Japan's Occupation of Java in the Second World War draws upon written and oral Japanese, Indonesian, Dutch and English-language sources to narrate the Japanese occupation of Java as a transnational intersection between two complex Asian societies, placing this narrative in a larger wartime context of…

Zijn corona-complotten waanzin? Jelle van Buuren, universitair docent bij het Institute of Security and Global Affairs van de Universiteit Leiden, discussieert in de online talkshow De Groene Live #25 vanuit Pakhuis de Zwijger over dit thema.

“Very French and very impressive.” Those are the words drs. Isabelle van de Calseyde used to describe the reception at the French embassy residence in The Hague on 2 June 2015. There, she and dr. Sjef Houppermans were presented with an distinction for their remarkable services to the French language…

On 5 November 2021, Professor Michiel van de Sande of the Department of Orthopedics in the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) delivered his inaugural lecture ‘The Art of Doing and Doing Nothing’. Van de Sande used the opportunity to explore both physical and philosophical aspects of co-decision…

Painstaking research in Dutch and Portuguese archive materials, so far poorly assessed on the topic of social relations, reveals intense and intricate associations between different European individuals both in terms of ethnicity and social strata.

Niels van Willigen (Institute of Political Science, Leiden University) puts Dutch participation in UN peacekeeping into an historical context. He analyses the reasons for the Dutch withdrawal from the 1990s onwards, and explores the obstacles and opportunities for a structural return. Van Willigen argues…

Prof. Giles Scott-Smith has made the first History MOOC (Massive Online Open-Access Course) produced by Leiden University. The MOOC 'The Rooseveltian Century', which covers the influence of Theodore, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt through the 20th century, is now online at Coursera. The successful MOOC…

In the last two decades, there have been heated public and scholarly debates in France, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands on the violent end of empire. Nevertheless, the broader comparative investigations into colonial counterinsurgency tend to leave atrocities such as torture, execution, and…

Jeanine de Roy van Zuijdewijn, PhD candidate at ISGA, explained the dilemma countries face in the aftermath of terror attacks.

Professor of Law and Society, Maartje van der Woude, had an interview in ‘De Groene Amsterdammer’ of 4 September 2018 about her research into mobile border control.

The World of the Fullo takes a detailed look at the fullers, craftsmen who dealt with high-quality garments, of Roman Italy. Analyzing the social and economic worlds in which the fullers lived and worked, it tells the story of their economic circumstances, the way they organized their workshops, the…

The Discovery of El Greco: The Nationalization of Culture Versus the Rise of Modern Art (1860-1915)

On December 6th, Bob Schoemaker succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Bob on this great result.

Alicia Schrikker doesn't usually get involved in urban history. As a senior lecturer, her research field is generally the colonial history of Asia and partly South Africa. So, the fact that she is going to carry out an urban history research project together with colleagues, is something that even she…

Op donderdag 17 april 2025 neemt prof. dr. Marco Mostert, Hoogleraar Middeleeuwse Geschiedenis aan de Universiteit Utrecht afscheid.

From the First World War until the height of the Cold War, actors from the decolonizing world sought to build connections with international peace movements. These efforts produced new networks and practices of solidarity while also exposing tensions over the centrality of decolonization in global struggles…

If we want tax evasion to become a thing of the past then there has to be more balance in how tax advisers are educated, according to tax professors Jan Vleggeert and Jan van de Streek.

The second authors' conference of the General Labour History of Africa (GLHA) project will be held from 10 to 12 December 2015 in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In The Golden Mean of Languages, Alisa van de Haar sheds new light on the debates regarding the form and status of the vernacular in the early modern Low Countries, where both Dutch and French were local tongues. The fascination with the history, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary of Dutch and French…

The central aim is to systematically study differences in crime patterns and social control between migrants and non-migrants in early modern Frankfurt am Main.

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…

FAIR-ASSESS brings together researchers from five different Leiden faculties, as well as experts from outside the university. The project has been initiated by Andrei Poama and is being led by Josette Daemen.

Subproject of

This monograph by dr. Kim Beerden compares Greek divination to divinatory practices in Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia and Republican Rome.

Tanja heeft zich sedert 1985 met haar bijzondere en veelzijdige talenten ingezet voor het opbouwen van het internationaal Instituut voor Lucht- en Ruimterecht, waarvan zij vanaf de oprichting codirecteur is.

Migration and Mobility in the Early Roman Empire by Luuk de Ligt and Laurens E. Tacoma (Eds.)

The project examines the political conflict in the Red River Valley of Louisiana between the majority-black Republican Party and the overwhelmingly white Democratic Party by studying the composition and actions of each party.

The central aim is examining gender differences in recorded crime, particularly in relation to interpersonal violence, in early modern Bologna.

The role of transnational, non-institutional networks in the opening up of British transatlantic trade at the end of the 17th/beginning of the 18th century

On 1 November, Stijn Bussels assumed his role as professor of Art History, especially before 1800 at Leiden University. The chair is located at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS).

Journal of Imperial and Global Interactions

In an interview on the website of the NWO, Sabine Luning, Marjo de Theije and Esther van de Camp talk about the gold miners they met in various African and South American countries and they come to new insights.

Subproject of

Subproject of

The main research objective is to map the cities of Roman Asia Minor in terms of location, size, urban amenities and juridical status, with the specific aim to understand the reasons how this urban settlement pattern arose.

De plannen van het kabinet-Schoof om een langstudeerboete zorgt voor veel ophef. Promovendus Joris van de Riet schreef een opinieartikel erover voor Trouw. Zijn argument is dat een langstudeerboete desastreuze gevolgen kan hebben voor studentenverenigingen.

Historical geo data are gaining in importance. Provided that they are exactly geo referenced, they can be stored into a GIS and thus be combined with all kinds of maps (topographical, pedological, etc.) and datasets. This makes it possible to analyze historical developments in space and time on a detailed…

A new paperback edition of Brian Heffernan's book Freedom and the Fifth Commandment. Catholic priests and political violence in Ireland, 1919-21 was published by Manchester University Press in September 2016.

Leiden Professor of Maths Frans van Schooten Jnr. (1615-1660) and his wife Margrieta were painted by Rembrandt. This is the claim made by mathematician and art historian Johan Zwakenberg in his recently published article in the 2018 Leiden Yearbook. Leiden art historians are not completely convinced…

From 24 March 2021, Professor Luuk van Middelaar will deliver four public lectures on 'Geopolitical Europe: Acts and words' at the Collège de France in Paris, on the invitation of the Chairholder on International Institutional Law, Professor Samantha Besson.

This open access book explores the role of continuity in political processes and practices during the Age of Revolutions.

As of 1 September Jan-Bart Gewald has been appointed as Professor of Southern African History in the Leiden Institute for History, in conjunction with the African Studies Centre, Leiden.

Antique wooden oars, hard-fought medals and iconic photos from rowing history. An exhibition at Oude UB spotlights key figures and moments from the 145-year history of Njord Royal Student Rowing Club.

In Dutch magazine De Psycholoog, Anne-Laura van Harmelen talks about the impact traumatic experiences, especially for those who are growing up.

The Dutch Tax Authorities leaked information about an international tax audit to Uber. In addition, they ‘obstructed and delayed’ an investigation by other EU Member States, says the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) based on internal documents from the tech company.

This liber amicorum is a tribute to Prof. dr. ir. Hans H. de Iongh, associate professsor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) of Leiden University and guest professor at the University of Antwerp, on the occasion of his retirement on 27 October 2016.