Material Culture, Settlements, and Landscapes from the Mediterranean to Western Asia

On 11 June 2020, Sabine Witting defended her thesis 'Child Sexual Abuse in the Digital Era: Rethinking Legal Frameworks and Transnational Law Enforcement Collaboration'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. J.J. Sloth-Nielsen and Prof. S. van der Hof.

A recent archaeology of Trio movements

There is little evidence of the routes connecting Amerindian communities in the Caribbean prior to and just after 1492. Uncovering possible canoe routes between these communities can help to explain the structure, capabilities, and limitations of the physical links in their social and material networks.…

Can we really speak about Jewish musicological, musical thought and what is the essence of this thought?

Artistic research has come of age, and with it the Orpheus Institute. Founded twenty years ago, the Institute’s purpose from the start has been to pursue research through the practice of musicians.

This study, Calypso, The Trinidadian Experience, has sought to establish links between calypso music and the construction and maintenance of identities, and to locate the genre as a mechanism (or as part of a broader mechanism) that has exerted on-going social influence within Trinidadian society…

A core interest of our cluster members concerns processes of reception, transformation and (interlingual and intermedial) translation in medieval and early modern art, literature and media from diachronic and synchronic perspectives (in time, space, and between media).

Research and education are two of the pillars the SAILS programme is built on and which we are keen to expand on. Communication of research to researchers, students, companies and other societal partners is another key element.

In the podcast series 'Open Geesten', historians Joost Welten and Nadia Bouras tell us about their research and how history is intergrated in modern society. In short: what can the past tell us about the present?

An understanding of our past helps students grasp the complexities of our world today and how our current biology and social structures came to be. By leveraging student interest into what makes us human, we help guide them to engage with topics ranging from archaeology to climate change, medicine,…

Our public programme includes lecture series, conferences, visiting fellowships, panel discussions and many other interesting events. Have a look at what we've organised in the past years.

The Department of Economics concentrates its research and teaching on Social Policies, Public Finance and Law and Economics

In this course, we will focus on the fascinating history of the Arabic Medieval World. We will take you on a journey through the Middle Ages. All along, we will present you with historiographical debates and dilemmas and travel back and forth in time explaining to you how events of the past affected…

The Centre for Computational Life Sciences organizes monthly seminars and other events in order to bring scientists together and to enhance the exchange of ideas. Please click on Upcoming Events to have a look at our programme. Or click on the other tabs for past events, where PDF files of presentations…

Learn about current approaches and ethical issues in heritage management and experience some of these in daily practice.

Johannes Boer's research intends to question the way explicit knowledge is applied in order to restore and perform music from the past with the intention to get as close as possible to its original meaning.

Study Archaeology at Leiden University. Learn about a full range of theoretical, analytical and field methods from some of the world's leading archaeological researchers.

The Leiden University Centre for Digital Humanities regularly offers events and workshops related to all aspects of digital humanities. Events are aimed at connecting scholars from across Leiden's Faculties with a research interest in all digital aspects of their chosen subject area.

History is all around you: how well do you know your neighbourhood?

This project, South American population history revisited: multidisciplinary perspectives on the Upper Amazon (SAPPHIRE), investigates population dynamics in western South America on the basis of traces in the geographical, genetic, archaeological, ethnological, and linguistic record.

One often sees gloomy Dutch newspaper headlines about pupils’ arithmetic skills in elementary schools. But is the situation really so bad? Marian Hickendorff is conducting intricate research on performance in and the teaching of arithmetic. The conclusions she draws beg to differ.

Archaeology in Leiden encompasses the study of societies, cultures, and human behaviour from the past, aiming to reconstruct and revive them. With our mix of education and research you lay a strong foundation for an international career in archaeology or heritage management.

Studying archaeology at Leiden University is all about studying societies and cultures from the past, trying to reconstruct them and bring them back to life. You will apply your interest in the past to make a meaningful contribution to resolving present-day societal issues, such as migration, globalisation…

Bringing together scholars from Russia, the United States and Europe, this collection of essays is the first to explore the slippery phenomenon of post-Soviet nostalgia by studying it as a discursive practice serving a wide variety of ideological agendas.

