7 May 2026

Building on last year’s successful edition with 350 visitors, sold-out sessions and a rating of 8.5, on Saturday 26 September 2026 we aim to present an even more inspiring Day of Languages and Cultures.

The event this year will be bigger and even better: as well as the Language Market (in collaboration with the European Commission), our partners now include the University Library, the African Studies Centre (ASCL) and the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV). This means we’ll have more space, exceptional venues and an even more varied programme.

We’re inviting researchers and lecturers to participate. Last year, more than thirty workshops and lectures resulted in an exciting programme full of surprising perspectives. This year we’d like to highlight even more of the faculty’s wide range of expertise: from languages and cultures to history, philosophy, religion, film, literature and art history.

Do you have an idea for an interactive workshop, short lecture or other type of session (max. 45 minutes)? Please share your proposal, and help us create an inspiring day for a wide audience.

What’s already on the programme? A journey through the regions:

Africa 

• Escaperoom African Languages (NL)
• Swahili nouns (EN)
• Programme item at the library    

Europe 

• (But I didn’t mean it that way! How people defend controversial statements) (NL)
• Know Your Classics! Quiz (NL)
• Do you speak Healthcare? A quiz on language barriers in medical communication (NL)
• From Beowulf to Bilbo: Traces of Old English in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth (EN)
• The language of smell and olfactory perception in literary texts. (NL)   
• Programme item at the library    

Asia

• A Quick Taste of Hangul: Read Korean in 40 Minutes (NL)
• Korean Studies at the language fair (NL)
• Therapeutic poetry in medieval China (NL)
• Programme item at the library    

Middle East 

• Deciphering hieroglyphs (NL)
• Hieroglyphic writing / the (ancient) Egyptian language / Hebrew / Aramaic by Ancient Near Eastern Studies (NL)
• Mini-lecture on the languages of Mesopotamia (NL)
• Clay tablets with cuneiform script (NL)  
• Guided tour of the NINO Bohr Collection featuring clay tablets with cuneiform script (NL)
• Programme item at the library  

Russia / Eurasia

• Crash course in Georgian (NL)
• Language course in Ukrainian (European Commission) (NL)
• Programme item at the library  

The Americas and the Caribbean    

• The Caribbean (KITLV) 

General

• Digital Humanities Labs