To what end and how does Plautus constantly underline the Helleni(sti)c provenance of his art? How does this aspect relate the author’s originality?

From Tuesday 6 January till Tuesday 15 January 2026, NVIC organizes a new edition of the TAFL course. This intensive, interactive course is developed for (future) teachers of Arabic. It addresses both the practical aspects of teaching Arabic as a foreign language as well as the underlying linguistic…

The new Middle Eastern Library (MEL) will bring together the UBL's own Middle Eastern collections and the collections of the library of The Netherlands Institute for the Near East (NINO), which has been part of the Leiden University Libraries since 1st January 2018.

Our library contains around 23,000 books, journals and historical documents under the care of a specialized librarian.

LUCAS’ Medieval and Early Modern (MEM) cluster brings together expertise in the fields of art, literature and media. It focuses on the arts in society in Europe and beyond during a vast period of time, from the 7th through to the 18th centuries CE.

The programme will give you the opportunity to choose from a broad range of topics to study. You will be part of an international multidisciplinary research team at our institute.

The research master's in Egyptology, a specialisation of the Classics and Ancient Civilizations (Research) programme, at Leiden University provides you with a multidisciplinary study of the languages, literatures and cultures of Ancient Egypt.

The master's in Hebrew and Aramaic Studies, a specialisation of the Classics and Ancient Civilizations programme, at Leiden University explores Classical Hebrew and Aramaic Studies in the broadest sense.

The Classics and Ancient Civilizations (Research) programme in Assyriology offers many extracurricular opportunities to enrich your study experience.

The specialisation in Translation at Leiden University offers a unique combination of translation theory, research and practice. This prepares you for either a further academic career as a researcher or a professional career in the language industry.

The research master's in Hebrew and Aramaic Studies, a specialisation of the Classics and Ancient Civilizations (Research) programme, at Leiden University explores Classical Hebrew and Aramaic Studies in the broadest sense.

Life returned to something resembling normal after Covid but other crises soon took its place. These great challenges are also being felt at the University and our researchers are working on solutions. The nitrogen crisis, problems with young people’s services and an increasingly urgent climate crisis:…

The Hague Program on International Cyber Security focuses on the various modes of governance that states and other actors can bring into play to deal with and shape the strategic challenges in the digital environment. This years conference focused on international cyber security and the role of the…

On Wednesday 9 March, a Faculty meeting about the war in Ukraine was held for staff and students in the Lorentz Lecture Hall. By the time the meeting started at 17.00 hrs, the 220 available seats in the lecture hall had been filled mainly by large numbers of students.

What with coronavirus, the American elections and the Brexit botheration, we had almost forgotten that something miraculous happened in 2020: the repressed people of Belarus rallied against dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power for 26 years. Months later, what remains of the protest?…

In her book Rap 73, Dorrit van Dalen shares intimate anecdotes and what for many are previously unknown stories about the Academy Building and its users. Stories such as who held heated debates in the beautiful vaulted Gewelfkamer, and why the singer of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot was given pride…

Wearing All Stars and ‘just’ a pair of jeans, with a backpack slung over his shoulder. It was an informal Friday afternoon with Mark Rutte, NATO Secretary General, at Wijnhaven. Perched on a desk, he took questions from students in the audience.

Anke Smits and Lucien van Beek have been awarded a Praesidium Libertatis Grant this year. Smits is an assistant professor at the LUMC and Van Beek at the Faculty of Humanities. They each receive a sum of 75,000 euros from the Leiden University Fund (LUF).

HERLING (Research Lab for the Study of Heritage Languages of the Netherlands) is a new centre that aims to bridge the gap between scientific research and language communities.

Dr. Naomi Truan, Assistant Professor of German Sociolinguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics delivered a lunchtime talk sponsored by the Austria Centre Leiden and the Central and East European Studies. We asked her about her presentation, her research and the state of Central European…

What are the advantages of speaking a second language? Why do some people find it easier to learn a second language than others? Does a dialect count as a first language? On 20 May, Leiden University is organising an English-speaking public symposium on bilingualism: Twee Talen - één BeTalen.

The human brain stores not only individual words, but also all kinds of abstract information about these words. Research by Leiden linguists has shown that speakers have ready access to this information.

