This article is aimed to shed light on the Swahili-‘Ajam ī manuscripts, focusing on the major Swahili classical genre: the

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.

Un)timely Crises explores how ‘crisis’—as a narrative, concept, grammar, and experience—structures time and space. This collectively written volume extends Bakhtin’s ‘chronotope’ to challenge mobilizations of crisis within neoliberal governmentality. The book explores how contemporary crises can trigger…

The project ‘Between the Holy Land and the World’ proposes a connected history of the Christian communities in the Near East (1900-1948) by means of a study of unpublished Franciscan and Dominican photographic collections.

Form and Function in Greek Grammar. Linguistic Contributions to the Study of Greek Literature is a new book, written by Albert Rijksbaron. Rijksbaron is internationally known as one of the leading scholars of the Ancient Greek language, whose work has exerted a strong and lasting influence on the scholarly…

In The Agency of Empire: Connections and Strategies in French Expansion (1686-1746) Elisabeth Heijmans places directors and their connections at the centre of the developments and operations of French overseas companies.

A scientific assessment of the site selection for the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ Unesco World Heritage Site.

While it has traditionally been seen as a means of documenting an external reality or expressing an internal feeling, photography is now capable of actualizing never-existed pasts and never-lived experiences.

Please find here the BA- and MA-Courses taught on the subject of language learning at Leiden University.

Towards self-regulated learning of speaking skills in foreign languages in secondary schools: an adaptive and practical approach.

Tapping into a combination of court documents, urban statutes, material artefacts, health guides and treatises, Policing the Urban Environment in Premodern Europe offers a unique perspective on how premodern public authorities tried to create a clean, healthy environment.

The aim of the Indonesian-Dutch Literature Collective (which is allied to the Society of Dutch Literature (MNL)) is to support research into the literature of and about the Dutch Indies, from the era of the Dutch East India Company to the present. Starting in 1986, the collective has published its own…

This book explores how ‘crisis’ - as a narrative, concept, grammar, and experience - structures time and space.

This project unites these two perspectives by taking a deep dive into the microstructure of historic Dutch bones. We will study human skeletal remains curated at the Faculty of Archaeology by micro-CT scanning them at LUMC facilities. With detailed micro-CT scans, we can examine bone quality in the…

The two-years master's programme ICT in Business and the Public Sector (last intake in February 2025) at Leiden University provides students with a deeper understanding on our thinking on physical, geographical and industry boundaries, on distance, speed and communication. The programme offers two specialisations:…

The MA Neerlandistiek/Dutch Studies at Leiden University provides you with an international view on the Dutch language and culture. You will be able to study the full breadth of Dutch studies: from the Middle Ages to today.

This book considers the porous relationship between legality and illegality in Brazil, a country that presages political and societal changes in hitherto unprecedented dimensions.

Traditional hypothesis testing requires researchers to set a fixed sample size in advance. After collecting data, the test determines whether to reject the null hypothesis.

A Josephson junction is a device where a thin insulating barrier or a nanostructure is placed between two superconducting leads. Such a junction is essential to superconducting qubits that store quantum information due to its anharmonic spectrum.

The culture and texts of the classical antiquity are still a source of inspiration for our modern world. In the Dutch-taught Bachelor's programme Greek and Latin Language and Culture you will examine all aspects of the Greek and Roman antiquity. From Homerus to Horatius. From Plato to Cicero.

Philosophy is about the Big Questions: do human beings have free will? Is capitalism a just system? Does science provide an objective picture of the world? At Leiden, you will investigate fundamental questions of this sort from a global perspective. Through careful examination of different philosophical…

This collaborative project aims to explore the history of the concept “barbarism” in Europe from the 18th century to the present, with a particular emphasis on the role of literature and art in the concept’s shifting functions.

