How can we best protect cultural heritage in times of war? In an interview with LeidenGlobal, cultural heritage law specialist Evelien Campfens talks about her current research project on cultural heritage protection in Ukraine for the European Parliament (EP).

If you were declared disabled for work on or prior to 1 January 2016, and you are the recipient of a wage-related WGA benefit, you may also be eligible for what is known as a WGA compensation benefit.

Skate legend Tony Hawk came to Antwerp. Belgium newspaper De Morgen published an article on the changing skate culture. Cultural Anthropologist Sander Hölsgens shines his light on this theme and talks about the democratisation of skate boarding, activism, public space and collective memory of skater…

Henk te Velde is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Professor of Dutch History. As professor he focuses on Dutch (and Western European) History from the late 18th century to the present, in particular political history and its spillover into contemporary politics. His books cover the history of liberalism…

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.

Historian Seran de Leede delved into the life of Lie Alma (1909–1990), the courageous woman from the Dutch province of Drenthe who spoke out against fascism in the 1930s and remains a source of inspiration to this day.

Leiden University will continue to offer its BA in Italian Language and Culture. The Board of the Faculty of Humanities has reversed its decision to stop admitting new students as of the 2026/2027 academic year.

Studying with a disability often costs additional time and energy. Leiden University wants to do all it can to offer equal chances to students with a disability. What can you do to support a student with a disability?

The digital accessibility expert group focuses on improving the accessibility of the university website, digital learning tools and digital examinations. As a result of the corona crisis many educational activities are now online. The group is therefore working closely with the Centre for Innovation…

Are you handling personal data just once, for instance when taking the minutes of a meeting or organising an employee outing? You do not need to include this use in the data processing register if you stick to the following conditions.

As an employee of Leiden University, you are eligible to take out various insurance (schemes) at an attractive discount. On this page, you will also find more information about pension, being unfit for work and unemployment.

The war in Ukraine is leading not only to human suffering. Ukraine's cultural heritage is also experiencing the consequences of the war: museums are being bombed and 'Russification' in the occupied territories means children no longer learn Ukrainian. Researcher Evelien Campfens was commissioned by…

Lecture

Baleseng Maeneche (University of the Western Cape) has won the Africa Thesis Award 2024 with a master's thesis on media representation of male perpetrators of violence against women and children in South Africa. Her research challenges dominant narratives and emphasises the need for fair media representation…

On 24 and 25 April 2025, the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam — home to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) — hosted an interdisciplinary workshop organized by dr. Rafal Matuszewski, an ancient historian at the Institute for History in Leiden.

Social

'Only together we can improve the faculty culture,' say FGGA Dean Koen Caminada and Head of HR Monique Jongman. They emphasise the importance of participation in the FGGA dialogue sessions.

A newly opened museum in China appears to be devoted to the origins of the Austronesian-speaking peoples, who some 5000 years ago spread from East Asia across the Pacific, seeding it with a distinctive culture and some 1200 languages. But those displays are also a statement in the long-running dispute…

Courts that adjudicate war crimes or other crimes against humanity are increasingly taking regional norms and cultural values into consideration. PhD candidate Seun Bakare examined whether this could also be an asset in cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC).

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…

Dominique Moïsi, a professor at King’s College London, will be the first holder of the Owada chair. ‘In the present international context of polarisation and divisions within societies and amongst nations, any effort at bringing Asia and Europe closer to each other is truly important.’

Tom Theuns is Associate Professor of Political Theory and European Politics and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Institute of Political Science.

Nikoleta Yordanova is Associate Professor in European Politics.

Different groups of hominins probably learned from one another much earlier than was previously thought, and that knowledge was also distributed much further. A study by archaeologists at Leiden University on the use of fire shows that 400,000 years ago knowledge and skills must already have been exchanged…

Dr. Gerlov van Engelenhoven is an assistant professor at Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (LUCAS), teaching courses on postcolonial memory, law & culture, and cultural interaction. His most recent book is titled Postcolonial Memory in the Netherlands: Meaningful Voices, Meaningful Silences.…

Céline Zaepffel is a Lecturer in French literature and culture. Her research focuses on the transmission of ideologies through modern children's literature and culture, based on an intermedial and sociological analysis of children's media and the historical and cultural context of their publication.…

Thijs Witty is an assistant professor at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.

Sara Petrollino is a University Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. She is an anthropological linguist specialised in languages and cultures of East Africa. She studies the relationship between language, culture and cognition, so how do the languages we speak…

Walter Gam Nkwi is Assistant Professor at the Institute for History.

Egbert Fortuin is Professor Russian Language and Linguistics.

Douglas L. Berger is, since 2017, Professor of Global and Comparative Philosophy and the Director of the Centre for Intercultural Philosophy at Leiden University in the Netherlands.

Ivo Smits is a professor of Arts and Cultures of Japan at the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS).

As a sociolinguist, I am interested in how people use language in daily situations to achieve a variety of goals. As people do this, two things become immediately obvious. First, people routinely mean more than their words mean, so we always need to read between the lines of each other's (spoken or…