On Thursday 20 May 2021, Tania Li delivered the annual Van Vollenhoven Lecture.

The Latin America and Caribbean Security and Intelligence Network (LACSIN) brings together scholars, practitioners, government agencies and the diplomatic community to develop novel and interdisciplinary approaches to addressing key areas of security and intelligence in Latin America and the Caribbe…

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.

Are you a student from Indonesia, planning to study in Leiden?

Welcome to the Graduate School of the Faculty of Humanities.

Archaeological and related essays on the Jordan Valley in honour of Gerrit van der Kooij on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday

LUCIS promotes high-quality research on Islam and Muslim societies and actively communicates the insights and findings of that research to the larger public.

This project analyzes to what extent hodegetical textbooks relied on each other in warning their readers against vicious habits, how much continuity their catalogs of vice displayed, and to what extent vices that persisted throughout the 18th and 19th centuries were associated with easy-to-remember…

The Leiden Center for the Study of Ancient Religions (L*CeSAR) facilitates the integration of scholarly expertise and resources, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and intellectual exchange among researchers of ancient religions, both within Leiden University and in the broader academic commu…

What evaluative languages (errors, mistakes, vices, etc.) did book reviewers employ? To what extent and on what occasions did they invoke early modern vices? And to what extent did this differ across fields or change over the course of the century?

On 16 December 2019, Jan-Harm de Villiers defended his thesis 'The Anthropomorphic Hegemony of Subjectivity: Critical Reflections on Law and the Question of the Animal'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. P. Cliteur.

The theme of our 450th anniversary, and of this Dies Natalis, is Ahead of the Times. We have, after all, been directing our gaze to the future for centuries now.

On the 2nd of September Jiyan Qiao successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Law and peace in the work of Hans Kelsen. A re-evaluation of Kelsen’s legal philosophy: legal pacifism as tacit meaning of his Pure Theory of Law

This edited volume evaluates the concept of global order, with a particular emphasis on the role of regional organisations within global governance institutions such as the United Nations. Several researchers at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) have contributed to this volume in the…

The history of sign languages of deaf people is severely understudied. The historical linguistics of sign languages offers a fundamentally new perspective on the history of human languages. This project addresses the dearth of knowledge about historical sign language linguistics through a large-scale…

Learn about the MSc in International Politics at Leiden University: programme structure, key courses, thesis seminar and small-group instruction in The Hague.

Traces of a Colourful Past

Archaeological and Anthropological perspectives

Leiden University opened its doors in 1575 – the very first university in the Netherlands. The law faculty was involved from the start and so in 2025 we, too, celebrated our 450th anniversary.

On Wednesday 24 September 2025 Marija Šerić successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

This book examines the critical role of information and knowledge in early modern Europe's global pursuits, exploring challenges in trusting distant information, the development of doubt in intercultural encounters, and the impact of misinformation.

Increased public trust in law, government and democracy.

Leiden University has made history with its many scientific discoveries; a history that is also illustrated in a variety of books and films.

The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Vietnam is a comprehensive resource exploring social, political, economic, and cultural aspects of Vietnam, one of contemporary Asia’s most dynamic but least understood countries.

First held in 2013, the Europa Lecture is an annual lecture organised by the Europa Institute of Leiden Law School. It provides leading thinkers, scholars and politicians with a platform to share their views on questions of European integration with the academic community and wider public.

This programma, an initiative of the Institute for History in partnership with Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) in Yogyakarta. Aims to study more than 20 kilometers of Dutch archival materials in The Netherlands, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and South Africa.

Lecture

Conference

Rafal Matuszewski has been unanimously elected to the Board of the Young Academy of Europe.

The International Arbitration Training Course, offered by Leiden Law School in cooperation with the Permanent Court of Arbitration, focuses on the theory and practice of international arbitration as a distinct field of the law and field of legal practice. Registration is now open!

Since 2022, a higher proportion of people in the Netherlands have been victims of cybercrime than of 'traditional' crime. The Bachelor in Cybersecurity & Cybercrime trains you to become an all-round cyber expert, equipping you to take on the fight against cybercrime.

Lecture, Book Launch

Learn more about the former members of the Young Academy Leiden who contributed to a better position for young academics.

The Leiden Papyrological Institute is the only papyrological institute in the Netherlands, and one of the few institutes in the world where study of Greek and Demotic Egyptian is combined. This is reflected in both teaching and research. Members of the Institute are active in publishing texts from various…

Many of the big challenges of the 21st century (climate change, international migration, financial instability, socio-economic inequality) find their origins in the organisation of the global economy. Any solution to the world’s big challenges therefore requires forceful policy interventions at the…

Religion, Philosophy, and the Pre-modern World

Would you like to do something for the victims of the war in Ukraine? Several actions have been set up to help the people in Ukraine. Read below what you can do.

LIAS staff has a strong track record in supervising internationally competitive PhD research in Asian studies, Middle Eastern studies, and the study of religion. Our graduates go on to work in a range of professional fields, academic and other. This page provides information for prospective and current…

Founded in 2006, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy (HJD) is the world's leading research journal for the study of diplomacy and has made an important contribution to shaping diplomatic studies as an international academic field. Our mission is to present work from a variety of intellectual traditions for…

A new special issue on translation and the cultural Cold War sheds light on the understudied and yet important role of translation in cultural transfer.

How can the concept of Critical Making be expanded into a general approach that ties the critical methodology of artistic research, and the established concepts of artistic autonomy, together with contemporary creative-technological development?

Dutch archaeologists are making three-dimensional virtual reconstructions of archaeological objects lost in the Syrian civil war.

The extensive use of electronic communication channels and other devices has opened new possibilities for collecting data on human behavior. This information is sometimes openly accessible, but largely part of administrative registration systems that are not open to the broader public. The data provides…

There are various links between Rembrandt and Leiden University

Featured Reviews published on the HJD blog offer an accessible platform for scholars and practitioners to share reflections, spark dialogue, and highlight innovative ideas shaping the study and practice of diplomacy.