Israel was ordered to take steps to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza. Giulia Pinzauti, an expert on state conflicts and humanitarian law, explains the significance of the case, the specific details of the ruling and what we can expect to happen next.

Just about everything that's known about Charles Darwin has already been said or written. Even so, Norbert Peeters – together with Tessa van Dijk – has managed to write an original book about the great English scholar. In the run-up to Darwin Day (12 February) he tells us about his new book.

Miriam Waltz is assistant professor in gender justice and health technologies with a joint appointment between the Institute for Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology and the African Studies Centre.

Aleydis Nissen published a feature article on the South Korean electronics industry in Eos magazine. The Pascal Decroos Fund sponsored this article.

Four students of the Faculty of Archaeology investigated how the current and past inhabitants of the Dutch province of South Holland deal with water. Their findings now feature in an exhibition that can now be visited in the Van Steenis building’s Reuvenshal.

Giovanni Gruni publishes a peer reviewed paper in the Korean Journal of international and Comparative Law.

Once it was considered the Switzerland of the Middle East, but today Lebanon is a country deeply affected by the economic crisis, political stalemate and an international context of growing tensions.

In the Western world, kimchi is on an unstoppable rise, but in South Korea the dish is actually losing popularity. Professor Katarzyna Cwiertka explains how this is possible in the video series 'The World of the Korean Wave'.

Inspired by a gift she received at a conference abroad, Laura Kamsma, coordinator of the FGGA International Office, went looking for new promotional goodies to hand out to the representatives of international exchange programmes at Leiden University - Campus The Hague. The gifts had to meet three requirements:…

On 8 and 9 May 2018 the Workshop 'Challenging the Liberal World Order: The History of the Global South, Decolonization and the United Nations, 1955-2000' takes place at Leiden University.

A long-term mathematical collaboration between South Africa and Leiden will continue with the appointment of Marcel de Jeu as professor by special appointment at the University of Pretoria. He will be working in the field of Positivity.

Staff members, alumni, and students were greeted by a warm spring day to follow the various programmes during the reunion and career day of BA South and Southeast Asian Studies. From alumni panels and yoga session to informal activities such as board games.

In recent decades, women in Japan and South Korea have been catching up in terms of educational achievements and economic activity. Yet the number of women in leadership positions is still lagging behind. PhD candidate Yorum Beekman investigated why this is.

Professor Julia Sloth-Nielsen has received an A-rating from the National Research Foundation in South Africa, where she holds a Chair in Public Law at the University of the Western Cape.

An article by Georgina Kuipers has been published this month in Dutch journal Overheid & Aansprakelijkheid (Government and Accountability). It deals with policy introduced in response to damage caused by the construction of the Amsterdam North/South metro line and its aim to rebuild trust. The title…

On October 11, the Austria Centre Leiden teamed up with the Leiden Jewish Studies Association to welcome Dr. Lena Sadovski for a lunch time talk. Fifteen colleagues from across the university, including retirees and graduate students, attended Dr. Sadovski's fascinating lecture entitled “When religion…

Call for Papers for the conference Relocating Governance in Asia: state and society in South- and Southeast Asia, c. 1800-2000, Leiden University, 22-24 January 2020.

Aritri Dutta is an external PhD candidate of literature specializing in postcolonial fiction, with a focused interest in decolonizing epistemologies within literary criticism. Her research explores alternative frameworks for literary knowledge production, aiming to develop a

On the occasion of the conferral of an honorary doctorate to children’s rights activist Graça Machel, a fund has been established that will enable two female students from South Africa to come and study in Leiden.

Consumer societies are a global presence, and marketing practices have spread to all corners of the world. However, the loud and glaring performances of the big advertising companies and the hegemony of shopping malls makes us forget that there are many different markets, and many merchants who have…

Sub-Saharan Africa has seen a significant rise in terrorist acts and radicalized youth since the appearance of Boko Haram in 2009 and the fall of Libya in 2012. This book investigates the deeper layers of radicalization in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is situated in a larger global tendency.

Commonplace - Photographs from the Drummond-Fyvie Collection and the Ngilima Collection. By Tamsyn Adams and Sophie Feyder.

How does the commodification and re-appreciation of the contiguous uplands of Northeast India, Bangladesh and Burma/Myanmar transform the relationship between these states and their upland citizens?

University Lecturer Andrew Gawthorpe commented on the BBC regarding Donald Trump’s plans to exclude South Africa from the G20.

On 3 September 2025, more than 30 archaeological objects were returned to Peru, Panama and Costa Rica. The objects come from a private collection belonging to the descendants of physician and amateur archaeologist Dr Hans Feriz. In her will, his daughter stipulated that the objects collected by her…

If you follow the western media, you are likely to think of ‘Africa’ as the continent of origin of desperate migrants, a continent of hunger and disease and a breeding ground for international terrorism. But if you want to see the bigger picture, you should look no further than the African Studies scholars…

The Museum enjoys the highest reputation internationally

On 30 November 2016, Cecily Rose participated in a Symposium held at the T.M.C. Asser Institute on 'A Court for the World? Trust in the ICJ 50 years after South West Africa'.

Cultural Anthropologist Erik de Maaker published, together with Monica Janoswki (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Stories across Borders: Myths of Origin and Their Contestation in the Borderlands of South and Southeast Asia in Southeast Asian Studies (SEAS).

Natalia Donner is a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities (International Studies, Latin America area specialization) and a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Archaeology.

Eduardo Alves Vieira is an Assistant Professor of Portuguese Language and Linguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. He teaches at the BA/MA Latin American Studies programs and BA International Studies. Additionally, he supervises Ph.D. candidates, mostly working on queer linguisti…

Jennifer Swerida is Assistant Professor in the Archaeology of West Asia.

At one time, the railway from Kimberley to Kambove in Southern Africa symbolised prosperity and progress. Today, the exhausted mining towns along its route are marked by decay and pollution. Professor Jan-Bart Gewald has been awarded an NWO L grant to investigate the long-term global consequences.

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

Conference, Meet us in your country

What was the environmental impact of the industrial mining revolution that transformed southern Africa? Specifically, what was the impact of industrial mining when viewed from a more than human multi-species perspective?

Team History of Africa and the Americas

Filipino anthropologists Andrea Malaya M. Ragragio and Myfel D. Paluga look back at the groundbreaking Netflix show Trese and what it missed about the stories of Indigenous peoples. They published the article 'What Netflix Got Wrong About Indigenous Storytelling' in the digital Anthropology magazine…

Under the title “New insights from old collections”, the archaeological research was introduced on the Museum’s news page.

Leiden University is a centre of migration research, bringing together historians, economists, lawyers, political scientists and anthropologists. They conduct research on who migrates and why, and the impact on societies. They analyse government policy, the role of media and how societies respond to…

Jos Gommans is a historian with expertise on the early modern history of South Asia in its global interactions with the outside world of Central Asia, Southeast Asia and the European colonial empires.