On 28 October, Leiden University received the first Javanese Culture Prize from Universitas Sebelas Maret in Solo, Indonesia. The jury praised Leiden University’s extensive collection of Indonesian and Javanese manuscripts.

The illicit trade in stolen cultural property is booming. Countless works of art and antiquities will be lost if we don’t do more to stop this. This is what experts warned at a Leiden Global congress at the National Museum of Antiquities.

On 30 November 2021 the book 'Audiovisual and Digital Ethnography: A Practical and Theoretical Guide' was published by Routledge. The book resulted from eight anthropologists of the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology joining forces: Cristina Grasseni, Bart Barendregt, Erik…

The logic seems inescapable indeed. The bigger the population, the higher the probability it contains an Einstein. Hence, bigger populations are more likely to develop complex culture.

Bachelor's students Larissa van Beckhoven, Eeke Brussee and Mirjam de Haan were granted the Speckmann award for their Fieldwork NL report ‘Een Tastbaar Mysterie’ (supervisor: Bregje ter Meer). Alumnus Markus Enk received the Master's Speckmann award for his innovative thesis called ‘Do spirits resist…

Prof. Benno F. Galjart, Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology of Leiden University, has passed away last Wednesday, 10 February 2016, at the age of 82.

In the Dutch EenVandaag-article 'Waarom we nog altijd beter luisteren naar witte mannen en hoe we dit kunnen veranderen' (Why we continue to listen more carefully to white men and how we can change this) cultural anthropologist Jasmijn Rana (Leiden University) and Jens van Tricht (author and founder…

In the episode 'Intersecting vulnerabilities of humanitarian disasters' of the 'Talking Humanitarianism' podcast, Andrew Littlejohn talks with host Ekatherina Zhukova (Lund University, Sweden) about our understanding of vulnerability in the context of humanitarianism to locate responsibility not in…

In the scientific television programme Atlas, social psychologist and former Cultural Anthropology PhD student Stacey MacDonald talks about her research on Bonaire. She shows how to align different parties to make conservation projects succeed.

The new welfare state is said to be close to its citizens and does not dominate, but cooperate. “But this paradigm has a hard time to acknowledge the power relation that shapes the relation between state and citizens,” says Anouk de Koning in the interview 'The Downsides of Equality Talk in the Welfare…

More than twenty years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated the southern United States with nearly 1,400 deaths. Due to climate change, the lessons from this disaster are more relevant than ever, but the Trump administration seems to be ignoring them by cutting funding for disaster management. Anthropologist…

Following the New Year's speech of Dean Hanna Swaab a total of 4 prize winners were showered with praise and flowers during the new year's reception 10 January, 2017. Anthropologist Igor Boog won the Casimir Prize for best lecturer, pedagogue Ilona Schoep the Master Thesis Prize, political scientist…

Nederland Circulair! is organising the week of the circular economy, for the second time. This is a great setting for Leiden University to promote several of the university’s circular initiatives. We will kick off with an initiative by alumna Noortje Schrauwen: Raw material beachcombing.

Andrew Hoffman (CADS), Mark Westmoreland (CADS) and Yasmin Ismail (CADS) have received a KIEM grant of € 10.000 for their project 'CARMA: Community Archive and Repository for Multimodal and Artistic Research'. The grant will be used to create a 'living laboratory' that helps researchers, data management…

What does the European Union mean for people living in Leiden? As part of the Leiden European Festival, and in collaboration with the municipality of Leiden, the city photographers captured Leidenaren from 28 European member states at their favorite place in the city. The exhibition will travel along…

If you want to continue your academic education, the logical next step after obtaining your bachelor’s degree is to follow a master’s. You can do so in a university inside or outside the Netherlands, including several options right here at Leiden University!

Alumnus Théo Pavlović received the Master's Speckmann award for his thesis: PAN RECORDS - A digital journey through the ethnic music niche that was supervised by Bart Barendregt. This price is awarded to the best fieldwork reports for ethnographic fieldwork. It includes a certificate and a prize of…

Together with colleagues from the UK (lead), Burkina Faso, Ghana, Uganda, Brazil, Sweden, Germany, and Marjo de Theije of the VU (Amsterdam), Luning has obtained a research grant for the project 'Sustainability Transformations in Artisanal and Small-scale Gold Mining: A Multi-Actor and Trans-Regional…

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…

Three of our researchers have been awarded a certificate for receiving enough downloads to be in the top 10% of papers in 2022

Kira Nijland follows the master programme Policy in Practice and is since October the student member of the Institute Board of Cultural Anthropology. She previously gained board experience at study associations Itiwana and WDO. Now she would like to get to know the university structures from behind…

Through language and culture, history, anthropology, and sociology, we delve into the countries, populations, and societies of South and Southeast Asia. From this perspective, we address global issues such as migration, heritage, and colonialism.

