The Dutch Development Bank's new SDG loan fund for green energy in the global south may not be as positive as it seems. Anthropology professor Marja Spierenburg raises concerns about its potential impact on local communities.

Luning and Hein receiving a LUF grant to research the intricate relationship between infrastructure projects and their impact on geopolitics, economics, politics, and culture in Africa

Call for Participation for the online workshop Interrogating Speculative Futures: A workshop on the politics of imagining a future with(out) chronic illness on 19 and 20 July 2021.

How many written parliamentary questions does each party put to each minister? Political scientists Simon Otjes (University of Groningen) and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) studied the practice in Dutch parliament and found that parties use parliamentary questions strategically as part of their ‘permanent…

Meet the students behind Science for Sustainable Societies! In this section, you will find monthly interviews with the students who are following this programme. They will share what drives them, what they enjoy about their study, their views on our programme and what inspires them about sustainability.…

Promotores: G.A. Persoon, H.H. de Iongh

The VVI seeks to develop and disseminate socio-legal knowledge and theory regarding the interaction between law, governance and society. More specifically, the Institute studies the emergence, functioning, and evolution of legal institutions.

Southeast Asia is a term to denote a collection of at present eleven nation-states with an enormous diversity in languages, cultures and religions. Muslims can both take a majority and a minority position.

The Laboratory for Human Osteoarchaeology specialises in the macroscopic and microscopic analysis of human remains. We use cutting edge scientific approaches to address archaeological, historical, and anthropological research questions. In addition to paleopathological, histological, and 3D scanning…

The unique geographic and temporal breadth of research at Leiden allows us to stimulate a shift from the classical Weberian mode of scholarly production that views historical development and modernization as emanating from Europe and the West to a multi-polar perspective that allows for more nuanced,…

‘Visibility and secrecy are both valuable tactics and should not be antagonized in LGBT movements, ’ says Jingshu Zhu. Zhu defended her dissertation on Wednesday 21 February.

To what extent does the Law Ombudsperson for Children achieve its goals as intended by the legislator when introducing the law?

A better understanding of inequality to help create a fairer, more just society.

This focus area adresses the social context of health and well-being, with a particular emphasis on social inequality.

Reconfigurations of Practice, Community and Authority in Contemporary Aceh

At LUCL we study almost all aspects of a wide range of African languages. From phonology to anthropological linguistics, from theoretical syntax to urban youth languages, we study it all.

The BOCA project explores new forms of communicating academic knowledge as a way to strengthen the connection between the university and society. The project was awarded a Kiem seed grant and is led by Daniela Vicherat Mattar (FGGA/LUC) and Nanne Timmer (FGw/LUCAS).

LUCSoR has chairs in Comparative Religion, Islam in the West, Christianity, and Judaism. Main areas of expertise include ancient Mesopotamian religions, the Enlightenment, Islam in the West, and new spiritual movements.

On 21 January 2021, Fachrizal Afandi defended his thesis 'Maintaining Order: Public Prosecutors in Post-Authoritarian Countries, the case of Indonesia'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. A.W. Bedner and Prof. J.H. Crijns.

A theme issue of the Royal Society Interface Focus journal about the human history of Amazonia, as seen through interdisciplinary collaborations among scholars from different research fields.

Collaboration is right at the heart of our work within the theme Health and well-being in a healthy society.

This subproject of 'From Homo Economicus to Political Animal' analyzes Greek economic thinking of the Hellenistic period.

Many conflicts in Africa have been studied and described as location and time bound. Yet conflict is rarely confined and contained, and instead reaches across communities, borders, and generations.

Since the emergence of humankind people have maintained social contacts and traveled widely, establishing interaction networks in which goods are traded and ideas are transmitted, increasingly on a global scale.

This study, Calypso, The Trinidadian Experience, has sought to establish links between calypso music and the construction and maintenance of identities, and to locate the genre as a mechanism (or as part of a broader mechanism) that has exerted on-going social influence within Trinidadian society…

Watch the Sustainable Career Event back!

Archaeological and Anthropological perspectives

The deans (chairs of the faculty boards) form the Board of Deans, which is chaired by the Rector Magnificus.

A mere day after setting foot ashore in the Bahamas on October 13th 1492, Christopher Columbus notes the broad foreheads of the inhabitants of the Americas. These permanently altered cranial shapes are deliberately created through the application of pressure to the head of the infant in the first years…

On October 20 and 21, 2016, Leiden University will host an international conference under the title

On the 17th of December, Jin Wang successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Jin on this achievement!

Students interested in the study of Morocco can enroll in English-taught minor ‘Culture and Society in Morocco’, starting in September at the NIMAR institute in Rabat. The minor is accessible for all students of universities in The Netherlands.

Together with four European partner universities heritage specialist Dr Monique van den Dries has been granted an Erasmus+ project (EU-CUL) by the European Commission. This project sets up a unique cooperation between educational scientists and academic heritage specialists. It will study how universities…

This project creates a comprehensive audiovisual documentation of the Sanye language, the sociolinguistic situation, and cultural practices of the Sanye (Dahalo) community in coastal Kenya.

We’re happy to announce that we’re organizing a symposium on language as the last celebration of our Lustrum year! It will be an afternoon with various lectures from different speakers and a research panel. You’re welcome to join for the whole event, but are also encouraged to come to…

Festival, Graduation Film Festival

PhD Research Projects at LUCDH and Affiliated Faculties

How did disability become a global concern? In this project we will identify the contribution of international agencies, governmental and non-governmental organizations and, just as importantly, disabled people themselves, to the IYDP and by showing the connections, interactions and entanglements between…

For a long time, the painful history of colonial slavery received too little attention. People whose ancestors lived in slavery are now asking critical questions about how we should address that past. Leiden University researchers study the history of colonialism and slavery and their long-term impact…

The ongoing conflict in Kashmir is often seen as a political issue between India and Pakistan. Idrees Kanth, who has written a dissertation on the subject, believes that the people of Kashmir are the primary contenders in the conflict and should be allowed their right to decide their own political fate.…

Turkish and Syrian students met Rector Magnificus Hester Bijl to discuss how the university can support students who have been affected by the earthquake.

Daphne Wong-A-Foe received her Media Technology MSc diploma cum laude in August 2021. Her thesis research used EEG recordings to study aspects of traditional Javanese Jaran Kepang dancing, something she holds close to her heart.