Middle Eastern Studies, African Studies or International Relations: all examples of studies that are part of Area Studies at the Faculty of Humanities in Leiden. Within Area Studies you study a region and immerse yourself in (complex) subjects of that region, such as cultural uniqueness, conflicts,…

This fall, LUCIS will have the pleasure of welcoming Professor Maribel Fierro, Research Professor at the CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid), to Leiden. She is the third Abdulaziz Saud Al-Babtain Cultural Foundation Visiting Professor in Arabic Culture at Leiden University…

The wide-ranging interests of the Dutch archeologist Maurits van Loon -prehistory, art history, and ancient history - are reflected in these papers, which commemorate his 30 years of archeological research in the Near East

To truly understand complex regions such as the Middle East and Asia, you have to know their culture, history and local societies inside out. Driven by curiosity for other cultures, the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) provides an understanding and analysis of current and historical…

The research project MAXCAP: Maximizing the integration capacity of the European Union: Lessons and prospects for enlargement and beyond starts with a critical analysis of the effects of the 2004-2007 enlargement on stability, democracy and prosperity of candidate countries, on the one hand, and the…

The Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo is an academic centre providing services for scholars and students from the supporting universities.

Objects, Appropriation and Cultural Change

D.P. Kok defended his thesis on 10 October 2017

This MA explores contemporary literature and culture—art, film, pop music—through critical and theoretical lenses, including feminist theory, phenomenology, and ecocriticism. Key themes include diversity, interculturality, popular culture, and the intersection of culture, politics, and justice.

How did ancient Greeks and Romans regard work?

This study presents a re-evaluation of Malay adventure stories.

Inspired by a critical reconsideration of current monolithic approaches to the study of Greek religion, this book argues that ancient Greeks displayed a disquieting capacity to validate two (or more) dissonant, if not contradictory, representations of the divine world in a complementary rather than…

This is the first comprehensive commentary on a section of Xenophon's Anabasis in English for almost a century.

Learn the newest insights from established scholars.

Neo-Baroque construction and deconstruction of the concepts of paradise in fiction.

This book examines how renewed forms of artistic activism were developed in the wake of the neoliberal repression since the 1980s.

The Register of Early Modernists aims to facilitate collaboration between early modern researchers at Leiden University.

What do you do if you have a book from the sixteenth or seventeenth century, but you suspect that the binding contains a fragment of a medieval manuscript? University lecturer Thijs Porck has received an NWO grant to experiment with a camera attached to a tube. 'The project boils down to keyhole surgeries…

‘This trip gives you the chance to experience at first hand what you learn about in your study programme,’ says Lars Moll, third-year student of Middle Eastern Studies, and one of the students who joined the April excursion to Istanbul organised by Professor Hans Theunissen from Leiden's Department…

Three Humanities lecturers received the Senior Teaching Qualification (SKO) this year. Lecturer Hossam Ahmed is one of them. What does he think makes for good education?

Did you know that Arabic was for centuries the lingua franca in an area stretching from the south of Spain to the Chinese border? And that the Middle East under Muslim rule was the world’s beating heart of trade, but also of science and scholarship? Want to learn more? Then sign up for the new MOOC…

Conference

At his farewell party on 25 August 2018, Erik-Jan Zürcher, professor and specialist on Turkey, was appointed Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion. He was presented with the award by Leiden's Deputy Mayor Martine Leewis.

This week sees the first edition of the textbook Mouse&Manuscript published online. Mouse&Manuscript is a collection of interactive lessons on codicology and oriental manuscripts. Its aim is to stimulate teaching on codicology in and outside of the classroom, and to contribute to the disclosure of Leiden…

Het NIMAR is een instituut van de Universiteit Leiden dat studenten van verschillende studierichtingen de mogelijkheid biedt om zich te verdiepen in de Marokkaanse cultuur.

How did people experience Islam on a day-to-day basis in the early centuries of Islam? That's where the papyri come in, says professor of Arabic Petra Sijpesteijn in the fourth video of the Leiden | Islam interview series.

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

From 1 June onwards, Erik-Jan Zurcher, professor of Turkish Studies, will be the new academic director of the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS). We asked him about his plans.

The Center participates in East European Politics, one of the major political science journals focusing on the contemporary post-communist space.

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.

How did the medieval manuscript develop as a physical object during the Twelfth Century Renaissance and what do these changes tell us about the intellectual culture of the period?

The new Dutch-Turkish dictionary has been completed, just in time for the celebration of 400 years of Dutch-Turkish ties. It would not have been possible without Gerjan van Schaaik and Mehmet Emin Yıldırım from Leiden University. On Wednesday 18 April the Education Minister Marja van Bijsterveldt will…

Romana Osman (24) knew one thing for sure: she wanted to work at an embassy in the Middle East. However, finding a position turned out to be rather challenging. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. After an internship at UNICEF, Romana now works as a trainee at the Dutch Embassy in Amman.

To be eligible for the MA Ancient History at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

The Journal of the LUCAS Graduate Conference was founded in 2013 to publish a selection of the best papers presented at the biennial LUCAS Graduate Conference, an international and interdisciplinary humanities conference organized by the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS). The…

Since the Middle Passage is in the North Atlantic, and the North Atlantic has a relationship with the arctic, what relationship does the Arctic have with the Middle Passage? How can this relationship be used to provide a space of healing by uncovering Afro/diasporic counter narratives?

This book argues that Armenians around the world – in the face of the Genocide, and despite the absence of an independent nation-state after World War I – developed dynamic socio-political, cultural, ideological and ecclesiastical centres. And it focuses on one such centre, Beirut, in the postcolonial…

Lecture, Leiden Lectures on Arabic Language & Culture

LUCAS hosts a wide variety of research. Here we outline some of the most important research themes.