Last Thursday, March 6, Sabine Luning passed away after an illness of more than six months. Sabine was an inspiring teacher who enthused generations of anthropology students with both the theoretical side of social science and the practice of intensive fieldwork. As a researcher, she produced innovative…

culture week fgga. from 25 to 29 May we will pay extra attention to culture. A different theme is central every day.

American anthropologist Rosemary Joyce will be awarded an honorary doctorate from Leiden University on its Dies Natalis on 8 February. Joyce has delivered important new insights into the ancient Mayan cultures of Central America.

Africa is online. Leiden Africa expert Mirjam de Bruijn is fascinated by the fast development of mobile telephony and social media in Africa. She maintains a website on the topic, focusing on isolated, marginalised and conflict-ridden areas in Middle Africa.

This subproject of 'From Homo Economicus to Political Animal' analyzes Greek economic thinking in late 5th- and 4th-century philosophical circles.

On Saturday 13 May, the 11th edition of the International Cultural Festival took place. This festival brings together international students, Dutch students and inhabitants of Leiden for a trip around the world in one day.

Anthropologist Marja Spierenburg talks in the Dutch newspaper NRC about the neoliberal system and how it has to change in order to solve the energy crisis in South-Africa.

Explore how cultural heritage can proactively respond to global crises, from geopolitical conflicts to climate change, through innovative cross-cultural collaboration between Latin American stakeholders and Una Europa.

In 2025 hebben medewerkers en studenten van de Universiteit Leiden veel mooie prijzen ontvangen en belangrijke onderzoekssubsidies binnengehaald.

Jelle Wouters (RTC Bhutan), Erik de Maaker (CADS Leiden) and Radhika Gupta (CADS Leiden) have been awarded a €260.000 grant by the Gerda Henkel Foundation for the research project ‘Perpetuating Highland Heritages of Bhutan’. This 4-year research project focuses on vernacular and unacknowledged heritages…

Teachers viewed multicultural classes with VR glasses and discussed that for the study 'Culturally responsive teaching in multicultural classes'.

The European Research Council has awarded five Leiden researchers an ERC Consolidator Grant. These subsidies of up to a maximum of two million euros will enable the researchers to further expand their scientific research.

The life of a researcher is not easy, as many a scientist will confirm; but doing fieldwork in an environment of conflict and violence is extremely compex, attests the account of Dr Roland Ziébé, veterinarian in Cameroon and researcher at both the Leiden Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) and…

Annemarie Samuels and Andrew Littlejohn, Assistant Professors at the Leiden Institute of Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology, have both been awarded a Leiden University Fund research grant. Samuels will use the grant to kickstart a multi-sited ethnographic study of care at the end of life.…

A consortium, led by Erik de Maaker (CADS, Leiden), has under the NWA scheme (Dutch National Science agenda) been awarded 98k€ for Localizing Global Garment Biographies, a two-year project to research the different ways by which users and producers attach value to garments.

Dominique Brommers, Lilly Brouwer, Annemiek Buijze and Kyra van Meijgaarden were granted the Bachelor Speckmann Award for their report ‘Community of Healing: Pentecost Revival Church’ (supervisor: Nienke van der Heide). Alumna Louise Nisbet received the Master Speckmann Award for her thesis ‘‘Alright,…

The Fieldwork NL report prize goes to the “Queer Joy in Motion” report, by bachelor students Dorota Olsavska, Marthe Baalbergen, Rielly Puchalski, and Rosa Graffé. Master student Imogen Cooney receives the Speckmann Award for her thesis ‘Decolonizing Faculty’.

Leiden has an international reputation as a stronghold of knowledge about cultures worldwide. Under the umbrella name of LeidenGlobal, Leiden University, the National Museum of Antiquities, the Natioial Museum of Ethnology and five research institutes are working together to disseminate this knowledge…

Highland Bhutan is facing unprecedented challenges from a combination of climate change, new economic opportunities, and changing cultural aspirations of its residents. Today, what does highland heritage constitute, to who, and how does it matter?

CADS lecturer Sander Hölsgens is one of the initiators of the NWO Smart Culture Project Documenting Complexity (project number CISC.KC.212). This project investigates how and why engaged documentary filmmakers use new technologies in their work. One of the outputs of this project is the series ‘In Whose…

The Programme Committee consists of teachers, students, a secretary and an education coordinator. The committee meets once a month (on average), to discuss a variety of educational issues. Selected students of CADS represent the student perspective in these meetings, in which for example the transparency…

Shirley van der Maarel won the Thesis Award 2020 with her thesis 'Terra Incognita'. Van der Maarel graduated summa cum laude for the master's specialisation Visual Ethnography. She researched a group of refugees housed in an Italian village and wrote an interactive thesis and made a film. This resulted…