What is it like to study at the Humanities Faculty of Leiden University? Soon-to-be students experienced a day at university during the Experience Day 2017 and found out what studying really is about.

Professor Sjef Barbiers will be appointed Managing Director of the Institute for the Dutch Language (INT) with effect from 1 September 2025. He will step down as scientific director of LUCL as of that date.

Professor Roberta D'Alessandro, from the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, has been appointed a member of the Global Young Academy (GYA) from 20 January 2014. The GYA, consisting of 155 members, provides a rallying point for outstanding young scientists from around the world.

Unlike Dutch and English, most languages employ melody not only to add nuance to sentences but also to differentiate between words. How languages do this remains largely unknown. This project will investigate the linguistic, psychological and neural processes underlying the parallel communication of…

The prominent members of KNAW, are chosen on their academic and scientific achievements and the membership is for life. The academic members will be appointed on Thursday, June 8th. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates prof. dr. Lisa Cheng on this magnificent accomplishmen…

In 2021 many of our students and staff won fantastic prizes and were awarded important research grants. This is our traditional review of these successes as the end of one year marks the beginning of another.

This research project from Leiden University looks at the opportunities and threats that flow from the existence of institutional and normative diversity in the area of fundamental rights for the effective protection of those rights in a pluralist world.

It was a remarkable trend in 19th-century London: middle-class bourgeois bohemians falling in love with anarchism and its assassins. University lecturer Michael Newton has been awarded a NIAS subsidy to reconstruct the lives of three of these families.

After two years, it was great to be back in Brussels again. Many thanks to all alumni and students who were present during the academic discussion on the values and the future of the EU, followed by networking drinks.

Ron Sela, Associate Professor of Central Asian History in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University – Bloomington, will be the Central Asia Visiting Professor from 19 until 25 May 2017. Ron Sela will deliver a guest lecture and a master class within the Central Asia Initiative…

Dr Mamadou Hébié, Associate Professor of International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, served last week as legal counsel in the world’s first advisory proceedings concerning climate change before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), on the one hand, and…

In the Bachelor Honours Class ‘The Noble Art and Tricky Business of Translation’, Honours students learn about the tricky business of translation. To gain hands-on experience, students had to translate a poem for the seminar on poetry. For some translators-to-be, one language was simply not enough.

Ron Sela, Associate Professor of Central Asian History in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies at Indiana University – Bloomington, will be the Central Asia Visiting Professor from 19 until 25 May 2017. Ron Sela will deliver a guest lecture and a master class within the Central Asia Initiative…

In terms of the breadth of their vocabulary, many Dutch rappers can easily match leading authors. This is the surprising conclusion drawn by language researcher Alex Reuneker on the basis of comparative research. Rapper Brainpower and author Ilja Leonard Pfeiffer will debate this issue on 16 September…

How does language work and how do we learn a language? The more we know about language, the better we can understand how people interpret the world in words. Roberta D'Alessandro carries out research on the architecture of language. There is now a dossier about her work online.

Dr Jenny Doetjes was appointed Professor of Semantics and Language Variation in February. During her professorship Dr. Doetjes wishes to focus on charting linguistic patterns between languages that, at first glance, seem to have little to do with each other.

What actually goes into the development of a massive open online course, a MOOC? University lecturer Tijmen Pronk developed the course 'Introduction to Comparative Linguistics of Indo-European Languages' independently. He talks about his motivation and experiences.

Four projects led by the Faculty of Humanities have been awarded KIEM grants. The researchers will receive €10,000 to carry out their plans.

The MA Linguistic’s specialization in Translation has now been admitted to the prestigious European Masters in Translation (EMT) Network.

The next Conference on Multilingualism 2019 (COM2019) will be hosted by LUCL from September 1st until September 3rd 2019.

Professor Roberta D’Alessandro, Chair of Italian Language and Culture at the Leiden University, has been awarded one of Italy’s highest honors: she is now a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (Cavaliere dell'Ordine della Stella d'Italia). D’Alessandro was presented with the honor on June 2, the…

Jiang Wu receives an NWO scholarship for his PhD project

The concepts of good and evil are expressed, from a lexical point of view, in different ways in different Germanic languages and at the same time they are declined in different forms depending on linguistic and literary traditions. Moving from theoretical backgrounds, we encourage…

Our courses September courses start soon, be sure to apply in time