With 'The unruly reality of a new government: Navigating between networks and serving in a 'vulnerable' neighbourhood', Mony Klaus has won the FSW Thesis Prize 2023. Written as part of the Master's programme in Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, the thesis examines how a new government…

Ratna Saptari is since 2007 Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology. She has always been involved with issues of human rights and Indonesian workers' rights. This August she retired. But she won't sit still. She continues her voluntary work and wants to…

How do local, non-institutional ideas about end-of-life care influence professional palliative care and vice versa? These questions will be answered by medical anthropologists Annemarie Samuels and Natashe Lemos Dekker in the coming years.

“A partnership based on water” summarised Gerhard van den Top the relationship between the Netherlands and the Philippines in the 4th Louwes Lecture. He emphasised the significant role of international and intercultural cooperation in managing the complex challenges brought forward by climate change.…

Research often theorizes about young adults and their social media use. John Boy wants to investigate social media platforms by talking to users rather than talking about them

On 2 June, Prof. Mayke Kaag gave a keynote speech at the UN Headquarters in New York. The meeting was organised by the UN’s Security Sector Reform & Governance Unit.

In the opinion article ‘Maak praten over de dood niet tot een morele plicht’ (Don’t turn talking about death into a moral obligation) Annemarie Samuels and Liesbeth van Vliet, argue together with Marike de Meij and Sander de Hosson that it is important to have conversations about death and dying but…

A fragment of a human skull discovered in sediments extracted from the bottom of the North Sea, 15 km off the coast off the Netherlands, has been identified as belonging to the extinct Neandertal group.

Caroline van Eck has been awarded the Descartes-Huygens Prize. She will receive the award in March 2014. The prize includes a period as a guest researcher in France. Van Eck has been awarded the prize for her excellent research and her contribution to French-Dutch collaboration.

Charisma K. Lepcha (PI, Sikkim University), Pradyut Guha (co-PI, Sikkim University), Rajib Sutradhar (co-PI, Christ University Bangalore) and Erik de Maaker (Leiden University) have been awarded a two-year grant of USD 18.000 to conduct research on the impact of ‘green farming’ on the sensitive mountain…

Jasmijn Rana has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska Curie Global Fellowship for her research project “The Embodiment of Racialization: Running Muslim Women and the Sense of Non-Belonging”.

With the What's Next? series we hope to inspire current Media Technology MSc students, show the variety of paths taken after the studies, and bring together alumni. Editions of the series are generally organized around a particular theme by Media Technology MSc students themselves, and followed by social…

Carola Hein, Professor of History of Architecture and Urban Planning TU Delft, has been affiliated with the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University since January 2022 as Professor Water, Ports, and Historic Cities. On the surface this may seem a strange combination,…

A far-reaching understanding of human behaviour is necessary to get to grips with conflicts in society and to encourage parties to meet each other halfway. Psychologists, anthropologists and political scientists from Leiden are making invaluable contributions to that understanding. You can find out…

On 8, 9 & 10 October Share the LUVE takes place, the graduation show with the work of this year’s graduates of the Cultural Anthropology master Visual Ethnography. In three days 22 films, a graphic novel, artwork and photos will be presented in De Buurt, close to Leiden Central Station. If you don’t…

In a recent publication in Nature Sustainability, an international team led by Josephine Chambers from Wageningen University, and including Marja Spierenburg from the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology at Leiden University, have developed a practical tool for researchers and…

Can suffering be positive? Currently dominant discourses, primarily voiced through human rights activism and humanitarianism, maintain the opposite: suffering, mentally and physically, has to be avoided and where it exists, it has to be reduced.

On Friday 4th February 2022 we welcomed in hybrid format (in person and online live streaming) 154 registered participants, of which 97 online, to present the first results of the Food Citizens? ERC Consolidator project.

The Institute for Philosophy further expands its knowledge: As of 1 September, Annemie Halsema holds the chair of Wijsgerige antropologie en de grondslagen van het humanisme (Philosophical anthropology and the principles of humanism, ed.). In the coming five years, she will study current societal issues…

How do you gain access to insurance? With whom are you willing to share the risk? And when does an insurance policy pay out? These and other moral questions are what Erik Bähre, an anthropologist at Leiden University, and his research group study.

