Dutch and Colonial History

Medicine in Image and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Japanese Medical History. A new interdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Medicine (LUMC), and the Leiden University Libraries (UBL).

The Executive Board of Leiden University has appointed Dr Alicia Schrikker as Professor History of The Netherlands in the world, effective 1 January 2026. The chair is based at the Institute for History at the Faculty of Humanities.

On February 10 2025, the Leiden Jewish Studies Network convened a lively roundtable and catered reception at the Faculty Club to celebrate the launch of Dr. Kate Brackney’s new book, Surreal Geographies: A New History of Holocaust Consciousness (University of Wisconsin Press, 2024), winner of the George…

Vijf jaar na de overhandiging van ‘A History of Russian Law’, overhandigde emiritus hoogleraar Ferdinand Feldbrugge op 16 januari het tweede deel van zijn unieke overzichtswerk aan decaan van de Faculteit der Rechtsgeleerdheid Joanne van der Leun.

On 5 September 2016 Space Awareness launched their first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on teaching with space and astronomy in the classroom.

The treasure houses of Leiden's University Library and Naturalis house wonderful historical collections with dried plants and botanical drawings. Tinde van Andel, extraordinary professor of History of botany and gardens, studies these collections.

The project ‘Diversifying Ancient History’, sponsored by the JEDI Fund from the Faculty of Humanities, aims to thoroughly revise the first-year curriculum of Ancient History. Through these innovations, the course will cater the needs of the present generation.

The master’s programme in Arts and Culture at Leiden University is uniquely positioned at the intersection of Art History and Museum Studies. Informed by leading interdisciplinary research, this degree provides you with a strong academic foundation for a variety of careers in museums, galleries and…

Lecture, Book Talk

The journey of sugar from east to west

This collection of seventeen essays takes its inspiration from the scholarly achievements of the Dutch historian Jan Lucassen. They reflect a central theme in his research: the history of labor.

For many people, five o’clock signals the end of their working day. But not for the motivated students of the Honours College Law. With some drinks and snacks, they keep going well into the evening. This time, they met for the festive conclusion of a course which brought the history of Dutch crime to…

The motto of the Institute for History is: ‘Global questions, local sources.’ Its researchers use local sources to find answers to major historical questions. Without historical analysis, it is impossible to understand and explain the issues in society today. Leiden itself has a rich history, with big…

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics fails to explain several observed phenomena and is incomplete. In order to resolve this problem, one may extend the SM by adding new particles.

Complex Organic Molecules (COMs) have been detected in objects across different stages of stellar evolution.

The Greek and Roman History Team concentrates on the study of the economies, societies and cultures of the large empires of the Graeco-Roman world, starting with the empires of Alexander the Great and his successors.

Sonic Modernities situates Southeast Asian popular music in specific socio-historical settings, hoping that a focus on popular culture and history may shed light on how some people in a particular part of the world have been witnessing the emergence of all things modern.

Van 21 augustus tot en met 8 september zijn de workshops en cursus van de jaarlijkse Summer School on the History of the Book van het Allard Pierson en de vakgroep Boekwetenschap. Drie weken lang is er elke werkdag een cursus, workshop of lezing over thema’s die te maken hebben met de geschiedenis van…

The Leiden University Institute for History is responsible for the main part of the historical research carried out at Leiden University. The institute has a wide-ranging academic scope.

‘Islam and Muslims are not something that happened to Europe; they are part of Europe. In fact, Islam is one the biggest constants in European history,’ argues Professor Maurits Berger in the new eight-part History of Islam in Europe podcast series of the Leiden University Faculty of Humanities.

Port cities develop at the intersection of international trade and commerce and at the interface between sea and land. What does the future of port cities look like with urbanization, sea level rise, new migrant flows and the disappearance of old industries? This is addressed in the minor (Re)Imagining…

The Netherlands Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Security and Justice have requested the Centre for Terrorism and Counterterrorism to complete a research project on cyber governance from a policy perspective. The results of this project will contribute to the deliverables of the fourth International…

This NWO-funded research programme focuses on the assumptions and methodology of the writing of history of science. History of science is in many respects a flourishing discipline: it currently yields an impressive volume of studies. Systematic reflection about the ways in which history of science may…

Festival, Study trip Greek and Roman History 2026

This book explores the links between maritime trading networks around Europe, from the Mediterranean and the Atlantic to the North and Baltic Seas.

What are key regulators of plant ageing that can reverse ageing in plants (rejuvenation), and how can we use this knowledge to improve crop plants?

The subject of this thesis, ‘Approach to Markov Operators on Spaces of Measures by Means of Equicontinuity’, combines an analytical and probabilistic approach to Markov operators.

Team Economic and Social History

This monograph by dr. Kim Beerden compares Greek divination to divinatory practices in Neo-Assyrian Mesopotamia and Republican Rome.

Tanja Masson-Zwaan and Dimitra Stefoudi of the International Institute of Air and Space Law (IIASL) in Leiden, along with two others, co-edited the book ‘Building Blocks for the Development of an International Framework for the Governance of Space Resource Activities. A Commentary’.

Leiden University has been an attractive destination for scholars ever since 1575. Our staff members welcome international colleagues to campus to discuss issues from the past, and how we should presently understand the past. ‘Leiden Conversations in History’ is a series of dialogues between historians…

This dissertation, Layered Loyalties: The Natuurkundige Commissie in the Netherlands Indies (1820-1850), studies the Natuurkundige Commissie.

A global perspective on the nature and evolution of nationalism, from the early modern era to the present.

What is the significance of the history of slavery for our present-day society? A special exhibition in the inner courtyard of the Academy Building features eleven insightful portraits of students and staff, and their answer to this question. The aim of the exhibition’s initiators is to make the subject…

Satellites belonging to American space company SpaceX recently came very close to a Chinese space station. Experts are calling for traffic management rules in space.