Selim Ahmetoğlu defended his thesis on 12 February 2019.

This PhD research sets out to unravel and explain the socio-structural and cultural impacts of oil-industrialization on the local Bakhtiari community in general and the industrial laborers it provided in specific.

The project GRADIENTS investigates what it meant to be European in colonial Africa where identification as European often did not depend on skin colour and was understood on a spectrum with many gradients.

This beautifully illustrated volume investigates the social life of objects moving between the Middle East and the West, revealing the range of agencies and subjectivities involved in their trade and reuse.

This research investigates everyday lives and workplace experiences of Iranian workers employed at textile industry, which was the second biggest industry after oil following the latter’s discovery in 1908.

Muge Özoglu defended her dissertation on 5 December 2018

How did slaves in the eighteenth century manage to empower themselves and their kin, and why did this become all the more difficult in the nineteenth century?

Leiden University offers ambitious students a great environment in which to reach their potential.

How De Haan is using language in general and his specific style of language in particular to provide truth, solidarity and justice for both the individual and the collective?

From the Big Bang to superconductivity. Many ground-breaking discoveries have been made in Leiden University’s long history.

A three-volume standard work on galls in Europe. Author Johannes C. (Hans) Roskam is associate professor emeritus in Evolutionary Biology and currently guest at Leiden University.

The refurbished P.J. Veth Building - the first completed sub-project in the Humanities Campus project - was officially opened in the summer of 2017. The Faculty of Humanities moved in straight away. . The building was meticulously transformed into a modern teaching building with attractive areas for…

Due to an overwhelming amount of enthusiasm for Touching Treasures: The History of Photography, another workshop will be organised on 13 May 2019, from 15.00 to 17.00. There, the Beyond Content thematic program will continue in the Vossiusroom at the Leiden Univerisity Library (UBL). The workshop will…

Mid July 2017, the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), together with the Confucius Institute, Institute for Philosophy and Digital Humanities, will move into the completely renovated P.J. Veth building next to the Hortus Botanicus in Leiden.

111 years ago, Heike Kamerlingh Onnis liquified helium for the first time, a tour the force that netted him the Nobel prize. It took a laboratory of a size rarely seen. Now, ultracold helium has become a commodity for physics research. In Wolfgang Löffler's lab, it is ready at hand thanks to a coffee…

The Cryogenics Department has a liquid helium production unit and an automatic liquid nitrogen filling plant.

This year, the second Hugo Weiland Thesis Prize of the Foundation for Austrian Studies has been awarded. This prize, in honour of the founder and long-standing chair of the Foundation of Mr. Weiland, is awarded to high quality theses dedicated to the history, culture, and politics of Austria and Central…

Dr Sri Margana succeeded Bambang Purwanto last September as professor in the Faculty of the Humanities. Margana is a specialist in the early modern history of Indonesia. The appointment will run for five years.

Hundreds of beautiful and timeless photos by Emmy Andriesse, one of the most important Dutch photographers of the twentieth century, are now freely accessible for everyone and can be used for research, education or other purposes. Large parts of Andriesse's oeuvre are already available online via Digital…

History can be found in utensils and in interviews with ordinary citizens. ‘With the reconstruction of everyday life, an anthropological approach works better,’ thinks historian Jan-Bart Gewald. Inaugural lecture on 6 June.

Tjerk Oosterkamp's group is conducting what is perhaps the coldest research in the world. The researchers have cooled a sensor to below 2 millikelvin - almost as cold as absolute zero. This allows them to make extremely sensitive measurements. PhD candidate Jaimy Plugge helped build the setup: ‘We are…

The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (RMO) was due to open its doors to the small photography exhibit Frank Scholten: Archaeology and Tourism in the ‘Holy Land’ in April. Since the organisers, Leiden University and the RMO, have had to temporarily close, researchers Karène Sanchez and Sary Zananiri would like…

Frederique Visser is Research Master student and Student Assistent to the Foundation for Austrian Studies. She writes about her experiences on her research trip to Austria.

Maartje van den Heuvel, researcher and curator of photography at Leiden University, will be giving a tutorial next semester to master students of Film & Photographic Studies. A great opportunity for them to work with an exceptional collection from the Leiden University Library. Van den Heuvel explains…

Our motto is Praesidium Libertatis, or ‘bastion of liberty’. How did it come into existence, and in what way is Leiden University staying true to its meaning? Five questions about our motto.

Researchers Karène Sanchez and Sary Zananiri tell us about their research project CrossRoads, which investigates Christian communities during British Mandate Palestine (1918-1948) through cultural and linguistic lenses. The project was awarded a VIDI grant by NWO in 2017.

The ongoing conflicts between the United States and its allies and Russia and between the United States and its allies and China reflect both the anarchical nature of the international system and the uncertainty with which decision-makers and diplomats have to deal with in attempting to solve the conflicts…

The nineteenth-century writer Nicolaas Beets and his son Dirk were thoroughly colonial, Nicholas without ever having been to the Dutch Indies, or any other colony for that matter. But they didn’t realise it. The new Scaliger Professor, Rick Honings, shows that writers’ archives are a treasure trove…

City walk

Lecture, CMGI Brown Bag Seminar

City walk

City walk

Emeritus professors Dirk van Delft and Frits Berends both channelled their inner Sherlock Holmes as they delved into the life and work of the great physicist Hendrik Lorentz. Their voluminous biography ‘Lorentz: gevierd fysicus, geboren verzoener’ (Lorentz: celebrated physicist, born mediator) is published…

Politicians in Barcelona are preparing for a new political battle. Nationalists fighting for Catalan independence have announced that they will organize a referendum this autumn, just as they did in 2014. Other parties claim that it will lead to new court cases because the referendum is unconstituti…

Conference, Annual Cities, Migration, and Global Interdependence Seminar

Many of our staff and students have won an award, received a grant, obtained an academic fellowship for their quality or have been socially engaged due to their specific expertise. See below for an overview per year.

Recontextualising the Papyri from Roman Soknopaiou Nesos / Dimê (Fayyum, Egypt)

The FOI project has a number of topics it aims to investigate. These are: State, Economy, Culture and Papyri. You will find links to bibliographies on this page.