The Future of Dying: End-of-Life Care in a Time of De-medicalized Death explores how patients, their relatives, and healthcare providers make decisions about end-of-life care when such treatments are readily available.

Mariska Jung, Jasmijn Rana and Looi van Kessel receive a €10,000 KIEM grant for

The effects of sustainability projects on poorer, marginalised people should be considered at a much earlier stage. This is the opinion of Marja Spierenburg, Professor of Anthropology of Sustainable Development and Livelihood, who will give her inaugural lecture on 25 February.

This year it is 40 years ago that LOVA was established, which we want to celebrate with a seminar around the theme “Gender Moves”. We invite you to join us on May 10, 2019, at Leiden University, to explore how gender is enacted and reproduced in movement and how gendered movement contributes to dismantling…

From 1 January 2024, Bart Barendregt will be appointed as vice-dean of Research on the FSW board. This is a new role.

CML Researcher Merlijn van Weerd wins Parker / Gentry Award 2015 for Conservation Biology at Field Museum Chicago in recognition of his commitment to biodiversity conservation in the Philippines

Why are health problems such as loneliness and obesity so persistent? What causes them to occur more frequently in some neighborhoods than others? And how can we solve them? You will learn about these topics in the new minor 'Co-creating a Healthy Society'.

Do you want your research to fit the rubric of heritage? Is heritage a relevant concept here? These were some of the questions that came up in the lively discussion following twelve five-minute pitches given by Leiden researchers at the ‘Academic Open Mic’ workshop in the Lipsius building on Thursday…

Anthropologist Erik de Maaker has received a grant from the Himalayan Universities Consortium worth USD 37.000, along with researchers from Yunnan Minzu University (Kunming, China), Sikkim University (India), the Royal University of Bhutan (Thimpu, Bhutan). The grant, to be used in 2018/2019, is meant…

The virtual Exhibition Gold Matters is now live and can be explored online. This exhibition is the result of collaborations between artists, members of mining communities, and researchers of the Gold Matters’ project. Curating the exhibition is a collaborative effort of the Gold Matters Team with Sabine…

Money, cultural anthropologist Coco Kanters concludes in her dissertation, is not an intangible or acultural phenomenon. It is a ‘product’ that arises from specific values and can be used for certain goals.

In January 2020, Marja Spierenburg joined the FSW as the new Professor of Anthropology of Sustainability and Livelihoods. Let’s get to know her. ‘All my research is basically about nature conservation. I look at areas like national parks, but also at measures aimed at increasing the sustainability of…

For one year, seven young anthropologists were appointed as Stadsfotograaf Leiden. They published on a weekly basis photo-series on daily life in and around Leiden in the local newspaper. A selection of these photographs is currently on display in a pop-up exhibition! Come by on 28-29 September at Papengracht…

Skate legend Tony Hawk came to Antwerp. Belgium newspaper De Morgen published an article on the changing skate culture. Cultural Anthropologist Sander Hölsgens shines his light on this theme and talks about the democratisation of skate boarding, activism, public space and collective memory of skater…

Scientists have long assumed Neanderthals simply lost the evolutionary race against humans. But their disappearance may be a bit more complex. In Discover Magazine, Gerrit Dusseldorp sheds light on this illusive question.

The Food Citizens? team has contributed in the special issue of the ICA journal. The semi-scientific journal of the study association Itiwana of Leiden University's Institute of Cultural Anthropology.

Archaeologist Dr Gerrit Dusseldorp's research project was covered by a South African newspaper. Dusseldorp and his team investigate the evolution of human behaviour through artefacts dug up in South African caves.

Medical Anthropologist Lemos Dekker has been interviewed about dementia and euthanasia for Relevant, the magazine of the Dutch Association for a Voluntary End of Life.

On 13 November 2025, the project team and experts on insurgency and counterinsurgency across Africa and beyond came together in The Hague to discuss current trends in research on government and community responses to jihadist insurgencies in Africa.

The ERC has awarded a Starting Grant to five promising researchers from Leiden. Two are from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, one is from the Faculty of Humanities/Governance and Global Affairs, one from the LUMC and one from the Faculty of Science.

In the fight for a liveable planet, we desperately need a fairer distribution of wealth and equal rights for all, argues anthropology professor Marja Spierenburg. ‘That will also generate broad-based support for sustainable development.’