Jesse Wichers Schreur is a lecturer teaching morphology, historical linguistics, Georgian and Ancient Greek⁠. In his research he focuses on languages of the Caucasus, in areas of language contact, areal typology and reconstruction⁠.

My current research is centered around reconstructing the spread and development of the alphabet, with special focus on the archaic Greek alphabets and their relationship with the neighboring Anatolian and Italic alphabets. I have a background in Indo-European linguistics, with a particular interest…

Olaf Kaper is a professor of Egyptology at Leiden University, specialized in the New Kingdom to Greek and Roman Periods. An expert in the fields of Egyptian religion, iconography and cultural history, he furthermore excavates in the Dakhleh Oasis.

Yinzhi Zhang is a Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

Nivja de Jong is Professor of Second Language Acquisition and Pedagogy at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands. She holds a dual position at the Centre for Linguistics and the Graduate School of Teaching (ICLON). She supervises MA and PhD students on diverse topics in the field of L2 learning and…

Almost everywhere in the world where the post exists, the beadle is a ‘master of ceremonies’ who only makes his appearance on special occasions. In Leiden the beadle does much more. He is indispensable at dissertation defences and orations. He directs ceremonies and is a master at calming nerves.

Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade is a Professor emeritus of English Sociohistorical Linguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.

Hilde Gunnink is a linguist specialized in the languages of Southern Africa. Her research focuses on documenting the synchronic structures of African languages, how these developed and changed over time, and what this can tell us about the human past.

Niels Schoubben is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC project “The Silk Road Language Web” (PI: Prof. dr. Michaël Peyrot). As a linguist-cum-philologist, he studies the written remains of extinct Central Asian languages in order to uncover words and grammatical patterns borrowed from one ancient language…

From once controversial scientific works and historical bibles, to personal shopping lists and clothing bills. The 17th-century Bibliotheca Thysiana and the archive of the collector Johannes Thysius exhibit both the intellectual and everyday life as it was three hundred years ago. Now a brand-new digital…

Language is omnipresent: when you talk, app or meet in Teams. Understanding how we communicate with one another and what communication does to us is essential. In her inaugural lecture, Nivja de Jong will call to redress the balance between the sciences and the humanities.

Kate Bellamy is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Linguistics. Her research focuses on P’urhepecha, a language isolate spoken in Michoacán, Mexico. She is particularly interested in its lexical semantics and morphological composition, as well as how it is used – and varies – in language contact…

Marc Buijnsters is a Lecturer at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

Two Humanities research masters and one master’s programme score well above average in the Keuzegids Masters: the research master History, the master and research master Classics and Ancient Civilizations.

Dutch artist and visionary David Humbert de Superville (1770-1849) was the founder and first director of the Print Room at Leiden University. An exhibition and symposium are now being organised in his honour. What makes him so remarkable?

Tijmen Pronk is Assistant Professor and Director of Education at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.

Lisa Cheng is Professor of General Linguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Her research interests centre upon comparative syntax, and the interactions between syntax and semantics, syntax and prosody, as well as syntax and processing. She is a co-founder of the Leiden Institute…

The late 1960s: across Europe, students are demanding the right to more participation within their universities. In 1971 Leiden University was granted an elected University Council. It became quite powerful: the Council even had the right to dismiss the Chairman of the Board.

Minerva, which calls itself the oldest student association of the Netherlands, has the reputation of being an impenetrable bastion. A lustrum exhibition shows the turbulent history and points to a diversity of contacts: from close bonds with Leiden ‘coffee ladies’ to the visit of Sir Winston Churchi…

It was not until 1878 that the first female students enrolled at Leiden University, but the discussion on whether women were suited to study was by no means over. 8 March is International Women's Day. BBC correspondente Kim Ghattas will deliver a lecture on 6 March on the struggle by Arabic women for…

Peter Webb is University Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Arabic Literature and Culture at Leiden University. He specialises in early Arabic poetry and prose, combining philology, literary analysis, and anthropological approaches to examine how poetic, narrative, and historiographical traditions shaped…

Jan Frans van Dijkhuizen is Associate professor at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.