The mission of Thamyris/Intersecting is to rigorously bring into encounter the crucial insights of black and ethnic studies, gender studies, and queer studies, and facilitate dialogue and confrontations between them.

The Heritage Quest project is a citizen science project in which volunteers participate in archaeological research. Discover the aims and methodology of the project, the sub-projects and how to participate yourself.

The Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeoloy examines human remains and their burial context to address questions about the human past.

Join the fieldwork, participate in a webinar, attend a workshop? Discover upcoming activities. For results of past activities check Publications.

What did we do over the past year? Well, we played quantum games, helped develop an instrument for the Extremely Large Telescope and started a new bachelor's programme. Oh, yeah, and we officially opened our brand new Gorlaeus Building! Warm up the fingers and get ready to click and scroll through…

Historical evolution law

The Jean Monnet EU Research Seminar Series aims at engaging a wider community of EU scholars at the University and bring excellent academics to Leiden, at various stages of their careers, to present their cutting-edge research and stimulate debate at a highest academic level.

The areas around the Mediterranean Sea have a rich and fascinating past. Do you want to explore these ancient and diverse cultures of the Mediterranean World? In the Dutch-taught Bachelor's programme Ancient Near Eastern Studies at Leiden University you will study the world of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia…

As part of the Leiden Heritage Deal, the Municipality of Leiden collaborates with Leiden University, Naturalis, and the Leiden Regional Heritage Office, to study the climate challenges facing the city centre and its historic green and blue networks. The goal is to contribute to a biodiverse, climate-resilient…

Leiden has the oldest botanical garden in the Netherlands, founded in 1590.

Since the start of the Green Office, several projects has been initiated to increase awareness amongst staff & students and to make the university more sustainable. Read here all about our past and current projects.

Over time Dutch and Indonesian composers, performers and music scholars have inspired each other and they continue to do so. The presence of the Dutch in the Netherlands East-Indies and Indonesia, but also the existence of large diasporic communities in the Netherlands have contributed to a mutual exchange…

Do humans have free will? Does the world look different than it really is? Can moral judgements be right or wrong? In the Dutch-taught Bachelor's programme Philosophy at Leiden University you will ask questions that cross different disciplines and you will study the theories of classical thinkers,…

Latin America is a region with an immense cultural diversity and a colorful, fascinating and sometimes complicated past and present. Get to know the culture, history and the Spanish or Portuguese language of Latin America and develop yourself into a valuable region specialist with a critical worldvi…

Birmingham and Leiden, as cities and as seats of global universities, shaped and were shaped by, empire. Both institutions have started to reflect critically on this legacy.

The Leiden Faculty of Archaeology is a world renowned academic centre for the study of the past. Our archaeologists and heritage experts are involved in innovative projects all over the world.

This research hopes to contribute to social awareness of the consequences of colonialism for Indigenous Peoples, to the deconstruction of still existing colonial and discriminatory notions and to a better appreciation of Indigenous art and thought.

The Cleveringa chair was installed by Leiden University in memory of Professor Rudolph Pabus Cleveringa and the courage he demonstrated in November 1940 during the German occupation . It also commemorates the liberation of the Netherlands in 1945.

At LUCIS we offer a varied programme of scholarly meetings (conferences, workshops) which reflect our multidisciplinary and comparative view on Islam and Muslim societies in past and present.

Bones hold a wealth of information about a person’s life, revealing details about where they came from, how old they were when they died and what diseases they may have had. Scientists can use this data to piece together aspects of an individual's life, offering valuable insights that can help address…

Study all aspects of human life in the past and take on a broad, historic perspective.

This project will establish how and why Dutch entrepreneurs participated in exploiting the English, French and Iberian empires.

This project studies the roles of prehistoric foragers in past ecosystems to establish the character of past “natural” landscapes and enhance the management of current ones.