Rik van Gijn was appointed professor of Ethnolinguistic Vitality and Diversity in the World from 1 December 2024. He is keen to use the position to set up research on language vitality. ‘People almost never give up their mother tongue entirely voluntarily.’

Five thousand years before the common era (BCE), Proto-Indo-European, the mother of many languages that are spoken today in Europe, Central Asia and South Asia, originated in eastern Europe. PhD candidate Axel Palmér has combined a 175-year-old hypothesis with new techniques to demonstrate how descendants…

Conference

Conference

How has evolution shaped our curiosity? And how does that curiosity ensure that we now have the technological ability to discover whether we are alone in the universe? This was all covered during the celebration of Leiden University’s 449th Dies Natalis.

A collection of interviews from the oral history project

Kiem project: How can metaphors be used to enhance societal engagement with quantum science and technology, and what factors influence their acceptance or resistance among experts and laypeople?

If you follow the western media, you are likely to think of ‘Africa’ as the continent of origin of desperate migrants, a continent of hunger and disease and a breeding ground for international terrorism. But if you want to see the bigger picture, you should look no further than the African Studies scholars…

On 8 December, in honour of Human Rights Week, Roeland Böcker gave a public lecture about his experiences as ambassador to the Council of Europe. Between 2017 and 2021, Roeland Böcker was the representative of the Netherlands in the Council of Europe.

The Data Science Research Programme at Leiden University combines data science with PhD projects in a wide range of disciplines. The programme has been running for over two years, and is producing the first astonishing results. A number of PhD candidates talk about their experiences and research bel…

Leiden University's interdisciplinary research programme SAILS funds young interdisciplinary scientists working at the intersection of AI and other fields. How do these researchers experience the work?

Leiden University has been promoting studies on Latin America and the Caribbean for a long time.

Knowledge and culture subproject 3:

A study concerning the collective memory in the region of the Bene lo Ya/ Ene lo I'ya, Sierra Norte, Oaxaca.

This special issue of the peer-reviewed journal Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik (Brill, 2021) brings together articles that explore new digital ways of analyzing and annotating Old English vocabulary.

Create a world of opportunities with a master's degree from Leiden University.

Dutch Studies is a unique bachelor’s programme in which you will quickly acquire fluency in spoken and written Dutch at a high academic level, at the same time gaining deep understanding of the culture and history of the Netherlands.

Lecture, Global Questions Seminar

You've earned your degree and you’re ready to start your career. But where do you end up?

Psycholinguistic research

The role of religion in the identity construction of LGBTQIA+ folks

The Leiden University Graduate School of Humanities promotes the quality of our PhD candidates' selection, supervision, assessment, and training. Together with the Faculty institutes, the Graduate School of Humanities provides the organisational infrastructure within which PhD candidates participate…

This research cluster explores processes of cultural creation, reception and transformation within a wide range of societal contexts from the early Middle Ages until c. 1800.

Some examples of AI-research done at Leiden.

The Digital Humanities and Artificial Intelligence minor in the 2024-2025 academic year with options of 15 EC or 30 EC packages.

How can a CLIL approach, with a focus on disciplinary literacies, improve the teaching of the LLA programme’s literary component in senior TTO?

Conducting research on reliability of journalism and the trust in media.

Lecture, CHiLL series

This PhD project investigates how language models can be used to extract structured knowledge from text in a way that is accurate, robust, and applicable to real-world use cases.

Academic staff and students blog about their research and teaching.

Are you ready to take on an extra challenge during your BA in Linguistics programme? With options like the Honours College, The Humanities Lab and the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts (ACPA), you can broaden your academic programme or add extra depth, intensity and ECTS – even a dual degree –…

Leiden University offers ambitious students the opportunity to gain state-of-the-art knowledge, coupled with the freedom to develop their own area of expertise.

Are you ready to tackle the most pressing sustainability challenges of our time? Do you want to contribute to a sustainable future while respecting the limits of our planet, but don't quite know how to do that yet? Our interdisciplinary Minor in Sustainable Development invites you to explore sustainability…

Your time at Leiden is about more than just studying. Some of your best experiences will stem from being a part of our lively and diverse student community, as well as from life in the beautiful city of Leiden.

The master’s programme of Latin American Studies offered by Leiden University supports the teaching and research of the social, cultural, historical, and linguistic diversity of contemporary Latin America, a region of mind-blowing diversity and global impact.

Do you want to know more about the Bachelor of Linguistics, and experience what it’s like to study in Leiden? Leiden University offers you a variety of introductory activities to help you with your choice of study:

What’s it like to study a certain programme within the Faculty of Humanities at Leiden University? These prospective students found out during the Experience Day on Friday 6 April. They had a taste of the faculty’s atmosphere and discovered what study programmes are actually about.

Professor Sjef Barbiers is leaving his job as scientific director of LUCL for the position of scientific director of the Institute for the Dutch Language (INT) from 1 September.

The Choose a Language Day was created to make high school students enthusiastic about choosing a linguistic profile and further education. Third-years were able to learn about different language studies at the Faculty of Humanities.