What if you could understand the world in the places where it truly begins – in language, in stories and in culture? In a time when countries clash, technology shapes what we see, and societies are changing fast, one thing is clear: you only really understand the news when you know what lies behind…

Researchers from five different discplines work together in this interdisciplinary initiative.

Former PhD, Bachelor and Master students of the Van Exter Lab

Making predictions about emotional problems or the effects of air pollution: Marjolein Fokkema’s algorithms are getting better at this all the time. She is making her algorithms increasingly flexible, so they can predict not just characteristics at one particular moment, but also how skills, for example,…

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.

Lecture, This Time for Africa series

Leiden University College welcomes researchers at all levels who wish to spend some time at our institution for a research project.

Van Vollenhoven Lecture 2025

Deze onderzoeksgroep richt zich op het thema ondermijning en financieel-economische criminaliteit, in het bijzonder de aanpak ervan op een aantal deelterreinen.

This dissertation develops an innovative approach to cultural transformation in the kingdom of Commagene (modern south-east Turkey) during the 1st c. BCE, focusing on a palatial context in the capital Samosata.

The premier LUCIS lecture series, running since 2021. Each year, two eminent scholars visit Leiden to deliver landmark lectures in Islamic and Middle East Studies. This forum for presenting and discussing cutting-edge research brings together researchers, students, and other interested participants…

Links to related organisations, institutes, journals and archives.

Isis on the Nile. Egyptian gods in Hellenistic and Roman Egypt

Why obey the state? Dorota Mokrosińska presents a fresh analysis of the most influential theories of political obligation and develops a novel approach to this foundational problem of political philosophy, an intriguing combination of the elements of natural duty and associative theories.

Urban development and lack of appropriate management has been threatening the archaeological site of Tell Balata. In order to save it from further destruction, in 2010 the Tell Balata Archaeological Park project was started.

In this book, Peter Akkermans provides a systematic overview of the Halaf culture of the 6 th millennium BC in the Syrian portion of the valley of the Balikh River, a tributary of the Euphrates.

The ultimate aim of the project is to find out whether there are such things as

LUCIS’ research on Islam and society is guided by three overarching themes, which are fundamental to our research programmes.

Both on a personal and institutional level, the staff of Leiden CADS collaborates with:

As a student or staff member at Leiden University, do you want to organise a meeting and invite an expert? We advise you to contact one of these institutes.

Clustered Neighbourhood Settlements of the Central Anatolian Neolithic ca. 8500-5500 Cal. BC

In a modernist interpretation of migration controls, nation states play a major role. This book challenges this interpretation by showing that comprehensive migration checks and permanent border controls appeared much earlier, in early modern dynastic states and empires, and predated nation states by…

Law is of major importance for socio-economic development. Ideally, law organises human interaction in a way that promotes justice and legal certainty and protects vulnerable groups from exploitation and arbitrariness.

What makes a good historian? When historians raise this question, as they have done for centuries, they often do so to highlight that certain personal attitudes or dispositions are indispensable or studying the past. Yet their vieuws on what virtues, skills or competencies historians need most differ…

On the 18th of June, Abel Warries successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Abel on this achievement!

In October 1740, a tragedy unfolded in Batavia, the Asian headquarters of the Dutch East India Company on the island of Java. Faced with a spontaneous Chinese peasant uprising, Batavia’s vengeful inhabitants carried out a bloody massacre of their fellow Chinese within the city walls. The murderers marched…

This book is a celebration of the work of Professor Frans Theuws and was published in conjunction with the symposium held at the University of Leiden on June 29, 2018.

The Greater China Region Group develops and monitors Leiden University's cooperation with China.

This project investigates language choice and language use among Swiss mercenaries in the VOC and in the Dutch Colonial Army.

Dr Amany Soliman joined the NVIC as a postdoctoral research fellow in October 2017. She is a lecturer of modern history and international relations at the Mediterranean Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. For her PhD thesis, she examined the nationalist movements in Spain,…

To what extent is the image of the Taino settlements on Hispaniola representative for the whole island, or is it only related to a few large settlements of known caciques?

Leiden University and the Netherlands National Museum of Antiquities (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden) are jointly involved in the intensive archaeological exploration of Northern Syria, by means of field surveys and large-scale excavations at a number of archaeological sites in the Balikh basin: the Tell…

Tolerance and democracy are not our European values

In recent decades, a more radical Islam has been on the rise in Indonesia, but the government now promotes a moderate form of Islam. In his inaugural lecture, Professor Nico Kaptein will analyse the dynamics of Islam and the influence of the Middle East in this the largest Muslim country in the world.…

Procedural administrative law in a constitutional comparative law perspective