The African Studies Centre Leiden’s Research Programme for 2025-2029 is called ‘African Trajectories: Past Dependencies and New Directions’. Building on its former programme, it extends the recognition of Africa’s pivotal role in world affairs. The continent’s global significance has become increasingly…

Open access, online talks on African Sign Language Studies, in International sign and English

On 18 March 2019, Gökmen Tanis shot three people in a tram in Utrecht. He shot a fourth victim after exiting the tram on the 24 Oktoberplein. On 1 July, the criminal trial against Tanis started with presumably only one possible outcome: a life sentence.

Representing Japanese Colonial 'Heritage' in Taiwan

The Life in Custody (LIC) Study comprises a large-scale research project into prison climate and the quality of prison life in Dutch prisons.

On 3 and 4 March, the 2nd Doctoral Seminar on International Criminal Law, International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law was held at the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights in Sicily. Ida Asscher and Anna Smulders, both PhD Candidates at the Grotius…

UNESCO has recognized an international set of fifteen manuscripts about Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the globe and the three Hikayat Aceh manuscripts as World Heritage. The manuscripts are inscribed in the global UNESCO Memory of the World Register. This list contains documentary heritage…

The map application includes information from old and new buildings archaeological projects. This makes it possible to investigate whether water facilities (wells, cisterns) and waste facilities (cesspits, sewers) were the privilege of Leiden’s wealthy elite in the late 16th and 17th centuries or whether…

The German Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung has awarded a Research Fellowship for Experienced Researchers to Jannemieke Ouwerkerk for her project ‘The Moral Limits of EU Criminal Law: A Rechtsguts-theory for the European Union’.

How can we monitor and protect biological and cultural diversity in Suriname best? What can we learn from local knowledge and customs associated with biodiversity? How can we understand current species, acoustical, behavioural, and ecological diversity from an evolutionary perspective? Can we predict…

On Wednesday 7 June, the EPFR research program had its annual research day (toogdag). The venue we had for this year was the Gravensteen, a beautiful historic building right by Pieterskerk.

Professor Ariadne Schmidt and Associate Professor Arie van Steensel (University of Groningen) have produced A Companion to Medieval and Early Modern Leiden, the first English-language history of Leiden. Mayor Peter Heijkoop received the first copy.

One week ago a group of Dutch men were attacked out of the blue by another group of Dutch tourists on the Spanish island of Mallorca. One of the victims later died as a result of his injuries. The Spanish police know who the suspects are, but those men are in the Netherlands.

Hoe ver mogen demonstranten gaan? En moet de politie ingrijpen als iemand zich vastketent? Jeroen ten Voorde, hoogleraar straf- en procesrecht, sprak met Omroep Gelderland over het demonstratierecht: ‘Ik zou niet meteen zeggen dat het strafbaar is.’

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Two colleagues have each received a prestigious Vidi grant. We spoke to criminologist and Associate Professor Hilde Wermink, and Eduard Fosch Villaronga, Associate Professor of eLaw, about what this grant means to them and their research plans.

Cosmopolis seeks to explore the transnational and cultural dimensions of intra-Eurasian encounters through Dutch sources.

What are the immediate and lasting effects of the colonial encounters on indigenous Caribbean cultures and societies and what were the intercultural dynamics that took place during the colonisation processes? How can the study of indigenous Caribbean histories contribute to a more sophisticated awareness…

The suspects of the fatal assault on Mallorca will be investigated in the Netherlands. If the Dutch Public Prosecution Service sees sufficient reason to prosecute the suspects, then a Dutch court will consider the case.

By documenting lexical and morpho-syntactic patterns among P’urhepecha speakers in Mexico and the US diaspora, this project will investigate the sources of language variation. The ensuing online dialect atlas will serve as an online resource for speakers, learners and researchers of the language.

The project Deconstructing Stability aims to improve reconstructions of late prehistoric landscapes and predictive models for the purpose of archaeological heritage management.

A technique originally developed for satellite imaging can now be used to recover pictographic texts from underneath the surface of a five hundred year old Mexican manuscript.

This PhD project investigates specific types of allusions used by Russian native speakers, namely references to classical Russian literature. The research includes the analysis of 1) how native speakers use allusions, 2) what type of discourse allusions are frequently used, and 3) how we can implement…

On 1 March 2023, the Dutch Safety Board (Onderzoeksraad Voor De Veiligheid, OVV) published its report on the protection provided by the Dutch security services and lessons learned from three cases. The OVV was highly critical of the use of key witnesses and the protection offered to them. Jan Crijns,…

We would all like to live in a world in which individuals feel safe, conflicts are resolved peacefully and the interests of future generations are taken into consideration. At Leiden University legal scholars investigate to what extent public international law meets the needs of a globalised society.…

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.

In both the autumn and the spring semesters, full bachelor programmes worth 30 ECTS are offered. Besides these study programmes, NIMAR provides an honours track for bachelor students from various disciplinary backgrounds and contributes to study trips in Morocco.

Graduates of Book and Digital Media Studies have a strong foundation in the history, theory, and practice of textual media—manuscript, print, and digital. They pursue careers in publishing, libraries, cultural heritage, and academia.

Mazatec chants and ancient Mesoamerican pictography

On 25 March 2021 this online seminar will be held from 10.15-12.00 at Örebro Universitet in Sweden. Jannemieke Ouwerkerk, Professor of European Criminal law at the Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology at Leiden University, will be one of the speakers at this seminar. Information about registration…

Conference

The Van Loon project sets out to safeguard the archives of Dutch archaeologist Maurits van Loon (Amsterdam, September 22, 1923 - Montpellier, October 12, 2006) and make them accessible for further study.

Dutch archaeologists are making three-dimensional virtual reconstructions of archaeological objects lost in the Syrian civil war.

Considering Mesoamerican Precolonial books as material objects

When it comes to languages and cultures, Leiden University is the university. The global expertise present places our university at the top. In Leiden and The Hague, we study languages and cultures from all regions of the world and from prehistory to the present day. In this way we create a broad view…

In the 60s and 70s, Black Power groups were also active in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This is what PhD candidate Debby Esmeé de Vlugt has discovered.