People in Asia increasingly feel the need for a strong identity. This is the consequence of developments such as globalisation and the realisation that Asian countries such as China and India are becoming new world powers. Professor Hilde De Weerdt studies how political ideas and national identity spread…

A History of Dutch Corruption and Morality showcases 300 years of change, continuity, and diversity in the history of Dutch political corruption and public morality. It analyses a series of corruption scandals and shows how the following debates were connected to the big changes of that time: from the…

Every semester, LUCIS invites a scholar to Leiden to provide a lecture series on a topic of their choice. With these lectures, we aim to present state-of-the-art research in Islamic studies to the Leiden academic community and beyond, and to offer students and junior researchers the opportunity to get…

What follows is a survey of existing programs and current projects for each of the participating universities.

The combination of global questions and a wide range of local sources characterizes the Leiden University Institute for History.

Leiden University’s two-year MA Japanese Studies offers a unique opportunity to conduct graduate-level research on various aspects of modern and pre-modern Japan, and to spend a full academic year in Japan.

LUCAS is home to a multidisciplinary academic community that facilitates deep analyses of, and appreciation for, the power and dynamics of cultural products (texts, objects, practices) in our past and present. Through high-quality research, education, and valorisation, our Institute contributes to a…

This project investigates the full ecosystem of Middle Dutch prayerbooks in order to answer questions about their role in – and impact on – religion, culture, and society in the late medieval Low Countries.

The Leiden 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.

In the South and Southeast Asian Studies programme, you will gain a strong foundation in academic, language, and critical thinking skills essential to understanding the history, culture, and modern context of this dynamic and increasingly important region.

To be eligible for Modern Languages at Leiden University, you must meet the following admission requirements.

Asian Studies at Leiden University is unparalleled in the Netherlands and combines the very best of Asia-related research in North-West Europe.

Leiden University has locations in both Leiden and The Hague.

During the Leiden Science Family Day, you can take part in various workshops. You can also watch various demonstrations. Where will you go?

The Sundanese people, the largest ethnic group in West Java, have been using traditional medicine for a long time. Known as ubar kampung, Sundanese indigenous knowledge, beliefs and practices of traditional medicine are based on local people’s knowledge and use of Medicinal, Aromatic, and Cosmetic (MAC)…

The CSPRR hosts several research projects.

Terms used by literary critics in characterizing the style of novels are often impressionistic (‘baroque’, ‘austere’, ‘vivid’, ‘cerebral’ etc.). Foundations for such evaluations are usually not provided. A scientific way of studying and explaining style is lacking in present day Dutch Studies. Suzanne…

À La Découverte de la Hollande dans les années 1760-1770 : Pierre Famin, Emmanuel de Croÿ-Solre, François-César Le Tellier, Jean-Marie Roland de la Platière, Gabriel-François Coyer. Textes réunis et présentés par Madeleine van Strien-Chardonneau, Paris, Société française d’étude du dix-huitième siècle,…

A study by a Leiden-Wageningen group shows that present-day humans are biologically poorly equipped to deal with the toxins they are regularly exposed to in smoky environments: compared to earlier hominins, we modern humans are probably even worse off. The study appeared in Molecular Biology and Evolution.…

Aesthetic formations and cultural repertoires give meaning to our reality in ways that are never neutral. Focusing on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and its global interlocutors, this project brings together a team of scholars from Leiden University who bring in inter-disciplinary, inter-area…

Environmental Humanities is one of the LUCAS research themes, bringing together members of the three LUCAS clusters.

The information below concerns courses that our group teaches in Leiden. 

This study has been carried out in the community of Sukamiskin, a kelurahan (‘village’) in Bandung, the Capital of West Java Province, located in the Sunda Region of Indonesia.

The emergence of the Köprülü household that imprinted its stamp on the latter half of the seventeenth century in the Ottoman Empire. What is the power struggle they carried out against Ottoman dynastic power?

Mapping sanitary infrastructure in large urban societies in the Low Countries, 1200–1900

On this page, you can find video's explaining the research of LUCAS members.