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2020, as well as special appointments at Leiden University and other institutions.

Academic staff and students blog about their research and teaching.

The following maps show institutional collaborations and with indigenous communities (scroll down).

Research on the morality of life insurance. What issues are raised when insurance companies define responsibility and solidarity? Has insurance changed since the crisis of 2007?

Onderzoek van de onderzoeksgroep 'War, Peace and Justice'

This project investigates the full ecosystem of Middle Dutch prayerbooks in order to answer questions about their role in – and impact on – religion, culture, and society in the late medieval Low Countries.

We are cosmologists, in other words we use physics to study the Universe, how it started and evolved into the structure that we observe around us.