For decades, scholars have wondered about the development and dissemination of languages around the world. What are the odds that peoples living thousands of miles apart speak varieties of Indo-European languages that are closely related? This riddle has now partly been solved thanks to an international…

What’s at stake at the NATO summit in The Hague? Three academics from Leiden share their insights.

A number of European countries have started evacuating their citizens and there is a threat of military intervention by neighbouring countries: the situation in Niger is deteriorating rapidly. A military coup has thrown the country into turmoil, partly aided by social media.

On 22 January, a panel of international experts on nuclear deterrence gathered at the Campus The Hague to discuss the future of nuclear deterrence in Europe. The panel addressed key aspects of nuclear strategy and the impact of Russia's nuclear rhetoric in the context of the war in Ukraine.

The West has missed several opportunities to prevent the invasion of Ukraine or, at the very least, to better support the Ukraine, claims Frans Osinga, Professor by special appointment War Studies.

In November of last year Global Interactions made offers to five out of nearly 90 applicants for our grant-writing postdocs. We are pleased to announce that all have accepted and will be joining various Leiden institutes this year. The five postdocs are Katia Hay, Johannes Müller, Maria-Paz Peirano,…

This year Leiden will be celebrating the 450th Relief of Leiden. Leiden master’s students are researching this history as part of the ‘Traces of 3 October’ project.

They existed and were important, but for too long they have remained invisible in historiography: women. Ariadne Schmidt, the Magdalena Moons endowed professor, researches the history of urban culture in Leiden. Women take pride of place in her research. Inaugural lecture on 28 February.

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

Arie Verhagen said farewell as the chair of Dutch Linguistics and is appointed as the new chair of Language, Culture and Cognition.

A linguistics journal based at Leiden University has risen to the ranks of the top-10 journals in the Humanities.

The climate crisis, the return of TB and the digitisation of cultural heritage. The Netherlands and Indonesia face many of the same challenges. A visit by a delegation from Leiden University to Indonesia at the end of June highlighted the benefits of cooperation.

Sense Jan van der Molen and Ivo van Vulpen have been awarded the first ENW Communication Award by funding agency NWO for their Wall Formula project. The award aims to encourage scientists to communicate about their research. It consists of a sculpture and a 10 thousand euro sum for science communica…

To be eligible for Arts, Literature and Media (research) at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

How can we understand the material instability of photographic (mixed media) artworks (1960s - present) from an integrated approach of Art History, Conservation Science and Chemistry in order to preserve these works for the future?

The Van Loon project sets out to safeguard the archives of Dutch archaeologist Maurits van Loon (Amsterdam, September 22, 1923 - Montpellier, October 12, 2006) and make them accessible for further study.

To be eligible for Literature in Society: Europe and Beyond at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Marian Klamer's LAISEANG project has been awarded a research grant by CLARIN.

On 1 January 2019, Gijsbert Rutten became LUCL’s new Director of Education. We asked him about his plans.

A newly opened museum in China appears to be devoted to the origins of the Austronesian-speaking peoples, who some 5000 years ago spread from East Asia across the Pacific, seeding it with a distinctive culture and some 1200 languages. But those displays are also a statement in the long-running dispute…

On 16 April, an edition of Zembla, the Dutch documentary programme produced by BNNVARA, investigated the connection between Thierry Baudet, leader of Dutch political party Forum for Democracy and the Kremlin. Ben de Jong, visiting lecturer at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, was interviewed…

Two years ago, Russian tanks crossed the border into Ukraine. The war seems to be getting closer and closer. Is it time to dust off and reintroduce military service? Our students have their say.

In an essay published in three prominent European newspapers, Professor Luuk van Middelaar takes a close look at Europe’s role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ‘Europe shows plenty of political energy, but what is still lacking is strategic cool-headedness, in facing a nuclear power.’

Yiya Chen has been appointed professor of Phonetics at Leiden University as of March 1, 2020.

As of this October, linguist Roberta D'Alessandro is appointed as Member of the International Council for Science (ICSU) Committee on Freedom and Responsibility in the conduct of Science (CFRS).

Professor Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade has been awarded a fellowship at Clare College at the University of Cambridge from February to August 2011. She will use the opportunity to pursue her research on the relationship between the history of grammar writing and actual usage.

The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) has awarded LUCL researchers prof.dr. Lisa Cheng and dr. Anikó Liptak a Vrije Competitie grant for their research project

Professor Nivja de Jong has been included in the list of most influential scientists by Elsevier Data Repository. This list of scientists with the highest impact is compiled annually based on citations. De Jong appears on the annual list for the third consecutive time.

Sasha Lubotsky, professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, and Ineke Sluiter, professor of Classical languages and culture, have been appointed members of the Academia Europaea.

A collaboration between linguists, geographers and anthropologists aims to uncover how languages spread across South America over thousands of years. Associate Professor Rik van Gijn is responsible for the linguistic side of this NWO project.

The Voices of Africa platform is ten years old and has just recently won the annual popularisation prize of the Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics (LOT). High time for a chat with Jenneke van der Wal, Maarten Mous and Nina van der Vlugt about the importance of the platform and plans for the…

Leiden Asia Departments

After an introductory first year, in the second year you will learn more about the four themes: the sustainable city, the safe city, the multicultural city and the healthy city. In years two and three you will have elective options, including a minor, studying abroad and an internship.

On 26 and 27 September 2023, the conference

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Professor of International Relations and Diplomatic Affairs at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs, says we must block and expel Putin wherever possible.

Research collaborative of LUCAS, LUCL and Tabula Rasa (NWO KIEM-Grant)

Nivja de Jong, languages professor at Leiden University, warns about the impact of proposed education budget cuts by the new Dutch government.

Prof.dr. Vincent van Heuven has been appointed as a member of the Royal Academie of Dutch Sciences (KNAW).

What makes for a good team? In a series of articles on teams, Forbes referred to the work of Marina Terkourafi, professor of Sociolinguistics at Leiden University.

Leiden Anglicist Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is one of the seventeen new members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. Tieken is Professor of Historical Sociolingusitics of English.

Alongside several other authors, Guus Kroonen, University Lecturer in Linguistics, published an article in the well-renowned academic journal Science Magazine. The article,

Michaël Peyrot is elected member of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE: http://yacadeuro.org).

Prof. dr. Roberta D'Alessandro has written an article on the increasing difficulties that researchers encounter when they apply for a research grant in the Netherlands.

How can historical archive sources by non-elite groups help us understand modern-day politics in South Asia? This is one of the main themes of Prof. Nira Wickramasinghe’s inaugural lecture on 14 March.

Keynote speakers: Jennifer Gaynor (University at Buffalo SUNY) and Sue Peabody (Washington State University)

MIDDELBURG/GENEVA – The president of the United Nations Human Rights Council has invited the Zeeland Archives from the Netherlands, to Geneva on March 20th in order to present its project about the historical slave voyage aboard The Unity (1761-1763).

King Willem-Alexander has commissioned independent research into the role of the House of Orange-Nassau in Dutch colonial history. The research will take three years to complete and will cover the period from the late 16th century to the postcolonial present. The research will be carried out at Leiden…

North Korean labourers are still being forced to work in the European Union. According to researchers, including Professor of Korean Studies Remco Breuker at Leiden University, Dutch companies are buying ships from a dockyard that uses North Korean workers.

After Columbus landed on the island of Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), the farming culture of the indigenous people quickly disappeared. This has been demonstrated by Leiden archaeologists and colleagues from other universities on the basis of soil research. Publication in…