I am Nargess Asghari. I came to the Netherlands in 2017 to study Linguistics at Leiden University. I wrote my pre-master’s and master’s theses on Iranian Sign Language and Berbey Sign Language (an emerging family sign language in the village of Berbey, Mali), respectively, under the supervision of Dr.…

Serhan Afacan defended his thesis on 23 June 2015

How did dynastic organization – that it, the employment of non-ruling family members and the development of dynastic traditions and concepts – influence state formation in both Catholic Europe and Muslim West-Asia?

In the study of West-East relations, difference often takes centre stage. This holds for both culturalist and postcolonial perspectives. By contrast, in my investigation of Netherlands-Iran political relations in the 1960s and 1970s, I will focus on the role of SIMILARITY. What lay at the root of the…

This project compares and contrasts how and why several Turkish and Iranian women were compelled to participate in leftist guerilla movements in the 1960s and 1970s.

Peyman Jafari defended his thesis on 11 October 2018

The chief aim of this study is to explore how classical Persian poetry and the Persian mysticism that is interwoven with the poetry have been used in the new politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran, especially during the Iran-Iraq war.

President Trump believes that Iran’s economy is collapsing, and that this will leave Iranians no choice but to surrender to the demands of the United States. But these expectations might not come true, says Arash Pourebrahimi at the website of the Harvard Kennedy School.

Sevil Cakir-Kilincoglu defended her thesis on 18 December 2019

What are the conditions under which coercive diplomacy can compel a State to abandon its controversial nuclear (weapons) program? Based on the experience of the US coercive diplomacy against the nuclear programs of three countries, namely Iran, Libya and South Africa, Jean Yves Ndzana’s PhD research…

Ideology and Actions

Diede Farhosh-van Loon defended her thesis on 18 October 2016

Over 170 people took part in the panel on current events in Iran organized by LUCIS. A bustling crowd of Dutch-Iranians, students, University staff, and others came to listen to the panel of journalists and researchers in the illustrious Lorentzzaal.

Farhad Arbab, Professor of Software composition, was honoured by Sharif University of Technology in Iran as one of its 50 most outstanding alumni. The alumni were selected for both their technical achievements and service to the society.

The next few weeks Iran expert Maaike Warnaar will write a weekly column in the Leidsch Dagblad. She will write about her work and about private matters.

Behrouz Karoubi defended his thesis on 15 June 2016

The relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia is worse than ever. According to Iran specialist Maaike Warnaar, it will be difficult to achieve peace in the region if there is no rapprochement between the two countries.

In this article Fisher, Klein & Codjo introduce the FOCUSdate Project and they show how the sentiment data provide unique abilities to analyze Russia's and Iran's reactions to US policies and events and NGO human rights campaigns.

Conference, Symposium

Lecture

Lecture, LUCIS What's New?! Series

On the 24th of June Hossein Pourbagheri successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

Lecture, Leiden University Nationalism Network

Ornately decorated head pieces and jewellery, images of imposing mosques and photos of local people. The 'Splendours of the Silk Roads' exhibition depicts life and different cultures along this important trade route.

At our regular panel discussions we bring together scholars and other experts to discuss a current topic that captures the interest of the general public as well as academics.

Maral Jefroudi defended her thesis on 11 October 2017

This dissertation studies the formation of the wage laboring class in the Iranian oil industry during the first decades of the 20th century.

Turkic nomadic rulers established large empires in the Middle East and Asia between the 11th and 14th centuries. This project will explore the link between their political ideology and the production of art and literature, via the cultural heritage of five cities along the Silk Road: Kashgar, Samarkand,…

The research addresses the question of “what is the impact of geopolitical changes to the pivot states in the Middle East? With special focus on Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.”

This research investigates everyday lives and workplace experiences of Iranian workers employed at textile industry, which was the second biggest industry after oil following the latter’s discovery in 1908.

Stella Morgana defended her thesis on 31 March 2021

LIAS aims to advance the globally conscious vision of area studies, both within and outside the academic community. Focusing on Asia and the Middle East, the institute is a meeting place of multiple fields of inquiry, theories and methods, historical periods, and areas.

To complement scholarly knowledge with journalistic insights, LUCIS regularly invites journalists to share their perspective on current events.

The Persian language and its poetry are intertwined with the history of Central Asia. Although some mediaeval poets were later claimed by an individual state, their influence knew no frontiers. This is what Gabrielle van den Berg, Professor of Cultural History of Iran and Central Asia, argues in her…

Lecture, Sociolinguistics & Discourse Studies Series

On 29 February there appeared a column by Maaike Warnaar in the Volkskrant on the Iranian elections.

Lecture, Lunch Research Seminar

Thanks to its early civilisation and continuous mix of influences, the Muslim world has a rich and varied culture. The study of material culture, books, stories, films and increasingly television series teaches us about the structure of modern-day Muslim societies.

In our HANDS!Lab for Sign Languages and Deaf Studies, we run projects pertaining to sign language linguistics with a focus on Africa. In addition, we are running projects on sign language teaching, tactile signing, deaf people’s experiences with the legal system, and deaf history.

This study addresses and explains the issue of negative descriptions of the Arab Other in modern Iranian thought.

Announcement of the publication of Vamping the Stage: Female Voices of Asian Modernities, the first book-length study of women, modernity, and popular music in Asia (University of Hawai'i Press, 2017).

Abdolreza Alamdar Baghini defended his thesis on 5 December 2019.

On October 31st, Paul Noorlander succesfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Paul on this great result.

This thesis seeks to examine the emergence of Persian novels and short stories during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Jeffrey Kotyk defended his thesis on 7 September 2017

The fifth volume of Ex Novo has the pleasure to host Flaminia Bartolini as guest editor for the special issue titled Heritage in the Making. Dealing with Legacies of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. This collection of peer-reviewed papers stems in part from the successful workshop held at McDonald Institute…

Lecture, Research Seminar